| Temptation | |
|---|---|
 The New Sale of the Century |
|
| Genre | Game show |
| Presented by | Rossi Morreale |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | American English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 17 (as of September 28, 2007) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | FremantleMedia North America/20th Century Fox Television |
| Location(s) | Los Angeles, California |
| Running time | 20:17 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Syndication |
| Original airing | September 10, 2007 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Sale of the Century (1983 – 1989) |
| Related shows | Temptation (1967 US game show) |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
Temptation (The New Sale of the Century) is an American television game show. Loosely based on both the original Australian and American Sale of the Century and the 2005 Australian remake, also called Temptation, the show began airing in syndication starting September 10, 2007. Temptation is hosted by Rossi Morreale, produced by FremantleMedia North America, and syndicated by 20th Television. Former talk show host Rolonda Watts serves as the announcer. Owned-and-operated stations of MyNetworkTV are among the stations carrying the show, as is the former WTBS Atlanta (now known as Peachtree TV). MyNetworkTV carried a preview of the show, featuring several American Idol alumni, on September 5 2007 in primetime. Before the show premiered, the writers went on strike because FremantleMedia refused to recognize the Writers Guild of America, west as the writers' chosen labor representative.[1] Some markets (including WWOR in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area, and KTXH in the Houston area) are airing two episodes per day. The second episode aired is from later in the season. This can be determined by the noticeably shorter intro, and Watts referencing Temptation dollars in the Shopper's Paradise round (she would reference the price of the prizes as dollars in earlier episodes).
Contents |
Front game rules
The game is played in two rounds, each broken down into several parts. Three contestants, including a returning champion, start the game with $20 (called "Temptation dollars"). Host Rossi typically explains the rules like this: "First I'm going to start you off each with 20 Temptation dollars. Now we're going to play a series of games to help you win some more shopping cash. Periodically, I'm going to try to tempt whoever's in the lead into spending that cash on some incredible bargains. Now, this is where it gets fun: Do you resist that temptation and keep the lead, or do you give in and take the guaranteed prize? I don't know, but it all comes down to one thing: Whoever has the most cash at the end of the show wins, and gets to go to Shopper's Paradise for the Shopping Spree of a Lifetime."
Round 1
This round is broken down into three parts — a speed round, an "Instant Bargain" and the "Fame Game," each described below:
- 30-second "speed round" — Morreale asks a series of rapid-fire pop culture questions; correct answers are worth $5, while incorrect responses lose $5.
- Instant Bargain — The leader after the initial speed round is offered a chance to spend some of his/her "Temptation dollars" to purchase a prize at a discount. Played just like the original "Sale of the Century" Instant Bargains, the host often offers extra incentives (e.g., reducing the price, offering cash, on occasion, if the prize is a pair of Cheap Tickets the host adds additional tickets until the player buzzes in) to entice the contestant; however, if two or all three contestants are tied, a Dutch auction is frequently conducted. The only stylistic difference is that instead of the host saying "Going once... going twice..." the player is placed on a five-second "Shop Clock."
- Fame Game — The host reads clues leading to a famous person, place, thing, etc. One major difference from the 1980s Sale of the Century round is that, on the monitor behind the host, letters fill in a puzzle, one at a time (akin to the Toss-Up round on Wheel of Fortune or the Speedword segment on Scrabble). For a correct answer the contestant wins $15.
Round 2
The second round consists of rounds named Knock Off, a second Instant Bargain, "Instant Cash" and two toss-up rounds.
- Knock Off — Similar to the 1980s game show Wipeout. A category is announced and 12 possible answers are shown; nine answers are correct while three are wrong. Each contestant, in turn, selects one of the answers. A correct answer turns gold, and is worth cash (four $2 answers, three $5 answers, a $10 answer, and a $15 answer, some board have also had 2 $3 answers replacing 2 of the $2 ); an incorrect answer turns red, and eliminates that contestant from the remainder of the round. Play continues until the last correct answer is found or all three players have been eliminated. In general, the less obvious an answer is, the more it is worth.
- Instant Bargain — Played as before, usually for a slightly more expensive prize.
