The Challengers (game show)

The Challengers is an American game show that aired in syndication during the 1990-91 television season The series was created by Ron Greenberg and was based largely on his 1969 production, The Who, What, or Where Game. Dick Clark presided over the show with Don Morrow announcing. The Challengers was a joint production of Ron Greenberg Productions and Dick Clark Productions, with Buena Vista Television (now Disney–ABC Domestic Television) as distributor.

The Challengers premiered on September 3, 1990 and aired new episodes until August 2, 1991. A series of reruns filled out the remainder of its broadcast run, which ended on August 30, 1991. The program was one of five syndicated game shows to premiere in the fall of 1990 and had the longest run of the five due to its production schedule, but like the others it was not renewed for a second season.

Gameplay
Three contestants, one a returning champion, competed on each show.

Challengers Sprint Round
The Challengers Sprint was a sixty-second speed round that began each game. Clark would ask a series of rapid-fire questions worth $100, and the contestants tried to be the first to buzz in to answer as only one of them could attempt each question. Answering correctly added $100, while answering incorrectly deducted $100. For the first three weeks of episodes, each contestant started the game with nothing; beginning on September 24, 1990, they were each staked with $200 at the start of the game. If time ran out while Clark was reading a question, he would finish it and allow the contestants a chance to respond.

Once the round ended, the contestant in the lead gained initial control of the board for the first round. In the event of a tie, one more question was asked; the contestant that answered it correctly started the first round, but answering incorrectly gave that privilege to the other contestant.

This round was briefly removed partway through the run (concurrent with the change to the daily "Ultimate Challenge" format, as described below) in favor of a single toss-up question, with the contestant who answered correctly scoring $100 and control of the Round 1 board. If someone buzzed in and did not answer correctly, he/she lost $100 and a new toss-up was given to the other two contestants. These rules did not last long, and by February 1991, the Challengers Sprint had been reinstated.

Round 1
Six categories, each containing three questions, were displayed on a video wall. The contestant in the lead after the Challengers Sprint (or the one who answered the single toss-up correctly when the Sprint was not in use) chose one to begin the round. The contestants were then given clues to the subjects of the three questions, valued at $150, $200, and $250 in order of increasing difficulty (later reduced to $100, $150, and $200). Correct answers added the value of the question to the contestant's score, while incorrect answers subtracted the same value.

Each contestant secretly chose one of the three questions using buttons on their podiums, and their choices affected the gameplay as follows:
 * Each contestant chose a different question. The three questions were asked in increasing order of value, with each contestant answering his/her own question.
 * Two contestants chose one question; the third contestant chose a different one. The two questions were asked in increasing order of value. The solo contestant had to answer his/her own question, while the two who chose the same question used their buzzers. If the first contestant of the two who chose the same question answered incorrectly, the other could either pass or try to answer.
 * All three contestants chose the same question. All three question values were immediately doubled, and the chosen question was asked as a toss-up open to all three contestants. The same toss-up rules as above applied. A contestant who answered correctly could either end the category or attempt either of the remaining two questions unopposed. Correctly answering this second question again gave the contestant the option to stop or try the third question. An incorrect answer on either the second or third question subtracted its doubled value from the contestant's score and ended the category.

In each case, the category was eliminated from play and the last contestant to give a correct answer chose the next one. Play continued until all six categories were played or time ran out.

Round 2
Six new categories were introduced and play continued as described above, with all question values doubled ($300/$400/$500, later $200/$300/$400).

As in Round One, play continued until all six categories were played or time ran out. Any players who finished the round with a zero or negative score were eliminated from the game.

Final Challenge
One final category was presented, with three question choices, each of which offered different payout odds of 1:1, 2:1, or 3:1 ranked by increasing difficulty. The contestants had 15 seconds to secretly choose a question and decide how much of their score they wanted to wager on it. If multiple contestants chose the same question, only the one who placed the largest wager was allowed to answer it; the others were locked out of the round.

Answering a question correctly won the value of the wager multiplied by the odds, while a miss deducted only the value of the wager. The player in the lead after this round won the game and returned as champion the next day, although all contestants kept what they had earned. Contestants could choose to receive their winnings in cash or have them deposited into a Citibank Visa account that would be opened in their name. Later, they were given the additional option of opening a MasterCard account instead. Champions remained on the show until they were defeated.

