Oh, boy. I've been trying to keep out of this, but...
My format entails the introduction of a four-player format, similar to the one used on Scrabble. Two players play one game (with the double dollar values mentioned by WorldClassRob; dollar value also determines difficulty, singles are easy, doubles are medium and triples are hard) to $1000; the other two players repeat the process. New categories are used in every game. If a game runs long, the game switches to goes into a speed-round. The host gets to spin his (usually concealed) lever, which brings up a three-way split. The player who's behind picks a category, and the host asks a single-level toss-up question for $100. The chosen category rotates out of play with one of the two categories not in play. This process repeats until someone has $1000. The two winners play a final championship game, carrying over their scores from their preliminary games. Dollar values in the championship game are increased to $200 for a single, $400 for a double and $800 for a triple. The first to $3000 wins.
My endgame is a cross between suggestions made by Chris Lemon and Dan Sadro:
the champion picks one of the ten categories used in their two games (this is chosen over the final commercial break), and the host asks a series of single-level questions in their chosen category. The player has 45 seconds to answer as many correct as possible. Each right answer earns a spin on the Joker Machine, which now contains dollar amounts, prizes and Jokers. Money is won simply by having it appear (as Dan says: \"You spin $X-$Y-$Z, you win $(X+Y+Z). \") Three of the same dollar amount wins triple the total for that spin (You spin $X+$X+$X, you $(X+X+X) x 3). In order to win a prize, you must get three of the same prize; wheels may be frozen to facilitate a triple. Once a prize is won, it's cleared from the wheels, and the contestant keeps spinning until either: they win all the prizes (there's five to win in my format, it's almost impossible) or they run out of spins. Jokers are still wild of course BUT you can't use for dollar amounts (unless that's all there is showing), you can't use them prizes not showing on the wheels (because the star prize is only on wheel three, and you can't win it unless it appears, you freeze it and then get two more Jokers to make up the difference) and you can't freeze them by themselves (because Three Jokers wins all of that days prizes, including the star prize, AND the ever increasing Joker's Jackpot starting at $25,000 and increasing by $1,000 for each day it's not won).
\"Game Show Man\" Joe Van Ginkel