James, you'd probably know this better than the blurb we got: is the idea really "answer 500 questions/reach the finish line" to win? Because I figure they can only ask a few thousand questions over the course of nine hours anyway, which means either not that many contestants, lots of editing as in Million Second Quiz, or that there are 500 queries over the course of competition and whoever gets farthest along will win.
Do you know what's at stake, for that matter?
To be honest, I'm not sure on the former. All I was told was that contestants would possibly answer "hundreds of questions" in order to win it all. During the process, the casting coordinators kept referring to the series as "The ABC Trivia Game Show", so I was under the presumption that, at the very least, a title change was being considered.
The coordinators also mentioned at least twice that the format of the show was "being worked on" and "tweaked", but emphasized, like the press release, that it was just you answering the questions -- no lifelines, no phoning friends, etc (Having mentioned WWTBAM in my interview, they found their opening to let me know we'll find none of those traits on this show). If I had any idea on a format from such a vague description, I was thinking a variation of Britain's "Fifteen to One", where contestants are knocked out for getting two answers wrong.
As far as the top prize, one coordinator said contestants would compete for "the biggest prize in game show history", but I didn't bite on that and it was never discussed again. It's the only time I've heard that mentioned (when I Skype interviewed for MSQ, the coordinator dropped "the biggest prize" phrase about 5-6 times).
The only complaint I would have about the interview process was a request the coordinator gave to most, if not all, applicants. When they asked a question, I was asked to phrase my answer in a specific way. For instance, if they asked "When did you find out about your trivia prowess?," I would have to answer "I found out about my trivia prowess ... " It felt less like an interview and more like a sixth-grade language arts class.
Also, regarding a question PYLDude had about FF ... audience tickets for the next season of civilian FF are scheduled to be available next month, and the show is saying that it will tape next season at the Atlanta Civic Center. There have been reports over the past several months that the Civic Center will be heavily renovated/torn down/shut down, etc. (it's an aging structure in a slightly questionable neighborhood), but it will be open for tapings this summer.
JD
