Idiot Savants

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IDIOT SAVANTS
The opening title of Idiot Savants.
Airdates:	MTV December 1996 - April 1997
Host:	Greg Fitzsimmons
Co-Stars:	Matt "The Brain" Price, Paul "Prize Guy" Kozlowski, Dave Attell, Heather Blaze, Tom Cohen, Shonda Farr, Emmy Laybourne
Producer:	Michael Dugan

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Daily competition 1.2 Weekly competition 2 Notes

Gameplay

Daily competition

Four contestants competed. In the first round, eight categories were presented to the players, and the contestant who correct answered the day's "Control Question" got to pick the first question. (This was later changed to whoever had been Dunce the day before chose first.) The host then read a toss-up question from that category for 100 points. The player who answered that question correctly then got first priority over the category's "Bonus Question," worth 200 points. If the player answered that question correctly, he then had a choice to play the category's "Big Gamble," which added 300 points to the player's score if answered correctly, but deducted 300 points if wrong. If at any time an incorrect answer was given, the other players were allowed to buzz in and claim the points and control. Once all three questions were asked, the player declined the Big Gamble, or a question went unanswered, the player with the most recent correct answer chose the next category. Play continued in this manner for five minutes, at which point the player with the lowest score was eliminated and sent to the "Dunce's Corner."

Round Two was played in a similar fashion, except that the point values doubled and category selection was assigned to "The Brain", a character displayed on a TV monitor inside a large brain. If the three players onstage failed to answer a particular question, the Dunce was given an opportunity to guess for the points, as his score would carry over throughout the week. After another five minutes of play, the lowest-scoring player of the three was eliminated and the two remaining players took part in a speed round called the Brainstorm. This round consisted of either 45 or 60 seconds worth of rapid-fire questions, each worth 200 points for each right answer, but subtracting 200 points if wrong. The player with the highest score at the end of this round won the game and played the Grand Savant bonus round.

In the Grand Savant round, the winning contestant enters the "Cylidner of Shush" and is quizzed on his "Savant Category", a subject in either academia or pop culture that he felt he was an expert in. Varying on the point in the series, the round lasted either 45 or 60 seconds, and challenged the player to answer 10 questions from his Savant Category correctly. Each right answer earned 200 points towards the player's weekly score. If the player managed to answer 10 questions right, he won the day's grand prize; otherwise, he won a smaller consolation prize.

Weekly competition

All four contestants remained on the show for one whole week's worth of episodes. At the start of each episode, their running totals were displayed to the audience and whatever score they earned (positive or negative) was added to their week's total, although each day started with all players at zero. On the Friday episode of each week, the following rule changes were in place:

• Each player's running total up to that day was their starting score for Friday.
• All point values in the first two rounds were doubled (and redoubled in the case of round two).
• Dunce's Corner was no longer in play; once a player was eliminated, he was out for good.
• The Brainstorm was not played; instead, a Double Grand Savant round was played with the two highest-scoring players of the week each taking a turn in their respective category.
• Right answers in the Double Grand Savant Round were worth 1000 points each.

The player who scored the most points over the course of the week won the week's grand prize, often a trip to an exotic location, and in some cases a new car.

Notes

• When the show employed the Control Question at the start of the game, it was fairly common for the answer to the question to be the same as its category. For example, if the category for the control question was "Chuck Woolery", the control question may be: "What television personality had a reality TV series about his life called 'Naturally Stoned'?"
• The buzzers for each player used various sound effects which varied from round to round. Some of the sounds used to denote a buzzer being hit include a mooing cow, a woman's scream, a spitoon, and a shout of "Idiot!".