Split Second (game show)

Split Second is an American game show that was created by Monty Hall and Stefan Hatos and produced by their production company, Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall Productions.

There were two editions of Split Second produced by Hatos and Hall. The first was a daytime series produced for ABC that premiered on March 20, 1972, and ran until June 27, 1975, and was recorded at ABC Television Center in Hollywood. Tom Kennedy was the host for the original ABC version, with Jack Clark serving as announcer.

The second version was produced for syndication in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, at CHCH-TV's studios; this series premiered December 15, 1986, and was a co-production of Hatos-Hall and distributors Concept Equity Funding Limited and Viacom Enterprises. Canadian television stations CHCH-TV, CFAC-TV, and CITV-TV assisted in the production of the syndicated series as well, but were not credited on American airings. The revival series featured Monty Hall as host with Sandy Hoyt as announcer and aired until the end of the 1986–87 season with reruns airing until September 11, 1987.

In February 2023, it was announced that the show would be revived by Game Show Network, with John Michael Higgins as host, and premiered on April 17, 2023.

Main game
On each version, three contestants competed.

Each question the host asks has three possible correct answers. Some questions took a form such as "Name the three films for which Katharine Hepburn won the Oscar for Best Actress." For most questions, three words, names, or phrases were displayed on a board which acted as clues, and the question took a form such as "Pick a word from the board and give its plural." For the ABC version, approximately once each episode there was also a "Memory Buster," in which Kennedy gave a list of items and asked which three of them were common to each other.

Contestants rang in by pushing a button on their lecterns. The first person to ring in was permitted to provide any one of the three answers. The second-fastest provided one of the remaining answers, and finally, the slowest player got whatever was left, by default. In the '70s version, the clues on the board were revealed first and contestants could buzz in before the question was completed, whereas in the syndicated version, the answers were revealed after the question was finished, and if a contestant rang in too soon (before the choices were revealed), he/she was automatically relegated to last place in the order of play.

Bob Synes, a producer of the 1970s Split Second, took a very strict stand regarding contestants' answers; he required contestants to guess the answers exactly right, meaning mispronounced answers were ruled incorrect, similar to most other quiz shows like Jeopardy!. When Hall took the reins of the 1980s version, he acted as judge himself, giving players credit if they mispronounced a correct answer or gave an alternate wording that was sufficiently close to it.

Each player received money (points on the GSN version) for a correct answer. The value of each answer was determined by the number of people supplying a correct response, and there was no penalty for a miss.

For example, if two players gave a correct answer in round one of the ABC version, each player received $10.

During the latter half of the ABC version, the first person to be the only contestant to respond correctly to a question during the first two rounds, a situation which Kennedy referred to as a "Singleton," also won a bonus prize, his or hers to keep regardless of the game's outcome.

In both the Kennedy and Hall versions, if a contestant gave an incorrect answer, a contestant who rang in after that could elect to answer the same part, unless the question was this/that format. In the Higgins version, each part is taken out of play once any contestant tries to answer it, whether they are correct or not.

Countdown Round
The Countdown Round serves as the final round and determines the winner. No money is awarded for correct answers in this round. Instead, a correct answer enables a player to keep control of the question and answer any parts that are still available. An incorrect answer passes control to the next player who has buzzed in.

Each player is required to give a set number of answers in order to win the game. The leader entering the Countdown Round has the lowest number, with the second-place player needing one more answer than the leader and the third-place player two. In the event of a tie, the tied players have to give the same number of answers. In the original series, the leader needed three answers to win (which could be accomplished in one question), the second-place player four, and the third place-player five. These numbers all increased by one when the syndicated series debuted, with four being the lowest number and six the highest. On the GSN version, the leader needs four answers to win, the second-place player six, and the third-place player eight. In the event of a tie for first place, the tied players have to give five answers, whereas a tie for second place requires six.

The first player to count down to zero wins the game regardless of their total score and moves on to the bonus round. In previous versions, all three players kept their accumulated money. The champion wins $1,000 on the GSN version.

1970s
Every new champion was given a choice of five car keys, which corresponded with five cars that were displayed on stage. The champion chose a car to attempt to start with the key, and if he/she was successful the car was won and the champion retired. If the car did not start, it was taken out of play and the champion tried the same key in another car if he/she returned the next day. If after four consecutive tries, the key did not start a car, if the champion won the next game he/she received a choice of any of the cars on stage.

In addition to the car, a retiring champion received a cash bonus. The bonus started at $1,000 and increased by $500 for each unsuccessful bonus round (originally $200 to start with $200 more for each unsuccessful bonus round), resetting only when a champion won a car.

1980s
The bonus round on the 1980s Split Second gave champions the opportunity to win a car by choosing from five video screens.

Initially, one of the screens hid the word "CAR," while the other four each hid a $1,000 cash prize. The champion selected one screen and won whatever was behind it. Finding the car immediately retired the champion; if the $1,000 appeared, that screen would be eliminated from play in any subsequent bonus rounds played by him/her. A new champion always played the round with all five screens. Any champion who won five consecutive games automatically received the car and retired undefeated.

