Grand Slam pilot approved by ABC

[goongas]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ion_practice_dc

[gsgalaxy82]

I guess Super Millionaire's starting to rub off on ABC. This is getting good!

David

[KWJCDon]

Sounds like an updated version of 50 Grand Slam to me. I liked the original and thought it had more potential. Hopefully, this time will be even better.

Don

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'KWJCDon\' date=\'Mar 3 2004, 09:30 AM\'] Sounds like an updated version of 50 Grand Slam to me. [/quote]
Actually it sound more like the UK show but without all-time game-show champions, which is good AFAIC.

Why they are electing to call it "64 Grand Slam" is a mystery, though, what with there being 16 contestants and a grand prize of $512K.

(Which, being a factor of 2, suggests to me that the prize money doubles. So the final winner gets 512K, second place gets 256K, the two third place finishers get 128K, and the four fifth place finishers get 64K. That doesn't work either...still comes up a round short. Unless they're suggesting you have to win at least one game to finish in the money.)

[ChuckNet]

Sounds like an updated version of 50 Grand Slam to me. I liked the original and thought it had more potential. Hopefully, this time will be even better.

We'll see...good thing Ralph Andrews isn't producing this time around, however...he'd prolly need his $$$ for the Dick Clark lawsuit. :-)

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Mar 3 2004, 11:36 AM\'] Why they are electing to call it "64 Grand Slam" is a mystery, though, what with there being 16 contestants and a grand prize of $512K.

 [/quote]
Why, simple. 16 multiplied by 4 gives you 64.
512 divided by 4 gives you 64..........no, 128.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
I'll be back.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Mar 3 2004, 11:46 AM\'] [quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Mar 3 2004, 11:36 AM\'] Why they are electing to call it "64 Grand Slam" is a mystery, though, what with there being 16 contestants and a grand prize of $512K.

 [/quote]
Why, simple. 16 multiplied by 4 gives you 64.
512 divided by 4 gives you 64..........no, 128.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
I'll be back. [/quote]
 Just don't give GameShowGuy2000 the calculator, he's dangerous with that thing!

[CaseyAbell]

Sounds interesting. All of Super Millionaire's eps ended in the top thirty for the week, with a couple cracking the top twenty. That's territory ABC doesn't often occupy.

With Deal or No Deal apparently in limbo, I was expecting some other game show idea to surface on the ratings-starved alphabet.

[Chelsea Thrasher]

Of all the shows to have a format return from the vast GS graveyard, I NEVER figured they'd go with this one.   OF course, it probably IS one of the formats that would most easily be manipulatable to bring in both the GS fans, *and* draw in Reality fans via the Competing in stunts aspect

[TravisP]

The UK version of Grand Slam each of the 16 Game Show Champions had to pay £1,000 to enter however the overall winner received £50,000.

Going back to the original stages the British show was going to be called "64 Grand Slam" by having 64 normal contestants regardless of their background. The early heats would have been shown in the Countdown/15 To Slot while having the finals in Primetime, the overall winner would win £64K (£1K each from the losers adding up to £63K and their own payment of £1K)  but they had problems with the ITC at the time of the gambling aspect with the £1,000, but after agreeing terms with the ITC it went ahead but the format was streamlined to 16 "Champions" however the original plan was to run for 8 Weeks on a Friday Night while having the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and the Grand Final to be shown Live across three weekend, but without a clear reason this was scrapped and continued to show the remaining stages pre-recorded over the Friday nights.

Full information of the format can be found from Channel 4:
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/m...slam/index.html

[leszekp]

Last September, Davies said about Grand Slam contestants:

"Essentially, the biggest quiz show winners in the history of television, no matter what show they came from, compete in a winner-take-all tournament where one of them emerges as the ultimate winner."

" ... not everyone has won six or seven figures, but they may be great contestants from shows which did not offer a lot of prize money."

So the field will probably consist of former game show contestants, just like the UK version that it's based on.

[Starkman]

hmmm could be intresting, anyone know if John Hatten or Thom McKee are still around?

And well if it really is based on a former game show contestant show i got the perfect host...a former contestant turned personality himself.

thats right GO WITH THE BEST: RANDY WEST

(half tounge in cheek but if you are gonna have a theme, run with it)

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Starkman\' date=\'Mar 3 2004, 05:43 PM\'] hmmm could be intresting, anyone know if John Hatten or Thom McKee are still around? [/quote]
 McKee did an interview with Steve Beverly last year, so I'd assume yes. :-)

[TravisP]

What you need to remember that if it will follow excatly the same as the UK version there will be a host (We had Carol Vorderman) along with an co-host/analyist, in the UK case it was Football Italia presenter James Richardson but neither of these ask the questions, we had a chap called Nicholas Rowe who throwed the questions at them but like 100% he only heard his voice not see his face and did a super job (Unlike these prats who are acting the Quizmasters on "24 Hour Quiz" who is becoming like Anne Robinson of not reading the questions out correctly and had the Quizmates recorrect the words for them)
As the rounds progressed questions came up on the screen for us to view at home but the contestants didn't see them so they cannot speed answer (Except for some math and english questions).

[scully24]

I've been thinking about this, and since this is a pure quiz format and you've got former game show champions competing, won't that mean that all the winners are going to be former Jeopardy champions?

No other U.S. game show besides Jeopardy is quite so rigorous in its knowledge requirements.  I mean I can't imagine a tournament in which a top winner from WOF or PYR or FF beats a winner from Jeopardy.  You might find some decent players from WWTBAM or WL, (or possibly Ben Stein's Money), but not even champions from those shows are likely to be of the caliber of a decent Jeopardy player.

So that struck me as a potential flaw for the U.S. version.  I think the UK has more shows of a cerebral nature, so it's conceivable to bring together brilliant contestants from different shows there, but in the U.S., I would think the Jeopardy contingent would monopolize the tournament.