Ideas for a new lifeline

[CherryPizza]

[quote name=\'CherryPizza\' date=\'Jan 27 2004, 07:47 PM\'] So what's with this 1.25 million dollar level you're talking about? Has the game been expanded in the US? [/quote]
 Ok, forget that question, I just saw the article

[Craig Karlberg]

The "buy an answer" idea is OK, but the mathematics is a bit high.  I prefer a 10% buyout option as opposed to 25%.  That way, the contestant will win 90% of their total winnings($9 million).  It's also easeir to deduce mathwise I think.

[Robair]

"Search Engine" -- sponsored by Google. The player gives three words from the question, the results are fed into Google, and the top three results are shown as they would be on a Google search. It might help, it might not. (Phone-a-friends do it, why not the contestant?)

"Question Change" -- player may change one question in the stack with another of equal difficulty, not necessarily on the same subject.

"Audience Expert" -- if an audience member claims to know the right answer, they raise their hand. If picked, they get 15 seconds to tell why it's the right answer. If they're right they win $1000. Which could lead total boneheads to want to play, but that's the big risk of this one.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Jan 28 2004, 06:46 AM\'] "Search Engine" -- sponsored by Google. The player gives three words from the question, the results are fed into Google, and the top three results are shown as they would be on a Google search. It might help, it might not. (Phone-a-friends do it, why not the contestant?)
 [/quote]
 This would be a dandy until the first time the contestant gave his three words and was greeted with a pageful of hits for XXXXXX SuPeR Pr0n SiteZ...

"Audience Expert" -- if an audience member claims to know the right answer, they raise their hand. If picked, they get 15 seconds to tell why it's the right answer. If they're right they win $1000. Which could lead total boneheads to want to play, but that's the big risk of this one.

(A young lady is selected to answer a question about fashion designers.)

"Yes, um, I think it's the correct answer because I want to talk about my website, bigtitz.com! Everyone should go there! Don't forget the Z!"

(And yes, I figure if jackasses can walk around behind the crowd on the Today show with signs advertising their business and Web sites, then I see no reason why some idiot spammer wouldn't try to pull it off on national television.)

[starcade]

Saw what they said on that in the interview...  About a 27-hour turnaround, and if the qualification process begins on the 16th or so, it's got to be phone game...

[JayC]

All of the ideas mentioned by you guys could work in some way.  Is it true that you get the 3 lifelines back after the $1,000,000 question?

[MSTieScott]

I've always thought that as an alternative to having a Phone-a-Friend in front of the computer, it would be a good idea to have one who's situated in front of a dictionary. Make it blatantly obvious that you're calling them to use their dictionary ("Your time starts... now." "Dunlin! D-U-N-L-I-N! What's the definition?"), and you could nail a lot of "what type of ____ is [obscure word]" questions.

Which leads to my lifeline idea: Consult-the-Dictionary, or whatever you want to call it. The player picks any word in the English language (presumably one in the question) and is told the dictionary definition of that word. The only problem is that it could turn some upper-tier questions into real gimmes.

--
Scott Robinson

[Jay Temple]

If I were a contestant, I think I'd rather have the safety net (only fall to half) than any of the other lifelines suggested here.  If I were a producer trying to keep viewers tuned in, though, I think I'd go with the "pass" option, where you have to take the next question.  (If a player still has the pass lifeline when he reaches the $10M question, can he take it for the automatic $10M?)

[DrJWJustice]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Jan 27 2004, 09:27 AM\'] How about having a "designated hitter" in the audience, it could be the person in the relationship seat or one of the fastest finger players or even an individual in the audience who is chosen at random and can get some winnings if they can help out. [/quote]
 There ought to be a constitutional amendment banning the designated hitter forever!  www.techhecklers.com

[DrJWJustice]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 28 2004, 11:48 AM\'] This would be a dandy until the first time the contestant gave his three words and was greeted with a pageful of hits for XXXXXX SuPeR Pr0n SiteZ...
 [/quote]
 Careful, buddy, that's looking dangerously close to something MoreHitz4U (sp?) would post, a certain ATGSer who made the occasional appearance on the old Moronionaire show. ;-)

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'DrJWJustice\' date=\'Jan 29 2004, 03:47 AM\']
Careful, buddy, that's looking dangerously close to something MoreHitz4U (sp?) would post, a certain ATGSer who made the occasional appearance on the old Moronionaire show. ;-) [/quote]
 But will the old gang return to host and which of the former contestants are still eligible to be on Super Moronionaire, that is the question

[Robair]

(And yes, I figure if jackasses can walk around behind the crowd on the Today show with signs advertising their business and Web sites, then I see no reason why some idiot spammer wouldn't try to pull it off on national television.)

Yes indeed! Total Jackasses! And Howard Stern spoofers as well! (And alt.tv.game-shows users too!)