Later in the run, the bonus round was changed, offering a car and a smaller prize hidden behind three and two screens respectively. The champion chose three screens, winning the car and retiring if it was behind all of them. If the prize appeared behind any screen, they could accept it with a cash bonus and retire or return to play another game. The bonus was $1,000 after the first game, $2,000 after the second, and $3,000 after the third. After a champion's fourth victory, four "CAR" screens were used. If they failed to win the car, they could accept the prize and $4,000 cash and retire, or return for a fifth and final game, automatically winning the car and retiring after five victories.

2023
The bonus round on the 2023 Split Second is a timed variation of the main game, in which the champion must answer seven questions within 60 seconds. Each question features two parts, with the contestant choosing one to answer (e.g. given two camera-related abbreviations, choose one and define it). If he/she gives an incorrect response, a new question is asked. The champion wins an additional $10,000 for giving seven correct answers before time runs out.

ABC: 1972–1975
Split Second occupied only one timeslot during its three-year run, 12:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m., Central), against the traditional CBS favorite Search for Tomorrow and NBC's The Who, What, or Where Game. It displaced Password, which moved ahead a half-hour. Although never able to surmount Search, Split Second kept a large number of affiliates on the network at that hour (preemptions, mostly for local newscasts, had plagued ABC for years). Within two years, NBC replaced 3W's with a succession of short-lived games.

Split Second's 1972 entry completed ABC's most successful block of daytime game shows, which included Password, The Newlywed Game, The Dating Game, and Let's Make a Deal, a lineup which lasted for nearly two years.

However, the decline of its lead-in, Password, began to adversely affect the Nielsens of Split Second, and it was one of four game shows ABC cancelled between June 27 and July 4, 1975. After a week of 60-minute episodes of the soap opera All My Children, Split Second was succeeded by another soap, Ryan's Hope. All My Children did return to a full hour from late April 1977, continuing for the rest of its ABC run.

The winning contestant on the final episode lost the bonus game but was awarded the car anyway since he would have no opportunity to try again on a future show; the final $1,000 cash jackpot was split between the two runner-up contestants.

Syndication: 1986–1987
In early 1986, Monty Hall had expressed his intentions to retire from hosting game shows altogether. He had been hosting a revival of Let’s Make a Deal in syndication since 1984, and he planned on stepping down from the series and launching a daily human interest program distributed by Worldvision Enterprises called For the People, where Hall would use connections he had made over various philanthropic ventures over the course of his life to offer assistance to viewers. The idea was for Hall to hand Let’s Make a Deal over to another host (likely the show’s announcer Dean Goss, as Hall allowed him to preside over several deals during the year) and start For the People in the fall. Both programs were presented in January 1986 at the annual NATPE convention. However, not enough stations showed interest in either Hall’s creation or a third season of Let’s Make a Deal. Hall and Hatos decided to revive their other hit from the 1970s and developed a new edition of Split Second, this time with Hall hosting, for a midseason premiere in December 1986.

Although the show aired simultaneously in the United States and Canada upon its premiere, many more Canadian markets carried Split Second than their American counterparts. However, it was carried in at least one major American market, New York. With the reappearance of episodes on Canada's GameTV, there have emerged some notable production differences for episodes aired in Canada:


 * As the show returns from its first two commercial breaks, some trivia questions are displayed on the screen for the viewers. On the American airings, three questions were shown. The Canadian airings usually only displayed one question, with announcer Sandy Hoyt filling the time with fee plugs.
 * On the American airings, the bonus round is played immediately as the show comes back from its final commercial break. On the Canadian airings, a series of promotional consideration plugs are read before the round begins.
 * In the closing credits, Canadian airings credit Hatos-Hall, Concept Equity Funding Limited, the Canadian stations involved in the production of the series, and distributor Viacom (now part of CBS Media Ventures). The Canadian entities do not receive credit on American airings; only Hatos-Hall and Viacom receive billing.

Episode status
The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds 15 episodes spanning the entire run, beginning at episode #39 (May 11, 1972) and ending with the finale.

The syndicated version is completely intact, and is currently distributed by Fremantle under license from Marcus/Glass Productions, and reran on The Family Channel from August 30, 1993, to March 4, 1994, and January 2 to September 29, 1995, as part of its afternoon game show block. As of July 2019, GameTV is airing reruns. The music package for this version was added to the Television Production Music Museum in 2017, joining the 1972 package.

The 1986 series returned to American television in September 2019 when Buzzr, a digital television network owned by Fremantle, began airing it weekday mornings.

Australia
The show ran in Australia from 1972 to 1973 on Nine Network, hosted by Ken James and later by Jimmy Hannan, and produced by Reg Grundy.

United Kingdom
The show ran in the United Kingdom from 1987 to 1988 in the STV region of ITV, hosted by Paul Coia.