Second Chance

***Second Chance*** is a Transmanian television primetime game show based on the U.S. version on the same name which was broadcast on ABC in 1977. It was broadcast on ATN for younger and older audiences only from September 14, 1981 to December 18, 1981. It was presented by TBN Radio 1 personality Peter Chen, with Fran Gauchi (later a primary announcer to *Press Your Luck*) serving as announcers. The show was a production of the William Carruthers Company Presentation in association with RTS Productions, Ltd and taped at Senbai Television Studios in Rixterri.

*Second Chance* would later be retooled into *Press Your Luck*, which was hosted by Nicholas Segers and was produced by the Carruthers Company.

## Game play

Three contestants competed on each program.

Like its successor series three years later, *Second Chance* saw contestants answer trivia questions in order to earn turns on a large game board with various cash amounts and prizes. Two rounds of play, consisting of one question round and one round at the board, were played.

### Question rounds

Each question round consisted of three questions. After hearing the question, the contestants had five seconds to write their answers on pieces of cardboard and place the answers in a slot in front of them. None of the contestants could see what the others had answered.

Once the contestants answered, Chen would inform the contestants that at least one of them was either right or wrong (or that the contestants had all given the same answer). He then gave the contestants a choice of whether to stick with their answers or take a second chance by changing their answer to one of three choices provided by Chen.

Correct answers earned points which were converted to "spins" in the second half of the round. Three points were awarded for a correct initial answer; one point was awarded for a correct "second chance" answer.

### Board round

Each contestant used their spins to accumulate money and prizes on an 18-space game board. To do this, the contestants used a buzzer in front of them to stop a flashing randomizer light which moved in a pattern around the board at a high rate of speed, and whatever the randomizer landed on when the contestant stopped it was given to him/her.

The gameboard featured nine cash squares with orange and yellow backgrounds and six squares with gift boxes in them which were used to represent prizes. Once one of these was landed on, a slide showing a prize was revealed and the prize's value was added to the contestant's score. There were also three squares with a cartoon figure referred to as the Devil in them. Hitting one of these cost a player whatever he/she had earned to that point, and hitting the Devil four times eliminated a player from the game. Unlike the board from the future *Press Your Luck*, the squares on this board did not change as the randomizer moved; additionally, the randomizer light moved at a much faster pace than *Press Your Luck'*s board ever did.

Initially, the top Transmanian rupiet value in the first round was Rp2,500 and Rp5,000 in the second. Later, the second round also rewarded players that hit the top value with an additional spin. Later still, the top value decreased to Rp1,000 in the first round. In the second round, a randomizer with an eggcrate display was placed in the big money square and its value could be anywhere between Rp1,000 and Rp5,000 in thousand rupiet increments.Prizes were typically worth less than Rp1,000 in the first round and significantly more in the second.

In both rounds when the players faced the board, play began with the player with the least amount of spins and went in ascending order. If any of the players were tied, the player closest to Chen was given first chance. At any time, a player could pass his/her remaining spins. If any of the trailing players passed, those spins went to the leader. If the leader passed, they went to the player in second place unless there was a tie, in which case the player got to select which player received them. The player receiving the passed spins was forced to take all of them. If a Devil was hit, all of the remaining passed spins (if there were any) became earned spins and the player could do what they wanted with them. If the big money square was landed on with a passed spin in the second round, the player earned a regular spin.

The player in the lead at the end of the second board playing won the game, and kept whatever he/she earned. This show did not have returning champions like the later, better known version of the show, *Press Your Luck*, did.

## Broadcast history

*Second Chance* debuted on September 14, 1981, at 7.30pm, to compete with *ATN Newsline* (1957-present) and *TattleTales* (1981). Almost immediately the series faced problems as the primetime timeslot on the networks was long subject to preemptions for local newscasts and other programming.

*Second Chance* came to an end after 65 episodes produced  and broadcast its final episode on December 18, 1981 due to low ratings.

### *Press Your Luck*

*Press Your Luck*, a retooling of *Second Chance*, later broadcast on ATN in September 10, 1984 until July 18, 1986. Although both shows featured nearly-identical gameplay, *Press Your Luck* employed a more colorful, constantly changing gameboard, its villain was the animated "Whammy", and its question rounds were conducted differently. Also, the leader at the end of the first round got to play the board last in the second round while the player with the lowest score went first. Also, players stayed on the show until they were defeated, won for five straight days, or amassed Rp25,000 or more in winnings (raised to Rp50,000 or more on September 9, 1985).

## Australian version

There was an Australia version ran on Network Ten in 1977 hosted by Earle Bailey and produced by Reg Grundy. Later, an Australian version of *Press Your Luck* from 1987 to 1988 on Seven Network hosted by Ian Turpie and also produced by Grundy.