I've been away for a long time, but I have to put in my two cents here. Last spring for CS's 30th anniversary, I developed my own idea for this that combined elements from all previous versions (yes, even 2001). Ideally, best-of-three matches that straddle is best, but if you absolutely must do self-contained, I'd start each match with a warm-up round. It starts by turning over the champion's base card, then asking him/her to pass or play. Very simply, it's a round calling high-low without questions; if a player slips up or freezes, control goes to the other player and, if the last call was wrong, as a penalty he/she can change the base card. First player to complete his/her line earns $500 in chips.
After the warm-up round comes classic CS, five cards per line, four high-low questions, with the high-low questions being a mix of human nature polls and educated guesses, maybe with a few visual questions. Those are played the same as we're used to, except winning a question also earns $100 in chips, plus $500 in cash for a perfect guess ($100 in the case of a 10-person polling group, just like 1986-89). For the play of the cards, I've thrown in some steroids: running the board on your first try in any five-card round is also a $500 cash bonus. Each round is worth $500 in chips, with bonuses not counting toward the score. First to $2,000 in chips wins the game. If time is running out, the next question automatically becomes sudden death. If neither player reaches $2,000 after that, each round from then on is three cards and one sudden-death question. The question itself has no chip value, but the round is worth $1,000 in chips. The winner takes his/her chips to the Money Cards--and I'd have him/her cut the cards on camera before going to break--while the other wins the obligatory parting gifts.
The structure for MC would depend on the prize budget--we're in a bad economy, remember?--so it could go anywhere from $250/$500 (with a max win $40,000) up to the $700/$700/$700 of the 2001 version, meaning a potential win of over $100,000 for seven cards ($102,200 to be exact). If the budget won't let you spare an extra $2,000 to $3,000 every game, you could just spread the chips won in the front game evenly across the three levels (ex. $2,300 --> $800/$800/$700), but I know you people would prefer the player just keep their front game winnings and play the MC with house money. One change per line with the next card off the top of the deck, and all doubles are pushes. And finally, I would employ the Ken Jennings rule, i.e. champions can stay as long as they keep winning.
