The $100,000 Pyramid (2016 ABC Version)

This is chronicling the ABC version of ***The $100,000 Pyramid***.

## Game Format

### Main Game

The game is played with two teams of two players (consisting of one celebrity & one contestant) in a game of word communication. Each game starts with the introduction of six categories arranged in a pyramid. In the main game, a category's position on the pyramid was not an indicator of its difficulty. The categories were usually puns hinting to the content within that subject.

Each team in turn chose a category, and then a subject under that category was given. Each subject has seven words/phrases/names. The team had 30 seconds to guess the seven answers that fit into the category. One player described each item while the other player tried to guess what the words are. Each correct word was worth one point. When a word was passed, it cannot be returned to, but if the guesser can guess the word already passed, the team still scored. If at any time the clue giver gave away any part of the answer or conveyed the essence of the answer, a cuckoo sounded and the word was thrown out.

In the second round of each game, there is a hidden category called the Mystery 7. It's called the Mystery 7 because the category was not told until after it was done. Getting all seven answers in this instance won the player a trip.

Each team has three turns with the celebrities giving first, then the contestants, and then they decide amongst themselves on who's giving and who's receiving. The team with the most points won the game.

#### Tie-Breaker

In this version, unlike all the others, in the event of a tie, the team that reached the score in the shortest total time wins. However, if both teams reached the tied score in the same amount of time, then the classic tiebreaker is played.

In the latter case, after both scores were deleted, the team that caused the tie has the choice between two letters leaving the other for the other team. Both teams have 30 seconds to get as many of the seven items beginning with their letter(s) as they can. The team that gets the most out of seven won the game. If the first team gets seven, the time remaining on the clock is subtracted from 30 to give the time that the other team needs to get seven. The team who gets seven in the faster time wins the game.

### Winner's Circle

The giver of the winning team faced a larger pyramid board of six subjects with the guesser having his/her back to the board. The winning team had 60 seconds to climb up to the top of the pyramid by getting all six. On each subject, the giver gave a list of items that fit the subject while the guesser tried to guess what they all have in common. As soon as the guesser gets the right subject or passed, they moved on to the next subject to the right. Upon a pass, the team can come back to it if there's time leftover though the guesser can still get the subject without going back to it. If at any time the giver gave an illegal clue (giving away part of the answer, conveying the essence of the answer, descriptions of the category, prepositional phrases or a synonym) a buzzer would sound, the subject was re-concealed and the team forfeited the chance at the big money. The giver was discouraged from using his/her hands which is why they were strapped into the chair. Even though the big money was forfeited, the team can still go for the other subjects, because when time ran out, the contestant still won money attached to the subjects guessed; of course, getting all six in 60 seconds without illegal clues won the grand cash prize.

#### Payoffs

Here are the amounts for each subject:

The first trip is worth $50,000, and the second trip is worth $100,000. Unlike previous versions, these amounts are cumulative, meaning if a player wins both WC's, they win a total of $150,000.

## Links

* Official website
* Facebook (1)
* Facebook (2)
* Twitter
* Instagram