Game 1: two new players
Game 2: two more new players
Game 3: winners of 1 & 2
All these are $10,000 attempts.
Game 4: winner of Game 3 vs. defending champion, with a $20,000 attempt
Chop out the third Winner\'s Circle, for a start. I\'ll explain why in a bit...
If the $20,000 attempt is successful, that player retires and the loser of Game 4 takes his spot in the final on the next show, à la Now You See It.
Makes sense.
I haven\'t decided what I\'d do with the Big 7.
Simple: have it in all four games, still worth $500.
If the winner of Game 3 wins both of his $10,000 attempts, he retires, and the other winner takes on the defending champion.
And hence my suggestion to ditch the third Winner\'s Circle, otherwise...
\"Mike, you\'ve won Game 3 and will be facing our champion Michelle in a few moments
unless you win the ten thousand dollars here. If you do that, then Claudia will move on. Stand by. For $10,000...\"
If you\'re using a tournament-like structure, retiring a contestant who won $20,000 before facing the returning champ looks bad. It opens the door for the mindset of \"Well, I\'ve got $10K and the limit is $20K, so I
have to throw this otherwise I won\'t get to face the champ.\"
The best way I can think of to fix this, and it might not work too well but hey...
* Game 1: one new player and the returning champ (if applicable)
* Game 2: two new players
* Game 3: winners of 1 & 2 to determine the day\'s champ
First two Winner\'s Circles are worth $10,000, third is worth $20,000. The champion keeps playing until s/he A) loses a game or B) wins the third Winner\'s Circle, since it\'s clear from the surviving episodes and recollections that ABC\'s \"x many days\" limit didn\'t apply to
Pyramid.