Quizmaster

[TheInquisitiveOne]

So our good friends from down under take an already great show and presents a tournament format that makes it BETTER.

Let's say Temptation's "Quizmaster" tournament was done here in the states. Given that the show uses contestants from other shows (Classic $ale, Millionaire, etc.), which shows would you grab your contestants from? I, for example, would easily invite Jeopardy juggernauts Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter to the dance. Other shows I would use: Millionaire and...that's all I could think of.

Another question: what would be the top prize, and how many past champions would you invite?

Thanks in advance.

The Inquisitive One

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' post=\'116634\' date=\'Apr 19 2006, 08:26 PM\']
Another question: what would be the top prize, and how many past champions would you invite?
[/quote]
Eleventy billion dollars, and seventeen.

[Jimmy Owen]

There was an attempt to do something similar in the US recently called "Grand Slam," but for whatever reason it was not picked up.  J! is the only show that could fit under the fast-paced quiz category nowadays, so the ToC is as close to "Quizmaster" as we'll get IMO.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' post=\'116634\' date=\'Apr 19 2006, 11:26 PM\']Let's say Temptation's "Quizmaster" tournament was done here in the states. Given that the show uses contestants from other shows (Classic $ale, Millionaire, etc.), which shows would you grab your contestants from? I, for example, would easily invite Jeopardy juggernauts Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter to the dance. Other shows I would use: Millionaire and...that's all I could think of.[/quote]
When they were actually thinking of doing this here, the one show mentioned frequently was Win Ben Stein's Money.  There just aren't that many serious quizzers in this country. Conventional wisdom also had it that the J! and WBSM champs would mop the floor with Millionaire winners.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'116649\' date=\'Apr 20 2006, 05:53 AM\']
Conventional wisdom also had it that the J! and WBSM champs would mop the floor with Millionaire winners.
[/quote]
That's an interesting suggestion. Are you saying that because J! and WBSM are buzzer-beater shows where WWTBAM lets the players contemplate as long as they need to, or because successful J! and WBSM players have had a wider range of knowledge tested, whereas a WWTBAM player might have just gotten lucky and played a stack that happened to hit them right in the wheelhouse?

[TLEberle]

While it's certainly possible that the contestant merely found fifteen questions that they knew cold (and even that only happened once), the two shows test different skills. Jeopardy! and Ben's Money are all about the instant recall. Millionaire is more about the willingness to play on.

Put another way, if there was a Grand Champion of All Game Shows of All Time thing (I'm just using this for effect, kids...) would you pit a Match Game champion against a 20-time Concentration winner in a rousing game of "Blockbusters"? I hope not.

Australia seems to have an affinity for quiz shows as a whole that's just not in this country, and that's one of the reasons I don't think "Quizmaster" would work here.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'116652\' date=\'Apr 20 2006, 09:28 AM\']Are you saying that because J! and WBSM are buzzer-beater shows where WWTBAM lets the players contemplate as long as they need to, or because successful J! and WBSM players have had a wider range of knowledge tested, whereas a WWTBAM player might have just gotten lucky and played a stack that happened to hit them right in the wheelhouse?[/quote]
Yeah, those are both the reasons that surfaced most often.  Certainly there could be a Millionaire champ who could play the other games (there's surely enough of an overlap), but the idea was that this "master" game would probably resemble J! more than Millionaire, and those who've played fast-paced quiz games pitting them against opponents would probably have an advantage.

[Jimmy Owen]

Well, we could always see how close Jennings and Rutter can come to the actual retail price of a box of Rice-a-Roni.