A decathlon of sorts for game shows.

[PYLdude]

I’ve had this thought for awhile now, and I don’t know why the concept intrigues me so much but it does.

I actually first came up with this after watching Mark Leinwand on Press Your Luck, and considering he had successful runs on Tic Tac Dough before this and Jeopardy afterward (both straight quizzes as opposed to a test of luck and daring), I started thinking about who you might consider as a well rounded kind of contestant. This eventually evolved, as there’s been many people who’ve been on multiple shows (including some of us) with different methods of game mechanics, into a thought of what kinds of shows might form the basis of an all around competition, sort of a game show equivalent of the Olympic decathlon.

Now keep in mind I’m just brainstorming with formats, not necessarily titles. You would have your quizzes, your word games, your luck based games, and so on and so on. But if you were so crazy as to come up with something like that, what kinds of formats would you use?

[SamJ93]

I'm not sure you would have enough distinct formats for 10 events; at most you might have 5 or 6, similar to the UK (and short-lived US) show The Krypton Factor. Here's what I would want to see in a hypothetical all-around tournament...

Quiz--Obviously, J! would be the most popular choice here, but as far as a pure test of knowledge/factual recall goes, the UK's Mastermind is a better fit, especially its use of specialty subjects.

Word Association--again, Pyramid would be the obvious choice, and I would tend to agree. But since this is the ultimate test of agility in all areas, why not make it a mash-up of that and Body Language? Contestants would have to alternate in each category (or even each word) between verbal and physical communication.

Stunt/Physical Activity--Either a full obstacle course a la the aforementioned Krypton Factor, or something more small-scale like Minute To Win It.

Memory--Concentration, obviously, although perhaps one could also adapt Simon instead.

Talent--This would be a bit more nebulous, as it would require subjective judging by a panel, but since this is the ultimate test of everything, we need to include it. I would again take a page from Mastermind and make it two different performances--one that the contestant decides for themselves, the other a randomly-selected event (singing, dancing, magic trick, etc.) that they must practice for a week a la The Big Moment.

[TLEberle]

For a sort of pub quiz I had several rounds in a row—Challengers Sprint, Whew, true or false gamble, choose your difficulty and finally the Final Challenge Wager of Death.

I hosted a game of Definition on a white board for a birthday and everybody loved it, so I would lean to that and Scrabble Sprint/Chance…Lifetime over Wheel.

In the UK Ant and Dec’s Push the Button devoted one segment to a talent showcase that would be practiced and the winning team would take some money of the losers depending upon the outcome.

[BrandonFG]

Trivia: Win Ben Stein's Money's Best of 10 Test of Knowledge. Give each player the same stack and have them answer separately. Award 50 points for 1st, 30 for second, 20 for third, 10 for fourth. Part of me also loves the idea of using the championship round from The Big Showdown where you could lock out your opponent based on the target point value.

Word Association: I'm thinking something closer to Classic Password, using one word clues. Part of me also likes the idea of a scrambled word game similar to Caesar's Challenge's second bonus round. For the former, each contestant plays a Lightning Round of sorts; the latter you unscramble the five words in :30.

Somehow tying this all together, the Countdown Round from Split Second, but if you can't rank the contestants in order, have them all countdown from 5 points. I can flesh this all out when I'm not exhausted.

[SuperMatch93]

There was an Italian game show similar to what you're describing in the form of a pentathlon; here's the (translated Italian) wiki article for it:

https://it-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Pentatlon?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[CeleTheRef]

There was an Italian game show similar to what you're describing in the form of a pentathlon; here's the (translated Italian) wiki article for it:

https://it-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Pentatlon?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

In the late 80s Canale 5 also held a "Canale 5 Trophy" event (parody of the Camel Trophy race) in which the same families would appear on every gameshow the network aired that day (about 8-9 of them!).  The audience was not thrilled.

[Neumms]

It’s odd to combine tests of intellect and athletics or performing talent. The Olympic decathlon doesn’t have a math event, after all. I’m trying to assemble a competition for skills and knowledge.

I think they should be played for score, not head to head. The decathlon isn’t a tournament. That’s why these are mostly bonus games, with how scores are derived as noted.
 
1. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: how high up the ladder
2. Whew’s Gauntlet of Villains: elapsed time to pass all 10
3. Name That Tune’s Golden Medley to test a different field of knowledge: number of tunes named
4. History IQ’s endgame to test in another field: elapsed time to place all correctly
5. TPIR, perhaps Bullseye (how many times you can hit it), Cliffhangers (number of steps) and bidding on a couple showcases (difference), testing pricing skill across groceries, small items and large
6. Scrabble Sprint: time to answer set number of words
7. Now You See It solo round or Lingo: number of answers in a time limit
8. Pyramid which would need more than one round with different partners from a celebrity pool, which isn’t ideal but Pyramid is too good a test to exclude. It could be front game, winners’ circle or both, scored by number correct in a time limit
9. Classic Concentration car game: time to make every match
10. The dramatic conclusion: Wonderwall from Winning Lines (money total) or The Money Maze played alone (time needed to hit all five numerals and get out) which would bring an air of Harry Potter to things.

I like that a couple aren’t on a clock. One alternate: The Who What or Where Game: a series of rounds played against the house.

[Neumms]

I’m spending too much time on this. How about a pentathlon of communication games (The Bob Stewart Open) among celebrity pairs:
1. Password
2. Win Lose or Draw
3. You Don’t Say!
4. Showoffs (without the third partner)
5. Pyramid

[PYLdude]

There was an Italian game show similar to what you're describing in the form of a pentathlon; here's the (translated Italian) wiki article for it:

https://it-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Pentatlon?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

This would definitely be something like what I would probably look to do, or at least use those three formats as some sort of starting point. Thanks for pointing me in that direction.

And may I say that that is probably the most literal translation I’ve read in awhile. 🙂

(Click on the link to the Italian wiki page for teleMike. It’s not much better.)

[SuperMatch93]

In the late 80s Canale 5 also held a "Canale 5 Trophy" event (parody of the Camel Trophy race) in which the same families would appear on every gameshow the network aired that day (about 8-9 of them!).  The audience was not thrilled.

I was curious about this and a Google search led me to this issue of Radiocorriere which may have featured it in the listings.

https://archive.org/details/Radiocorriere-1989-52/page/n107/mode/2up

(Looking at the other days that week and WOW, did Canale 5 have a lot of game shows on the air. Am I reading it right that there were 9½ hours of them on Thursday?)

[CeleTheRef]

I was curious about this and a Google search led me to this issue of Radiocorriere which may have featured it in the listings.

https://archive.org/details/Radiocorriere-1989-52/page/n107/mode/2up

(Looking at the other days that week and WOW, did Canale 5 have a lot of game shows on the air. Am I reading it right that there were 9½ hours of them on Thursday?)

Yes, Canale 5 was very high on entertainment at the time: it didn't even have a regular newscast because until September 1991 private TV channels were not allowed to air live programs.  Game and comedy programs were C5's way to sneak some news in.

When (State-owned) television officially started in 1954, Mike hosted his $64,000 Question on Saturday nights, but cinema owners complained that people stopped going to the movies (this wretched newfangled telething! )  and so Mike was pushed to Thursday night.  Since then, even after Mike made the jump to private TV, Thursday night was Mike Bongiorno Night.