Grand Slam possibly coming to the US....

[PeterMarshallFan]

This looks interesting....taken from SB's site, so your mileage may vary:


Davies Licenses Grand Slam

     TVgameshows.net has learned Who Wants to Be a Millionaire executive producer Michael Davies has obtained U.S. rights to Grand Slam, the popular U.K. quiz which pits champions of various game shows in an all-star battle of mental agility.
     Davies told TVgameshows.net Monday from his office: \"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.\"
     In Britain, the contestants put up their own money to play. \"I'm not sure we'd have that element here,\" said Davies. \"I'm not certain we would be successful in that happening because 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.\"
     Davies' Diplomatic Entertainment and a British company are preparing to pitch Grand Slam to all of the networks and cable networks.
     Excited over the concept, Davies said: \"This is really a terrific looking show. This is like the All-Star Game of game shows. You can just imagine the kind of interest this would build.\"
     The tournament structure would involve anywhere from a 16-player to a 64-player draw, depending on the number of episodes sold, according to Davies.
     \"We’re just starting to work with this. I don’t want to be snowed under with submissions just yet. We're nowhere near ready to take applications,\" said Davies. \"However, I promise you anybody who’s interested should watch the space with TVgameshows.net because we will let you know when and if we go forward.\"
     This weekend, Davies will be featured in an extensive one-on-one interview about season two of Millionaire in syndication and his post-mortem on Pepsi Play for a Billion.

[Brig Bother]

This should be, in fact, brilliant news because Grand Slam is the only quiz I've bothered following over here in the last year or so. This might just push C4 for a second series.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Brig Bother\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 10:56 AM\'] This should be, in fact, brilliant news because Grand Slam is the only quiz I've bothered following over here in the last year or so. This might just push C4 for a second series. [/quote]
 With the talk of Grand Slam possibly coming to the US, the obvious followup question would: what contestants, past and more recent, would you like to see compete?

[goongas]

I would like to see Leszek P. compete for sure.  I think he was robbed in not being invited to Jeopardy! Masters.

Eric

[Jimmy Owen]

Snarkily, I'd like to see John Carpenter, the dude who won the Pepsi show, Rich Hatch, Kelly Clarkson and Charles Van Doren.

[Jay Temple]

I second your nomination of Leszek.  I also nominate:

From Trebek Jeopardy!--Chuck Forrest and Bob Blake
From Fleming Jeopardy!--Burns Cameron
From WWTBAM--John Carpenter, the first $1M winner
From TTD--Thom McKee
From TJW--the winner of their first ToC  (It wasn't sportscaster Frank Gifford, but his name was similar.  He was also in the Jeopardy!'s first Senior Tournament.  If anyone has this info, I'd like to hear it.)
From $100,000 Pyramid--Keif Farrendini (sp)

[Fedya]

If they're still alive, Leland Yung and/or John Hatten from Blockbusters.

Kandi Doyle might be a better choice, since she also won $40K+ on Trivia Trap.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 01:02 PM\'] Snarkily, I'd like to see John Carpenter, the dude who won the Pepsi show, Rich Hatch, Kelly Clarkson and Charles Van Doren. [/quote]
 Your snarkiness noted, my impression is that Grand Slam is designed specifically for Q&A contestants to match wits.  (Oddly, there doesn't appear to be a listing for it on the UK Game Shows site.)   If this thing comes together, John Carpenter is virtually guaranteed a spot.  Naturally, Charles Van Doren would pass, but Herb Stempel would do it in a heartbeat.  The others you name wouldn't even be considered.

It does sound like money winnings is just one of the considerations, so somebody who did well on a low-payout quiz game (Win Ben Stein's Money being the obvious example) might be invited.  Heck, why not invite the mighty Mr. Stein himself?

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 02:03 PM\'] Your snarkiness noted, my impression is that Grand Slam is designed specifically for Q&A contestants to match wits.  (Oddly, there doesn't appear to be a listing for it on the UK Game Shows site.)   If this thing comes together, John Carpenter is virtually guaranteed a spot.  Naturally, Charles Van Doren would pass, but Herb Stempel would do it in a heartbeat.  The others you name wouldn't even be considered.

It does sound like money winnings is just one of the considerations, so somebody who did well on a low-payout quiz game (Win Ben Stein's Money being the obvious example) might be invited.  Heck, why not invite the mighty Mr. Stein himself? [/quote]
 That's basically the idea. Former quiz champs put up 1000 pounds each to compete in the tournament, knowing that only one of them will ever see their cash again (I don't remember how many players there are).

