"$100,000 Pyramid" primetime this summer on ABC

[TLEberle]

I had an idea similar to this. Since I don't think you'll have multiple Winner's Circle champions, I say use the two best Winner's Circle totals to qualify (the odd man/woman out keeps his or her money). If all three climbed the Pyramid, then you go by fastest times.

Personally I found it the height of anti-climax to have Donny awarding $75,000 to the player who managed to climb the Pyramid a few seconds faster than the others. I'd love for the show to deposit $25,000 into the winner's circle bank for each 7 out of 7, or the 7-11 allows you to play for some cash prize or to increase the jackpot to $100k. Or to start at $25,000 and add that much for each failed attempt.

Having watched shows like Who's Still Standing and Boom, I have come to realize that for the most part we are looking at cleverness on American game shows in the rear-view mirror. I hope they don't make every WC worth $100k because even thirty years later I think that a six-figure prize is a big horkin' sum of money and shouldn't be thrown about willy-nilly. Give me good writing, good judging, good playing participants and good hosting and I can forgive whatever silliness that they decide to use to award the prize money.

[BrandonFG]

Oh, the Donnymid tournament format absolutely blew, but using the fastest time to determine who plays in the championship couldn't hurt. If anything, it's along the lines of what the 50K tournament did (fastest times of the week, minus the convoluted round-robin setup), and of course the more familiar 100K Clark and Davidson tourneys.

I'm intrigued by the idea of each 7-for-7 adding 25K, esp. if you start with a base 25K jackpot. That way, a 21-point game allows for a potential six-figure jackpot, one earned the hard way.

[TLEberle]

Oh, the Donnymid tournament format absolutely blew, but using the fastest time to determine who plays in the championship couldn't hurt. If anything, it's along the lines of what the 50K tournament did (fastest times of the week, minus the convoluted round-robin setup), and of course the more familiar 100K Clark and Davidson tourneys.

The upshot of the "fastest times return in five weeks" element is that you had a couple of months waiting period and Dick would always mention that Suzie van Cashwinner was on the bubble with a time of 48 seconds, and he would then say what the bubble time was as new people took on the winner's circle and beat us over the head with the stratagem of "always go for the money but if you feel that you're moving along then play for a berth in the tournament." As the qualifying period wore on the excitement would ramp up because the question became would someone be unseated or could that person hang on? When you have more people qualifying than not it looks doofy to exclude someone because she guessed wrong a few too many times on the $300 box. it works a little better in the NFL because there's so darn many tie-breaker qualifications but they've had five months to play it out.

Inexplicably the reboot of American Gladiators had entrants to the next round of competition determined by eliminator time (I forget whether the head start bonus/penalty figured into that at all if indeed it did), so you had somebody who won his or her episode not moving on because he couldn't climb the pyramid or failed to navigate the inclined treadmill, and it was another bit of failure icing on a horribly-tasting cake.

[TLEberle]

As we get closer to summer, I was thinking and it's entirely possible that every attempt is for $100,000, and losers are out, or you just get that one chance whether you climb the pyramid or don't. It would certainly be more exciting than some other ways they could do it.

[Otm Shank]

Audience tickets are now available for the $100,000 Pyramid

13 taping sessions plus a rehearsal mostly clustered on Friday-Sunday in consecutive weeks in April. Very long downtime between tapings on the same date. I would have thought they would have tried to group a few more on the same day, but then again, Strahan has a M-F show as well.

http://1iota.com/Show/519/The-$100,000-Pyramid

[snowpeck]

Some details about the format there too. First trip to the Winner's Circle worth $50K, second is for $100K. Mystery 7 in second game of the hour where you have to get 7/7 in 50 seconds.

[clemon79]

Two games stretched out over an hour? And is not knowing the subject really worthy of 20 seconds of extra time?

Ponderous.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Two games stretched out over an hour? And is not knowing the subject really worthy of 20 seconds of extra time?

Ponderous.

As far as the run time, I'm a little worried since Pyramid doesn't have those "moments" that Family Feud has that can be stretched out to make a longer show- it's a very cut and dry game.

The 50 seconds for the Mystery 7 suggests to me one of three things. Either the celebrities are a very mixed bag, there's an additional gimmick that would justify more time being on the clock, or they want to ensure that the Mystery 7 prize will be given away due to a hefty sponsorship.

[snowpeck]

It doesn't specifically say there will *only* be two games in the show. Just that the second game is the one that has the Mystery 7. It also doesn't specifically mention the runtime. Have we heard for sure that it will be an hour?

[chad1m]

The 50 seconds thing appears to be a typo - I wouldn't worry too much about that. It's also been tossed around that the show has been picked up for 10 hours, as opposed to 10 episodes, which will consist of back-to-back half-hour "traditional" games.

[TLEberle]

The 50 seconds thing appears to be a typo

How can you tell that it's a typographical error and not what they meant in the first place?

[chad1m]

The 50 seconds thing appears to be a typo

How can you tell that it's a typographical error and not what they meant in the first place?

Because a) it would be an incredibly odd deviation and b) someone connected with the show has stated that it is a typo.

[BillCullen1]

I'm on the waiting list for tickets. Iota.com lists several taping dates in April.

[SwohS Emag]

Has anyone heard any news from the Pyramid set?  My fiancee and I have tickets to the Sunday morning taping and are debating whether or not it will be worthwhile to trek from Philly to NYC just to be audience members.  I am (irrationally?) afraid that it might turn into one of those Deal or No Deal-like tapings that we've heard horror stories about.

[Matt Ottinger]

Has anyone heard any news from the Pyramid set?  My fiancee and I have tickets to the Sunday morning taping and are debating whether or not it will be worthwhile to trek from Philly to NYC just to be audience members.  I am (irrationally?) afraid that it might turn into one of those Deal or No Deal-like tapings that we've heard horror stories about.

On the one hand, the show is being run by people who are fondly aware of the original and intend to do it justice.  On the other hand, this is not the era of Bob Stewart-style quick-and-cheap production.  This is a network prime-time series, and they will no doubt take their time to do it right.  I would strongly caution you not to expect real-time shows, but I doubt you'll be enduring anything horrific.