The Game Show Forum > Game Show Channels & Networks
GSN to revive Split Second
Otm Shank:
I was trying to sketch out a variant of Split Second a while back and it might have worked as a compromise for the must-answer-early-buzz but without interrupting the question. Although it would stray from the roots of the game slightly, I would have the contestant lock in which choice with one of three buttons.
When the question is finished, the board would dim all the choices except the one selected by the fastest finger, who would answer the question. The second fastest would answer their selection or pick-up an incorrect answer by the first player. The final player would get the remaining choice by default, but could answer any other unanswered choice. Because we aren't using artboards or an Amiga Video Toaster mosaic/zoom/crunch, the display would have only the available choices would be "lit up" for the contestant.
In the Countdown Round, players are still selecting which multiple choice clue, but the fastest player would then advance to the second player's selection to attempt to steal that, then the third. Essentially, the same as the money/points round, but a sweep of the board would have to be solved in the order each was buzzed in. The second or third player would not be able to answer the question if a previous player advanced to their selection and answered it properly, even if there is a leftover choice still on the board.
So it isn't a buzzer-mashing exercise, but a calculated selection to ferret out the potentially easier response. It doesn't allow for "mindbender" or "give me one of the 3..." type questions, unless you just convert that to a possible "push the center button first."
It does bring in some slight inequities, but it does make the decision part more "split second" if we must also have the full question read.
Joe Mello:
--- Quote from: Matt Ottinger on February 28, 2023, 11:14:04 PM ---I'm afraid that a lot of brilliant original formats of the 70s wouldn't fly today because TPTB have decided that they're too challenging for their audience to follow.
--- End quote ---
My least cynical counter to this is if your primary enjoyment from watching game shows is playing along having questions be consistently interrupted affects your ability to do that.
/Botulism
Sodboy13:
Making the first two rounds even more of a luck-of-the-circuits buzzer mash than the Hall version and creating an even bigger handicap in the Countdown Round based on said buzzer mashing feels like they're breaking the game twice.
Matt Ottinger:
--- Quote from: Joe Mello on March 01, 2023, 09:09:57 AM ---
--- Quote from: Matt Ottinger on February 28, 2023, 11:14:04 PM ---I'm afraid that a lot of brilliant original formats of the 70s wouldn't fly today because TPTB have decided that they're too challenging for their audience to follow.
--- End quote ---
My least cynical counter to this is if your primary enjoyment from watching game shows is playing along having questions be consistently interrupted affects your ability to do that.
--- End quote ---
Totally fair. The beauty of Jeopardy is very much that the home audience gets those few extra seconds to process each clue, which exponentially adds to the "play along" factor. Apparently, the decision has been made that "Split Second" will benefit from the same sort of structure. I'll still have a soft spot for the more dynamic and strategic original version.
Joe Mello:
To be fair, I'm probably in agreement with you, but over the past handful of years GSN (and the greater game show landscape) have shied away from on-the-buzzer quizzes. I assume one reason is increased accessibility for both audience and contestants.
Nobody asked but I imagine the reason we're getting this in the first place is that someone at GSN saw the spoils of Buzzr airing Whew and Classic Concentration (and maybe NBC's Password) and wondered what they could bring out from the mothballs to get the same result.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version