The format is basically \"Playing for Time\" - but instead of using excess seconds to play the bonus round, they are added to each player's final round clock. Low payouts really aren't a problem (to the U.K. version, anyway) as shown by the large population of 15-to-1 and UC champs that entered.

The only problem with bringing the show stateside, that I can see, is the number of hard quizzes that we have. WWTBAM, WBSM, J! are the only ones currently (well, almost) in production. I could see a producer haveing a hard time attracting viewers to see champs from a game show that they haven't heard of.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Jay Temple\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 12:11 PM\']From TJW--the winner of their first ToC  (It wasn't sportscaster Frank Gifford, but his name was similar.  He was also in the Jeopardy!'s first Senior Tournament.  If anyone has this info, I'd like to hear it.)[/quote]
Frank Dillon.  He was one of the first champions to go the $25,000 limit and he announced that he was going to put the cash portion of his winnings into a scholarship fund at the high school he taught at in Cleveland called the \"Jack Barry/Joker's Wild Fund.\"  In his tournament appearances, where he was not required to give half of his money to charity like the $1,000,000 tournament (which he didn't participate in), he voluntarily donated all of his winnings to the American Heart Association.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 12:03 PM\'] If this thing comes together, John Carpenter is virtually guaranteed a spot.  Naturally, Charles Van Doren would pass, but Herb Stempel would do it in a heartbeat.  The others you name wouldn't even be considered.
 [/quote]
The field as I see it would include Carpenter, and perhaps the woman who won on the daytime show, for gender equity (wasn't it a woman? I thought Vieira made a big deal out of the first female Millionaire), Chucks Spangenberg and Forrest (or pick one and throw in Eddie Timanus for human-interest factor), our man Leszek, Thom McKee, Curtis Warren, and one other lady (say, Barbaba Phillips?). I could see it being a field of 8, 'cuz that makes for a nice neat seven-episode test run, and to be honest I don't know if you could find a field of 16 that enough people would recognize enough of.

(They also might select someone who was sucessful on a number of different shows, again for the novelty factor. Randy prolly wouldn't be eligible, but who here remembers Leon Reed? Through blind luck I have seen him on Bullseye, Hit Man, and PYL, and I remember him doing rather well on all three shows.)

I'd LOVE to see Ferrendini in there, but I think she's more renouned in our little circle than she is in the public eye.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 03:33 PM\']The field as I see it would include Carpenter, and perhaps the woman who won on the daytime show, for gender equity (wasn't it a woman? I thought Vieira made a big deal out of the first female Millionaire), Chucks Spangenberg and Forrest (or pick one and throw in Eddie Timanus for human-interest factor), our man Leszek, Thom McKee, Curtis Warren, and one other lady (say, Barbaba Phillips?). I could see it being a field of 8, 'cuz that makes for a nice neat seven-episode test run, and to be honest I don't know if you could find a field of 16 that enough people would recognize enough of.[/quote]
Nitpick:  *Frank* Spangenburg.

Didn't directly speak to him at the MDM \"J!\" tourney, but he really seemed like a genuinely nice guy.  I didn't hear one nasty word about him.

[Jimmy Owen]

I have been told that I am the only person on earth that thinks this way, but I worry about the damage to the psyche of these winners by entering this competition.  I liken it to \"Miss America\" (hosted last weekend by Tom Bergeron)  Here are 49 girls who have been winners all of their lives up till now, in the matter of 90 minutes on a Saturday night, end up forever \"almost Miss America.\"

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 01:42 PM\'] Nitpick:  *Frank* Spangenburg. [/quote]
 Competely legitimate nitpick. I knew something was wrong there.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Sep 24 2003, 01:45 PM\'] I have been told that I am the only person on earth that thinks this way, but I worry about the damage to the psyche of these winners by entering this competition.  I liken it to "Miss America" (hosted last weekend by Tom Bergeron)  Here are 49 girls who have been winners all of their lives up till now, in the matter of 90 minutes on a Saturday night, end up forever "almost Miss America." [/quote]
 I can't say you're the ONLY person on earth that thinks that way, but I disagree with you so strongly that it wouldn't surprise me if those who did could ride around comfortably in a small Yugo.

Particularly in the case of Miss America. These little darlings are all getting their egos fed anyhow, and they know what they are getting into, and it might be very admirable that their self-confidence is such that they're going into it certain of victory, but you know what? You and I taste failure every day, and we're not terribly scarred for it. Some would even suggest we're better for the experience. A little dose of humility might do some of them some good.