I\'ve only seen the final episode of the 1985 TOC from February, but I imagine it went something like this:
18 big winners from the first two years of the 1980s daytime edition were brought back, and in the first week, 15 of them would compete against each other (3 contestants per episode) in quarterfinals matches. By Monday of the second week, they would have gotten 6 of them for semi-finals matches on Tuesday and Wednesday (3 contestants in both episodes). By Thursday, they would be down to just two contestants for a best-of-three finals match. I\'m not sure how the endgame would have played out, though. Would they have used the Winner\'s Board like they usually were using at the time?
The tournament ended on Friday of its second week, and the grand champion was Stephanie Holmquist with $152,897 in cash and prizes, $83,337 she won during her original run in 1984, plus an additional $69,560 she won in the tournament.
The very first tournament of champions in 1983 had nine semi-finalists playing in three week-long semi-final gauntlets, where the player who compiled the highest front game total would go shopping on Friday (from what I recall this was the only time that a champion could buy multiple prizes, and $50,000 was available for $500) and return for the finals.
Were the \'83 finals played in the same way as the semi-finalists weeks (5-day total points) or like the \'87 international finals (first to 3 wins)?