Episode 1 - July 22
"Good evening, and welcome to Studio 7."
Our contenders have lived together for seven days,
studying contemporary knowledge and plotting strategy,
living in a luxury apartment in New York City. Once
inside the game, they will be tested on their powers of
memorization and recall. Each of them wears a silver
ring, "a single ring from a chain that connects each of
you to each other." But in the end, it's down to one
simple question...
"When it comes down to money, who can you truly trust?
To your pods."
The game consists of six rounds, after each one, one
contestant is eliminated, until one player remains as
champ.
Your contestants for tonight:
Amadou Doumbia, 18, New York City,
first-generation American.
Amy Koch, 22, Washington DC.
Barry Postrygacz, 23, Brooklyn, NY.
Brad Boose, 23, Columbus, OH, works hard to get
what he gets.
Christine Mendez, 24, New York, NY.
Elizabeth Tidy, 23, Astoria, NY, Originally from
NC, ran out of money going to Smith College.
Jesse Lai, 18, Montana, people think he's
originally from Hawaii.
One of these players will win $77,000 in cash, and a
pass to the eighth and final episode, where someone will
win an additional $700,000, and be crowned Champion.
Round one: Events, news, music, et al, of the 21st
century.
One by one, players approach the microphone, and are
read a question by Pat. The player may either answer the
question as is, or may discard their silver ring around
their necks, and ask another player for their answer. A
right answer means that player may go back to their pod,
and stay in the game. A wrong answer means the player
must go over to the Block, and await their fate.
Number 2, Christine is first, and is correct.
Number 7, Barry is second, and correct.
Number 4, Amy, from Yale, is next, and is correct.
Number 6, Elizabeth, is correct.
Number 5, Jesse, is incorrect, and is On the Block.
Number 1, Amadou, is correct.
Number 3, Brad, asks Amy for help. Amy has nothing to
offer Brad, even though she knows the answer. Brad is
correct.
We go around again until two players miss. Christine
asks Amadou for help. She accepts his answer, and is
correct. Barry is wrong, and is On the Block.
One of the two players On the Block will now be
eliminated from the game. The five non-Block players
vote on who to get rid of, after two are on the Block.
Amy votes to evict, er, eliminate... Barry. Amadou votes
for Barry. Brad excitedly votes for Barry, and he's out.
Thanks for playing, now scram.
Round Two tests players' knowledge of the events of
2004, and plays just like Round One.
Jesse is first and correct.
Christine is correct.
Amadou asks Jesse for help, but Jesse doesn't know.
Amadou's guess is incorrect.
Brad is correct.
Amy is correct.
Elizabeth is incorrect, and joins Amadou.
Brad votes for Amadou. Christine votes for Elizabeth.
Amy votes for Amadou. Jesse calls out Amadou, but votes
for Elizabeth. We've got a tie!
Let's play SUDDEN DEATH! Players go back and forth,
answering questions, until someone is wrong. That player
loses. That is all.
First inning: Amadou's
question: In March of this year, Martha Stewart was
found guilty of obstructing justice in a case involving
a sale of shares in what company's stock? Amadou
answers: ImClone... correct.
Elizabeth asks Brad for
help. Her question: Published in March, "Glorious
Appearing" is the final installment in a best-selling
series of apocalyptic Christian novels entitled what?
Brad helps her out with "Left Behind"... correct.
Inning two: Amadou's
question: In May 2004, what artist's work, "Boy with a
Pipe", was sold for $114.1 million, making it the
world's most expensive painting sold at auction? Amadou
goes for it with Picasso... right.
Elizabeth: January 19
marked the premiere of what bizarre new TV series from
the creator of the Teletubbies designed as an exercise
show for kids? Correct answer: Boohbah... Elizabeth: "Rollie
Pollie Ollie". Elimination point for her.
Round three tests the players' recall of the events of
the last 30 days, and once again, plays like the
first/second rounds.
Amy is first and right.
Christine doesn't know, and her answer is wrong.
Amadou is correct.
Brad is right.
Jesse asks Amadou for help and is correct.
Amy asks Brad. Amy thinks Brad is playing head games...
but the answer is correct.
Amadou is wrong.
Jesse votes against Christine. Brad does the same, and
she's out. Amadou has now escaped elimination twice.
In round four, the players are asked questions in the
specialty topic that they were assigned. In this case,
it's Pop Music of 1985. Players answer questions in
order, and the first person to be wrong is out.
Jesse is first, and right.
Amy is wrong, and out.
"It is *that* cutthroat." Wait, that was "Winning
Lines."
In Round Five, things finally get interesting with the
Memorization Game.
The players were given a list of items to recall. For
tonight it was:
Winners of Razzie (Worst Film) Awards, from 1984-2004.
Picture, Actor/Film, Actress/Film.
While the other two players are in isolation, each
player must recite the elements of the list, scoring one
point for each right answer until a mistake is made, at
which point that player is done. The list has 138
elements, and a bar fills to illustrate how many right
answers were given.
Amadou: 81.
Jesse: 56.
Brad: 16. Brad is gone. Brad skipped over a year, and a
slip of the tongue costs him the money.
Welcome to the Finals. The final round tests the players
recall of recent events of the last seven days.
Pat reads off a series of questions one after the other.
The player may answer or pass, and may interrupt Pat,
but may miss valuable information at the end of the
question, and after a response is given, Pat will move
on to the next question. This is a time trial, and the
fastest person to score seven right answers wins the big
money.
Amadou won round five, and chooses to go first. Jesse
awaits offstage in isolation. The delicious Miss Kelly
(Co-Executive Producer Jen Kelly?) will count off the
players' correct answers aloud.
One minute, passes, and Amadou only has two right.
Amadou's two-minute drill ends nine seconds early, with
a posted time of 1:50.23.
Jesse has 3 right at one minute, but he falls apart, and
runs out of time.
Amadou has just won $77,000, and calls his mother to let
her know. He also gets to come back in seven weeks to
play for an astounding (to me, anyway) $777,000 more. |
