[quote name=\'Steve McClellan\' post=\'120129\' date=\'Jun 1 2006, 05:09 PM\']
[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jun 1 2006, 01:17 PM\']Unless I'm completely high (and that's certainly possible), I thought it worked the same way the 20K show did, where the first two trips were worth lesser amounts, and only the third and following trips were worth the full ten grand.[/quote]
You, sir, are completely high.
When the show was under its original title, each trip to the Winners' Circle was worth $10,000.
To my knowledge, the only times it was ever worth less were the $20K-era "Junior" games (*$1K*/$5K/$10K) and the $50K regular play (first trip in a show worth $5K, second for a total of $10K).
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There was also a Tournament of Champions in 1978 where, except for the final round of play, the payout was only $5,000.
I didn't see the Junior games with Susan Richardson and Jimmy Baio, but the payout was even less the week they had three celebrities: $1K, $2½K and $5K. Likewise, when they had the family-pairs format, it was $2,500 the first trip of the day and $5,000 total for the second. (One of my pet peeves on game shows is having kids play for lower stakes than adult contestants.)