Split Second buzz-in rules

[JasonA1]

Pardon me if this has been discovered before, but upon re-watching some of the Kennedy episodes available on YouTube, I finally took notice of how the buzzers worked on the original run of Split Second.

The first player can interrupt Tom's question, as we all knew. It would appear -- based on when the names light up, the facial expressions of the players, and the repeated tapping of the buttons you can hear -- that the buzzers are only enabled again when Tom says the name of the first player to ring-in. The buzzer is then enabled for the third player when the second player's name is acknowledged aloud. Does this seem right?

-Jason

[Ian Wallis]

This seems right.  I remember Tom mentioning a few times something to the effect that the buzzers are locked out until the first player who buzzed in answers.

[chrisholland03]

Yep - that aligns with what I've observed as well.  And I like it that way.

[Joe Mello]

So does that the 90's pilot was effectively the original buzzer set up but just acknowledged out loud?

[Neumms]

Yep - that aligns with what I've observed as well.  And I like it that way.

Huh. I've always thought two or all three could ring in at once, but the lights just waited for the play to catch up, lighting up while the player answered. If they were ringing based on Tom, they'd have to anticipate both him and the guy running the board.

I like how Monty's version labeled first, second and third.

[TimK2003]

This seems right.  I remember Tom mentioning a few times something to the effect that the buzzers are locked out until the first player who buzzed in answers.

If you watch the Kennedy eps that are out there, that may explain that after the first person answers, their asterisk light blinks off ever so quickly -- maybe that's when the buzzers for the other two players "unlock"

[JasonA1]

If you watch the Kennedy eps that are out there, that may explain that after the first person answers, their asterisk light blinks off ever so quickly -- maybe that's when the buzzers for the other two players "unlock"

That flash indicated they were correct. The asterisk would stay off if they were wrong.

-Jason

[JasonA1]

If they were ringing based on Tom, they'd have to anticipate both him and the guy running the board.

I didn't think this was the case until I re-watched the run of episodes that begins in the link below (after some Dating Game). In these episodes, as opposed to the color ones, you can clearly hear the players rat-a-tat-tat on their buttons until the operator opens 'em up. The players' body language is another clue that led me to my conclusion. The female player here often looks down to make sure she's pressing, and I caught the first player grimacing when he lost the battle to be second in one question. (The Memory Buster is a pretty good example of a lot of this, but there are several good ones.)



-Jason