If only one contestant finished the second round with a positive total, he/she had the option to skip the Final Challenge. If he/she decided to play it, the contestant was shown the category and the question choices. He/she then selected one and made a wager. Giving an incorrect answer deducted the wager and ended the game. Answering correctly, as before, won the value of the wager times the odds attached, and the contestant was given the choice to stop or continue playing. The round continued until all three questions had been attempted, or if the contestant either gave an incorrect answer or decided to stop.

Ultimate Challenge
The Challengers, like many game shows, employed a bonus round. The round was referred to as the Ultimate Challenge, and offered a prize of five figures to any champion who managed to beat it.

Format #1
The initial Ultimate Challenge format saw the round played for an accumulating cash jackpot. The difference between it and most other game show bonus rounds was that a champion had to qualify to play the round by winning three consecutive matches. When a champion qualified, the round would be played at the start of the next episode, and the first round of the main game would be shortened to accommodate it.

Two categories were presented to the champion at the beginning of the round, and each one had three different question subjects. The champion selected a category and was then shown the question subjects in the order in which they would be asked, and was given five seconds to think before answering each question. Answering all three questions correctly won the Ultimate Challenge and the jackpot, while an incorrect answer at any point ended the round and awarded nothing.

Originally, the jackpot had a starting value of $50,000 and was to increase in value by $5,000 for each time the Ultimate Challenge was played and not won. The series began with the jackpot at $55,000, since the round had been played on a special preview episode prior to its actual premiere and was not won. During the first two weeks of episodes, however, no champion won enough games to play the Ultimate Challenge. Therefore, two changes were made to the format beginning on the September 17, 1990 episode of The Challengers. One change took effect immediately, adding $1,000 to the jackpot every day it went unclaimed whether a champion had played for it or not. The other took effect once the jackpot was won, resetting it to $25,000.

One week after these format changes were made, the jackpot was won for the first time at a value of $60,000. A total of five contestants won the Ultimate Challenge while this format was in effect.

Format #2
Beginning on November 21, 1990, the Ultimate Challenge was reconfigured as a daily bonus round with $10,000 cash at stake. Initially, as before, the champion was presented with a choice of categories before the round began. Later the choice was dropped and the champion was told the category at the outset of the round.

Instead of needing to answer three questions correctly to win the Ultimate Challenge, the champion only had to answer one. However, the question could and often did contain multiple answers and all parts had to be answered correctly in order for the champion to win the $10,000.

The Ultimate Challenge was eventually done away with; while an exact date has yet to be determined, the round was retired sometime after the February 15, 1991, episode.

Tournament of Champions
For the first two months that The Challengers was on the air, contestants were not only competing to win money but were also trying to earn spots in the show's Tournament of Champions. The tournament was conducted the week of November 12, 1990, and its structure was similar to the one employed by Jeopardy! during its own tournaments.

The nine highest winning contestants through November 9, 1990 qualified for the tournament. They then competed, three at a time, over the first three days of the tournament. The winners advanced to the finals, which began on November 15 and were a two-day, cumulative score match. The contestant with the highest total score after those two days would be rewarded with a $25,000 bonus. As in regular play, all participants kept whatever money they had earned.

Teachers Tournament
Nine teachers competed, using the same format as the Tournament of Champions and awarding a $10,000 bonus to the overall winner.

Invitational Tournament
The Challengers invited nine more champions back for a tournament, which was held the week of March 18, 1991 and followed the same structure as the two previous ones. A $10,000 bonus was awarded to the winner as in the Teachers Tournament.

Questions
Many questions were related to current events, an aspect that the producers saw as a selling point. Episodes were taped shortly before their airdate, which was prominently displayed in the opening and on a screen behind Clark; generally, a week of episodes were taped on the Friday of the previous week, which allowed such categories as "This Week On TV" and "Today At The Movies" to be used frequently.

Most of the current event questions and answers were taken from, or verified by, Newsweek; this was announced on-air at the midpoint of each episode.

The series was also unique in its payout structure: contestants received their winnings on a Citibank Mastercard or Visa credit card, although Dick referenced in some episodes that contestants had the option of converting the balance to cash.