Greed

From RulesWiki

GREED
The opening title for "Greed".
Airdates:	FOX November 1999 - July 2000
Host:	Chuck Woolery
Announcer:	Mark Thompson
Producers:	Dick Clark Productions

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Standard version 1.2 "Super Greed" 2 Notes

Gameplay

Standard version

At the start of each game, six prospective contestants were asked a qualifying question that had a numerical answer, such as "How many squares are there on a Scrabble board?" Each player secretly locks in their guess. The answer is then revealed, and the player who came closest to the right answer is deemed the team captain. The remaining four spots on the team go to the four other players who came closest. In case of a tie, the player who locked in their answer first got the higher ranking. The player remaining was sent back to the contestant pool, where it was presumably possible that the person could be called to play again.

The first four questions of the game were asked to one member of the team, starting with the fifth-ranked player and working up. Each question was worth an increment of $25,000; the first two questions had four choices and the second two questions had five. After that player gave his answer, the team captain was then given the choice to accept the answer given or reject and replace it with his own. If correct, the team won the money in equal shares, and the captain then decided to either stop the game with the money won thus far or play on. If at any point the team answered a question wrong, the game ended and all money earned by the team was lost.

Starting with the fifth question, players were given the opportunity to challenge another teammate - including the captain - and take that person's share of the money, through the use of the "Terminator." One contestant was randomly chosen, and was given the choice to challenge another player or leave the team as is. Players who accepted the challenge were given $10,000 that they could keep regardless of the outcome of the game, and the two players involved in the challenge took part in a one question toss-up. The winner of the challenge returned to the game and was entitled to the other player's share of the winnings, while the loser was eliminated from the game. This process was repeated on the sixth and seventh question as well.

For the second half of the game, the team had to identify the four correct answers for each question. Question #5 had six choices, question 6 had seven, question 7 had eight and question 8 had nine. To aid the team, they were given a "Freebie" which eliminated one wrong answer from the question, but could only be used once during the game at the captain's discretion. Starting with the bottom-ranked member, the players would each provide one answer to the question. The captain, if necessary, then supplied an answer of his own, and could then delegate any other remaining answers to the teammate of his choice. After four answers were chosen, they were revealed one at a time. When three answers were shown to be correct, the host would offer the captain a buyout to end the game if he feared the last answer was wrong. This buyout was $20,000 on the fifth question, $50,000 on the sixth, and $25,000 plus a new car on the seventh. In addition, the players were allowed to decide independently on the seventh question whether to play on or take the buyout. If all four answers were correct, the team won $200,000 on the fifth question, $500,000 on the sixth, $1,000,000 on the seventh and $2,000,000 on the eighth. (During the show's early episodes, the top money amount grew by $50,000 after each game.) If one answer was wrong, the game was over and the team lost all their earnings, except for any money picked up for accepting a Terminator challenge.

On the eighth question, each player made an independent decision whether to play on or stop with their current winnings. The team was also told the category of each upcoming question to aid their decision from the fifth question on.

"Super Greed"

For a short period of time during May sweeps, the show's format underwent some slight tweaking and went by the name "Super Greed". In this rendition of the show, the qualifying question was eliminated, the postions of each player having been predetermined by random draw. The values for the sixth, seventh, and eighth questions were doubled to $1,000,000, $2,000,000, and $4,000,000 respectively, and any team that attempted the seventh question were guaranteed $200,000 even if they were wrong. When the show returned to its original format, it abandoned the qualifying question permanently.

Notes

• During the February 2000 sweeps, certain notable contestants were invited back to play for that episode's "Million Dollar Moment". Two contestants were brought to the stage and played a toss-up question in the same fashion as the Terminator. The player who won the toss-up would then have to answer a question with four right answers out of eight in order to win $1,000,000.
• The only player to attempt the eighth question was Dan Avila, who did so on the show's third episode after his fellow teammates Curtis Warren and Melissa Skirboll escaped with $410,000 each. Avila risked his own $200,000 stake for a $2,200,000 jackpot, but only managed three right answers out of four and lost everything as a result. He also participated in the above Million Dollar Moment, but again fell one right answer short.
• Several theme episodes of the show were played, including "TV Greed" with all questions being about television, and "That '70s Greed" with all the material revolving around that decade.