- Second "speed round" — Two answers are given before the start of the round, both usually with a similar theme (e.g., "Winger or Gunslinger", where contestants must identify the films as films starring Debra Winger; or westerns, which are sometimes called gunslingers). Questions are based around the two possible answers. Once again, the speed round lasts for 30 seconds, and questions are worth $5 up or down.
- Instant Cash — Based on the Sale of the Century round, the leader at this point is offered a chance at a cash jackpot, which begins at $500 and rises by that amount until it is claimed or reaches $5,000. To play, the contestant must give up his/her entire lead over the second-place opponent; also as before, if two or more contestants are tied, a Dutch auction is conducted. If he/she opts to play, the host shows the contestant three wallets, one which contains the jackpot and the other two $100. This is a carryover from the Jim Perry version of Sale of the Century, except the players chose 1 of 3 boxes and the jackpot started at $1,000 and went up that much with no limit. (The highest the Instant Cash jackpot reached in the 1980s version was $17,000.)
- Final "speed round" — A final 30-second round of questions is played. Correct answers are worth $10; incorrect answers lose that amount.
The contestant with the highest score is the champion and advances to the "Shopper's Paradise" round, for the "Shopping Spree of a Lifetime." The losers keep any cash and prizes won during the main game; unlike the earlier incarnations of Sale of the Century, they do not receive their score in cash.
Shopper's Paradise
The end game is played in two parts:
- Super Knock Off — Nearly identical to the main game round, except six answers are correct and six answers are wrong. Correct choices net the contestant anywhere from $25 to $100 in "Temptation dollars." Four answers are worth $25, one is worth $50, and one is worth $100 (for a cumulative maximum of $250). The contestant may stop at any time, as a wrong answer ends the game and forfeits any cash accumulated during that round.
- Shopper's Paradise — Almost the same in concept as the original "shopping" format from the 1970s Sale of the Century. The contestant is shown five prizes, each in ascending value, at greatly reduced prices; the most expensive prize is usually a car, but sometimes an expensive trip is offered instead. After all five prizes are announced, the contestant is given time to ponder whether he/she wants to buy a prize (as long as there are enough "Temptation dollars" available), or bank it and return on the next show to try to buy one of the more expensive items. If the contestant does not have enough for any of the five prizes, they are offered the chance to either buy a Croton watch with their winnings or return to the next show.
A contestant may continue as champion until he/she purchases one of the prizes from the "Shopper's Paradise," or is defeated. If the contestant is a five-time champion, they must buy something from Shopper's Paradise after the Super Knock Off round, as they are retired afterwards.
Temptation Tournament
Starting on November 19, 2007, Temptation aired a 3-day tournament where 3 former contestants returned and played for the entire tournament. Rules remained pretty much the same, except that contestants started each game with 30 Temptation dollars. The winner of each game played Super Knock Off. The winner of day 1 and 2 played Super Knock Off, but did not go to Shopper's Paradise. Only the winner of day 3 could go to Shopper's Paradise. Prizes included: a $7,500 trip, $10,000 in cash (won by the first tournament winner), and a BMW automobile worth over $34,000.
Shop-at-home Temptation offers
Before commercial breaks, offers for products at discounted prices are advertised. These items may be purchased online at the show's official site.
Preview episode differences
In the MyNetwork celebrity preview episode, the "Instant Cash" was worth $2,500; the other two wallets held $500. Also, the champion won $7,500 for their charity, and Super Knock Off values were multiplied by ten, up to $2,500.
Grand Champions
To date, there has been one Grand Champion, named Mark (last name not given for unexplained reasons), who on his final day won the game with T$127. Mark needed and correctly chose only one answer in Super Knock Off, winning himself a Toyota Prius, which together with his other winnings netted a grand total of $27,924. Unlike the Australian Temptation or the 1980s revival of Sale, for reasons unexplained, there is no "lot" or escalating Cash Jackpot in this version yet. As of now, the car is the highest level one can reach.
See also
- Temptation (1967 US game show) (similarly-titled program not related to this series)
