The Power of Ten

[davewalls]

Just returned from the Atlantic City auditions for "The Power of 10". Thought I'd pass along what we were told about the format of the show, and what happened.

First, it was a pretty typical interview/audition. Took a small test, with 5 different polling questions. (Look at the trailer on CBS.com for a typical question..I don't want to spoil them). From there, a quick interview with a casting director, and bang. Done. Took maybe 30 minutes.

From the casting directors themselves, here's the format:

Show starts with two contestants facing off, seeing who can come the closest to polling questions. First one to 5 points plays for the money, the other goes home. (It's either first one to 5 points, or best out of five...can't remember.)

Each question has a dollar value, and a range. To win the money, you must answer the question within the given range.

1st question: $1,000 , answer must be within 40% of actual answer
2nd question: $10,000, answer 30% within
3rd question: $100,000, answer 20% within
4th question: $1,000,000, answer 10% within
5th question: $10,000,000, (Directors said they were unsure of how the final question
would play out.)

As far as helps, contestants will have one person with them (a la DoND, cheering them on) whom they can always ask for help. The audience will be polled, as well, and the contestant can take a look at those figures to help them lean in a certain direction.

That's all I know. Good luck to those of you hitting NYC tomorrow.

[kenbob_clarker]

FINALLY, a competitive main game!  Call me old fashioned, but I really don't like that on the majority of these recent game shows (save for 1 vs. 100), there's been no competitive element whatsoever.  It's like going straight to a bonus round without even worrying with playing a game.  Just doesn't sit well with me.  This show is sounding really good so far.

[beatlefreak84]

Hmm...so far, it's looking pretty good.  It's great to see a big-money show with some actual competition as opposed to just a "play against the house"-type show we always see.

I'll, of course, hold off judgment until I actually see the show, but I'm liking what I see so far!  I just hope Drew Carey does a decent job as host.

Anthony

[itiparanoid13]

To win the $10,000,000, you have to be on the nose.  Meaning no one will ever win, as you'll be risking $1,000,000 on a 100 point scale (unless you're leaving with something if you guess incorrectly, that I wasn't told).  Also, it's a best of 5 competition before the money round starts.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'155848\' date=\'Jun 22 2007, 01:57 PM\']
To win the $10,000,000, you have to be on the nose.  
[/quote]
If that is in fact what they go to series with, then it's clear that the Hollywood game-show industry is now officially throwing out every bit of untested crap they can think of to see what will stick, because there is NO WAY that would survive even a modicum of playtesting.

[itiparanoid13]

I got a few emails and comments on Buzzer about this, so I thought I'd specify this rule here.

The way the game was described to me is that you are given, in question one, a forty POINT range.  You place it on the scale somewhere.  It's not 40% up or down.  More exactly, it's 20% up or down.  All of these rules came from a casting director.

And yeah, I'm not a fan of the on-the-nose for $10,000,000 thing.  You can't tell me they couldn't come up with something a bit more interesting than this.  Something that could employ strategy.  Apparently my wishes are a bit too lofty.

[tvwxman]

Knowing Davies, I can't imagine that an on-the-nose shot at $10Mil, risking a Mil in the process is what he's going to pull for this new format. He knows damn well there isn't going to be one single person (even the nut from Greed who risked his share for the 2.2 Mil) who goes for it without a golden parachute to safely land.

Posts that speculate on how a show 'should' format as opposed to knowledge about how a show 'will' format usually bug the heck out of me.  (This is not a dig against Dave and/or Buzzerblog, rather the youngins who foist their lofty ideas/dreams/garbage on the rest of us)...

That said, I wonder if there will be bonuses along the way for hitting the percentages close by...giving a player a 'window' for the final question should they get there?

[MrBuddwing]

[quote name=\'davewalls\' post=\'155844\' date=\'Jun 22 2007, 03:55 PM\']
Each question has a dollar value, and a range. To win the money, you must answer the question within the given range.
[/quote]

So if you answer incorrectly, do you go home with what you've already won? Or do you lose eveything, or a good chunk of it?

[davewalls]

[quote name=\'MrBuddwing\' post=\'155855\' date=\'Jun 22 2007, 06:28 PM\']

So if you answer incorrectly, do you go home with what you've already won? Or do you lose eveything, or a good chunk of it? [/quote]

I'm afraid that was one question that went unanswered.I gather that you, at the minimum, lose a good chunk, because the phrase "You can walk away at any time" was mentioned a few times. I imagine that if you do go for it, you'll end up taking home a lot less.

All I know about the $10 mil question is that the casting dir. stated that "several options" were being tested right now. I'm pretty bad about speculation, so I'd rather just lay off that till someone hears otherwise. Sounds like the "hit it on the nose for $10 mil" idea doesn't have a lot of support at the moment, however.

[itiparanoid13]

Well I'm glad they are thinking about changing it then.  I'm sorry, I meant to specify on my post that this is what I was given from the pilot.  This obviously has a good chance of changing now.  It's been a busy work day; I've been running in and out of my office all day and I completely forgot to fix my post.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'davewalls\' post=\'155860\' date=\'Jun 22 2007, 03:51 PM\']
I'm pretty bad about speculation, so I'd rather just lay off that till someone hears otherwise.
[/quote]
Thank god SOMEBODY does.