NEW PYRAMID CASTING.

[Jeremy Nelson]

My only problem it that its 1 Million dollars. It's too much to give away every sweeps period, but then you have people wondering when they give away their top prize. If it's at the end of the season, then you have people who, after 6 weeks of watching, are only going to tune in sporadically until the Million Dollar Deathmatch © .  Jeopardy! gives away $250,000 in their yearly ToC, but it's not called $250,000 Jeopardy!, so people aren't looking and waiting to see when the tourney jumps off.If you have to give away the $1 Million at the end of the season, just take your 12 fastest Pyramid times, (or money winners, whichever you prefer) and play single elimination until you get three, and then play Pyramid Tourney style.

IMHO, if you make the tournament more than two tiered (i.e. three $100K tourney winners come back to play for a mil) it makes the whole process seem drawn out- which reminds me of Jeopardy!'s Ultimate ToC- halfway through, I just stopped paying attention, and started counting down the days til the three day final.

If I had to give away seven figures, I'd do a ladder system and make them earn the money by beating the Winner's Circle 5-7 times (kinda like the 2001 computer game). Otherwise, I'd just name it The $100K/$250K Pyramid and play it normally, which then allows you to give out your top prize 4-6 times a year without contracting MO MONEY syndrome. It's Pyramid. As long as the game is executed correctly, I don't care if they give out $7.2 trillion  or $392.67 at the end.

I tried to focus, but I fear I'm all over the place with this post. Sorry.

[MSTieScott]

I will be very surprised if the million dollars is a guaranteed-to-be-awarded prize. With the exception of Jeopardy!'s Ultimate Tournament of Champions and Oprah Winfrey's big car giveaway, I can't think of any instances in daytime/syndication where there was a guaranteed seven-digit payout. Especially with a "new" show, I can't imagine a way they'd be able to promise that much prize money. I predict it will be either a supplemental bonus round or (most likely) a money ladder.

[BrandonFG]

This is the problem I have with the format. A money ladder turns this into Million Dollar Password. A tournament mode could get way too complicated. Honestly, why not just make it as simple as possible?...

REGULAR-SEASON GAMES: $10,000/25,000

Fastest three times come back for the round-robin tournament.

TOURMANENT: If they insist on making this a million-dollar top prize, have the contestant win both Winner's Circles (one of the only good ideas Donnymid had, except make it play out until someone wins). The first WC is worth $25,000, winning both is worth $1,000,000. However, you run into a bit of an anticlimactic flaw. That's one hell of a jump to make, however, increasing the amount of money won for winning "just" one Winner's Circle (say, $50,000) doesn't sit right with me either.

For this to be a daytime game show, I have no problem with $10,000/25,000 and a $100,000 tournament. But what's done is done now...

[Jay Temple]

How to make the million rare but always winnable, as it is on WWTBAM:

(Assume that we're still talking about two players for two games per day.) To win the million, you must win both WC's and have a perfect score in both main games, excluding tie-breaker rounds.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' post=\'217275\' date=\'Jun 4 2009, 11:23 PM\'](Assume that we're still talking about two players for two games per day.) To win the million, you must win both WC's and have a perfect score in both main games, excluding tie-breaker rounds.[/quote]
Which means you'd have to play out every game to completion, instead of win-by-one, and now your front game is anticlimactic AND you're wasting precious time. Pass.

[parliboy]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'217276\' date=\'Jun 5 2009, 01:35 AM\'][quote name=\'Jay Temple\' post=\'217275\' date=\'Jun 4 2009, 11:23 PM\'](Assume that we're still talking about two players for two games per day.) To win the million, you must win both WC's and have a perfect score in both main games, excluding tie-breaker rounds.[/quote]
Which means you'd have to play out every game to completion, instead of win-by-one, and now your front game is anticlimactic AND you're wasting precious time. Pass.
[/quote]

Playing out to 21 is not a new thing.  Remember the bonus that $20k used for a perfect 21.  So having someone play for the perfect score that way is nothing new.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'parliboy\' post=\'217279\' date=\'Jun 5 2009, 12:32 AM\']Playing out to 21 is not a new thing.  Remember the bonus that $20k used for a perfect 21.  So having someone play for the perfect score that way is nothing new.[/quote]
That doesn't make it a good idea. Far as I'm concerned, there's a reason they didn't use that on the '80s show.

"Aw, you only got 20 points! But, um, look on the bright side, you won the game and you'll still be playing for $25,000 instead of ONE MEEEELION DOLLARS..."

Nope. Not a good idea.

[Craig Karlberg]

Jay's idea sounds too WoF like in regards to winning $1M.  I'll stick with the basic $10K/$25K regular games & the $100K tourneys.  I don't NEED $1M!

[Jay Temple]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' post=\'217281\' date=\'Jun 5 2009, 03:28 AM\']I'll stick with the basic $10K/$25K regular games & the $100K tourneys.  I don't NEED $1M![/quote]
I actually agree with you. I don't think there's a good $1M mechanism that works in daytime. Nevertheless, they're gong to do it.

[aaron sica]

Here's a thought: Beat Billy Crystal's all-time WC record for the Mil.

[Strikerz04]

I guess returning to the basics is out of the question. I would've at least approached it as:

- a bonus for a perfect 21
- a $5,000 bonus for a tiebreaker
- a 10K/25K standard WC
- a $100,000 or $250,000 Final (no strings attached)

Is a million truly necessary for a regular series, or are they touting this as the pilot?

[SteveR]

There's no way they could be thinking the million as the aggregate of what you'd win in each stage along the way, is there?

I agree that the $1M makes the process WTC ... even for someone who comes up with quite complex ideas.

[Jimmy Owen]

$1 million seems to be the point at which people pay attention nowadays.  It's like a CEO search.  Want the best and brightest?  Offer a lot of dough.

Here's another suggestion.  After two rounds worth 10 and 25 (if you go to the circle twice), the top player of the day goes for a 3 in :15 (two bottom boxes, one top) end game.  Get all three in fifteen seconds and win a million.  Impossible?  Maybe, but you don't want to give it away too often.  All self-contained in a neat hour-long package.

[itiparanoid13]

If I had to take a stab at it, knowing how things go these days and all involved and that stuff, I'd imagine that it would be a simple money chain format that may or may not involve some form of risking what you have to progress forward, as well as (given that the audience has to submit head shots before being picked) having an audience-in-the-round setup.  Asking the audience to submit head shots is the easiest way to pick the pretty people to have their face on camera and shove the fugly people in the back where no one can see them.  I'd rather see some form of a tournament, but I'm expecting a money ladder.

[SteveR]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'217296\' date=\'Jun 5 2009, 02:23 PM\']Here's another suggestion.  After two rounds worth 10 and 25 (if you go to the circle twice), the top player of the day goes for a 3 in :15 (two bottom boxes, one top) end game.  Get all three in fifteen seconds and win a million.  Impossible?  Maybe, but you don't want to give it away too often.  All self-contained in a neat hour-long package.[/quote]
Is two full games (I assume 7-answer categories) and one :15 mini-mid enough to fill an hour?

But is :15 enough time? That's one second slower than Crystal pace, but what level of subjects would you use? I would think the first could be of bottom-row ease, but the last two need to be super-tough.