Show Me the Money (U.S. TV series)

Show Me the Money is a television game show hosted by William Shatner which premiered on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 8pm on ABC. On December 8, 2006, after the first seven episodes had been taped, an additional six-episode order as well as a planned move to Tuesday nights starting on January 2, 2007 were announced, but the show was cancelled on December 15, 2006.^[1] Five of the original seven episodes aired.

The show was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. It also aired in Canada on CH.

Game play

Before the game, scrolls were randomly distributed to thirteen female dancers known as the $1,000,000 Dancers. These scrolls show 12 different dollar amounts and a symbol representing the "killer card", which is a yellow triangle. The dollar amounts were:

Each turn involved a set of three concealed questions (A, B, and C) with a common initial word or phrase. The player was shown this initial phrase, and picked A, B, or C. The question was read, and the player could either answer it or pass and pick another letter. The player could pass twice on a turn, but then had to answer the remaining question; a player could not return to a previously passed question. After giving an answer, the player picked a dancer who still had her scroll, which was opened; then the correct answer was revealed. If it showed a dollar amount, it was added to the player's pot for a correct answer or subtracted for an incorrect answer.

When the player had given either six correct answers (shown as plus signs on the scoreboard) or six wrong answers (minus signs), each for a dollar amount (killer-card turns were not counted), the game ended and the player won the total in the pot. Thus, the maximum amount that could have theorhetically have been won (add signs the total of all six highest dollar amounts) would have been $1,150,000. The game could also end prematurely if the pot fell so far below zero that it could not become positive given the possible number of correct answers and dollar values remaining; this occurred at least once. The eliminated player who lost would have his/her final dance.

Killer Card

If the killer card was revealed, a "sudden-death" question was asked (with no option to pass). On the premiere episode only, only an incorrect answer on a regular question when the killer card was revealed would cause the player to face sudden death. The player had to answer correctly or else the game ended at once and the player won nothing. A correct answer on the sudden-death question, if asked, allowed the player to continue to the next turn with the pot unchanged. All the plus signs remained intact.

In actual practice during the show's brief run, everyone who picked the killer card did so on an incorrect answer, and none of them were able to answer the sudden-death question correctly.

Broadcast history

Cancellation

Due to continually declining ratings, ABC axed the series, replacing it with repeats of America's Funniest Home Videos. ABC had earlier decided to cease production of the series, but air the remaining episodes. Three game shows faced a similar situation.^[2]

Three of the $1,000,000 dancers appeared on other shows. Julianne Hough is a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars. Yesenia Adame was the caller on the ABC version of National Bingo Night. Eve Torres was the winner of World Wrestling Entertainment's 2007 diva search.

Rebroadcasts on GSN

GSN picked up the rights to the seven episodes of Show Me The Money in June 2007, which included the five that aired on ABC, plus the remaining two episodes that the network did not air.

The first episode aired on June 12 and the second episode aired on June 19. However, on June 26, GSN replaced the series with an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It is known that GSN pulled the show due to bad ratings for the first two weeks and it was replaced by Dog Eat Dog on the Tuesday nights for the remainder of July 2007. There is no indication that GSN will air the show again, thus the two episodes not broadcast by ABC remain unaired.

(However, GSN's webpage for the show included a photo that appeared to be from an unaired episode. The carryover contestant from the last episode aired by ABC (Bob Glouberman) is shown with the amount of $890,000 displayed on the scoreboard; he finished the episode with $882,000 and was paid despite the fact that the show did not air.)

Vietnamese version

Despite its failure in America, the Vietnamese version (titled Khắc nhập, khắc xuất) was aired for 2 years and over 100 episodes, from 12 January 2008 to early 2010 in VTV3. Originally, it was hosted by Minh Tiệp, later by Hồng Phúc. All rules was similar from the American version, expect that there are 2 rounds. In round 1, there are 4 plus signs and 4 minus signs. Values are: 1 slip 0₫, 2 slips 50,000₫, 3 slips 75,000₫, 3 slips 100,000₫, 1 each of 150,000₫, 250,000₫ and 500,000₫. In round 2, there are 4 multiply signs and 4 divide signs. Values are: 3 slips multiply their score by once, 4 slips double their score, 4 slips triple and 1 slips quadruple. If they choose two slips multiplies, the total of the multiplication created by two factors is count (e.g., choose a slip quadruple and a slip triple can multiply their score 12 times). Total, contestants can win up to 108,000,000₫ in the whole game. The biggest win ever is 105,300,000₫ in May 17, 2008.

References

External links

• Official website at the Wayback Machine
• Show Me The Money at the Internet Movie Database
• Show Me The Money at TV.com
• William Shatner Set To Helm New Game Show
• TV Series Finale—Article On The Reasons For Cancellation