Game On (Canadian game show)
Encyclopedia
Game On is a Canadian
sports trivia
television
game show
that was a variation on Jeopardy!
. It originally ran from 1998 to 2000 on Global and has been rerun on Game TV from 2007-2010. The show was hosted by Tim Steeves
in season 1 and David Merry in Season 2, with Jennifer Hill
as the female co-host. Three male contestants compete in this game. The set was designed to resemble a sports enthusiast's wood-panelled basement recreation room decorated with posters, trophies and other sports memorabalia. The host stood behind a 1970s-style wet bar while the three contestants sat in leather lounge chairs. To answer a question, a contestant pressed a button on a device that resembled a TV remote control.
The series was created by Michael Geddes and Christopher Geddes of Lone Eagle Entertainment in Toronto, ON, who are also producers of two other Canadian game shows, You Bet Your Ass
and Inside the Box
. The show was taped at the Toronto Production Centre in Toronto.
The returning champion, or if there were three new contestants, the winner of a pre-show draw in which he is sitting in the yellow chair, began the game by selecting a category and monetary value (e.g. "WHAT TEAM for 100"). The host then read the question after which any of the three contestants could buzz in using a remote control. The first contestant to successfully buzz-in following the host's reading of the question must then answer.
A correct answer earned the point value of the question and the opportunity to select the next clue from the board. An incorrect answer or a failure to respond within a 5-second time limit resulted in a deduction of points from the player's score and gave any remaining opponents the opportunity to ring in and respond. If the second contestant gives an incorrect answer, the correct answer was read, (sometimes David lets Jennifer guess in season 2) and the player who has most recently given a correct answer to a question chose the next one. The round ended when time ran out or all the questions had been selected. Jennifer has gotten almost every question right when David asks.
Season 1:
Season 2:
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
sports trivia
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
that was a variation on Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
. It originally ran from 1998 to 2000 on Global and has been rerun on Game TV from 2007-2010. The show was hosted by Tim Steeves
Tim Steeves
Tim Steeves is an award-winning Canadian stand-up comedian and writer. He has written for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Rick Mercer Report and helped create the Canadian TV comedy special Talking to Americans....
in season 1 and David Merry in Season 2, with Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill
Jennifer Hill is a Canadian actress. Hill has appeared in numerous television shows and films and is best known in Canada for her hosting of Game On, a trivia based sports show which aired before the NFL game every Sunday afternoon.Hill has appeared in Entourage, Relic Hunter, Twice in a...
as the female co-host. Three male contestants compete in this game. The set was designed to resemble a sports enthusiast's wood-panelled basement recreation room decorated with posters, trophies and other sports memorabalia. The host stood behind a 1970s-style wet bar while the three contestants sat in leather lounge chairs. To answer a question, a contestant pressed a button on a device that resembled a TV remote control.
The series was created by Michael Geddes and Christopher Geddes of Lone Eagle Entertainment in Toronto, ON, who are also producers of two other Canadian game shows, You Bet Your Ass
You Bet Your Ass
You Bet Your Ass was a Canadian game show that aired on The Comedy Network. It followed a Blackjack and casino motif, with contestants answering questions on popular culture to earn points. The contestant with the most points at the end of the show was the winner. Hosted by Canadian comedian...
and Inside the Box
Inside the Box
Inside the Box is a Canadian game show which debuted in 2006 on the cable network TVtropolis, and was syndicated in the United States by Program Partners in the 2008 television season...
. The show was taped at the Toronto Production Centre in Toronto.
Round One
4 categories (5 in season 2) were announced, each with a column of four questions, each one valued incrementally more than the previous, ostensibly by difficulty. each category had something to do with sports. The values ranged from 100 to 400 pointsThe returning champion, or if there were three new contestants, the winner of a pre-show draw in which he is sitting in the yellow chair, began the game by selecting a category and monetary value (e.g. "WHAT TEAM for 100"). The host then read the question after which any of the three contestants could buzz in using a remote control. The first contestant to successfully buzz-in following the host's reading of the question must then answer.
A correct answer earned the point value of the question and the opportunity to select the next clue from the board. An incorrect answer or a failure to respond within a 5-second time limit resulted in a deduction of points from the player's score and gave any remaining opponents the opportunity to ring in and respond. If the second contestant gives an incorrect answer, the correct answer was read, (sometimes David lets Jennifer guess in season 2) and the player who has most recently given a correct answer to a question chose the next one. The round ended when time ran out or all the questions had been selected. Jennifer has gotten almost every question right when David asks.
Round Two
This round is the same as the first one except:- The point values are doubled.
- There are new categories.
- The player with the last correct answer at the end of round one picks first.
Bud Light Two Minute Warning
This round is played differently:- There are new categories. This time, the categories are more straightforward.
- Each category has three questions instead of four.
- The point values are 1,000, 3,000 and 5,000.
- Each contestant will chose one question but will not use their remotes to answer.
- In the first episode, each contestant picks the category and amount before the questions are read.
Winning
The player in the lead after three questions wins, Jennifer hands over a trophy, and comes back next show in the yellow chair in the middle. Champions can stay for up to five episodes. There is a special show at the end of the season in which the three highest scoring champions play for a grand prize.Prizes
The 3 players who returned for the championship show competed for these prizesSeason 1:
- 1st Place: a 56 inch TV, a pool table and cue rack, A custom Bud light refrigerator and Rec Room memorabilia package
- 2nd Place: a 32 inch TV, dartboard and scoreboard & bud light custom refrigerator
- 3rd Place: a 27 inch TV & Bud light Rec Room memorabilia package
Season 2:
- 1st Place: A trip for two to Hawaii, tickets to the NFL Pro Bowl & a Bud light custom refrigerator. Winner: Ed Ponikvar
- 2nd Place: A trip for two to Whistler BC & a $500 shopping spree at Big Star. Winner: Steve Cohen
- 3rd Place: $500 shopping spree at Big Star and a bud light custom refrigerator. Winner Ryan Love.
Season 2 Changes
- There were 5 categories
- There was a studio audience (season 1 used canned laughter and applause) Season 2 host David Merry referred to the audience as the "bleacher creatures"
- There were no scoreboards in front of the contestants. Only the home audience saw the score
Sponsors
Despite Game On's short run, it had a lot of sponsors such as:- Bud Light
- IBM
- Mr Sub
- GMC Sierra
- NFL
- Cantel/AT&T
- Pepsi