How To Win Game Shows: Winning Tips, Tactics and Strategies from Game Show Producers, Hosts, Writers ... and Champions!

How To Win Game Shows:

Winning Tips, Tactics and Strategies

from Game Show Producers, Hosts, Writers

... and Champions!

by Stephen Hall

TABLE OF CONTENTS

- FOREWORD            

- INTRODUCTION            

- IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED...            

- TRY . . .            

- … AND TRY AGAIN.            

- EVERYONE (IN THIS CHAPTER)'S A WINNER BABY, THAT'S THE TRUTH.            

- WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? (WHO DOESN'T? WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS?)              

- AND NOW... PLEASE WELCOME YOUR HOSTS!            

- QUESTIONS FOR THE QUESTION WRITERS            

- THE PRODUCERS!              

- HOW TO GET ON THE SHOW            

- DOING YOUR HOMEWORK: THE SIX THINGS YOU CAN DO THAT WILL PUT YOU AHEAD OF THE OPPOSITION.            

- THE TV STUDIO EXPERIENCE: TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW            

- HOW I BECAME 'AUSTRALIA'S BRAINIEST QUIZMASTER'            

- 'CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS'? EH, NOT SO MUCH.            

- WHERE TO, FOR YOU, FROM HERE?            

- ABOUT THE AUTHOR            

- ALSO BY STEPHEN HALL...

- THANK YOU            

- DEDICATION            

- AND FINALLY... THE SMALL PRINT!      

FOREWORD

Hello, and welcome to the third edition of How To Win Game Shows – the eBook!

Back in March of 2013, I started the blog www.HowToWinGameShows.com. I intended it to be a source of information, news, interviews, and general collected wisdom from game show winners, and other players, from both sides of the camera. Since then, I've written almost 300 posts for the site, and scored exclusive interviews with dozens of influential figures in the game show industry.

This eBook is the distillation of all of their collected wisdom.

With this book, you can learn from their successes... and their failures.

There’s a wealth of information here, all edited, organised, summarised and categorised, to be an easy-to-use reference for you. I've also written a lot of exclusive brand new content especially for this book, and this third edition has been revised, updated and expanded, taking into account all of your feedback, for which I am, as always, extremely grateful.

I firmly believe that if you apply all the proven tips, hints and strategies I’ve assembled here, you will have a genuine edge over the competition, in your quest to become a game show champion!

But before you dive in, I just want to mention two more things….

Firstly, I established a convention over at HowToWinGameShows.com of highlighting some bits of information in blue bold type, and other bits in red bold type. Essentially, these are game show DOs and DON’Ts. I’ve decided to do that here too, to make it easier for you to spot little nuggets of helpful information at a glance. So, as you’re making your way through, when you see the blue bold type or red bold type...

Blue bold type = a good tip! (Something that you should do, which may help you on your quest to become a game show winner.)

Red bold type = don't even think of doing THAT!! (Are you crazy?) If you're reading this on a black and white e-reader, you won't get the benefits of these glorious colors, but you should still be able to tell what's what from the context, and the boldness.

At various points, you’ll also notice purple (or a delightful shade of gray) text boxes, containing various Interesting Facts. Now, as a game show / quiz show enthusiast, I know how naturally curious you are, and how much you love to learn new, obscure, fascinating things. So do I. A word of warning, though...  You personally may not find every one of these 'Interesting Facts' actually interesting. 

Also, they may not technically be facts. As such.

Here's one I prepared earlier.

As always, I really value your feedback. You can reach me via email, on Twitter, or on Facebook

Thanks for joining me here, and I wish you the very, very best of luck!

Stephen Hall

January, 2019.

Oh, and if you end up enjoying this book so much that you’d like to claim your FREE BONUS CHAPTER, make sure you click on the link at the end.

Actually... on second thoughts, you can grab it now if you like, by joining my mailing list, right here.

Now let’s begin!

INTRODUCTION

Hello, I’m Stephen Hall. 

In August 2005, I was a contestant on the Australian game show Temptation. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, Temptation was based on the classic $ale Of The Century format, where three contestants compete to answer general knowledge questions, in a series of fastest-on-the-buzzer rounds.

I won the game on seven consecutive nights, becoming the show’s second Grand Champion, scoring a total of $672,357 in cash and prizes.

Then, in February 2006, I competed on Australia’s Brainiest Quizmaster; which pitted ten former quiz show winners against each other, including winners from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

I won that as well. Since then, I’ve frequently been asked questions such as: What was it like? How did you do it? Have you got any inside tips?

Well, yes. Yes, I have. 

And that’s why I created my blog, www.HowToWinGameShows.com, where I share my game show experiences, learn about yours, and answer your questions. I’ve tried to provide helpful advice there, and it’s also the home for my many interviews with game show champions, game show hosts, game show producers, game show creators, and game show question writers.

Apart from winning two game shows, I’ve been involved with quizzes, game shows and trivia contests for a very long time, in various capacities: researcher, question writer, scriptwriter, adjudicator and producer. Here are some of the TV game show-related gigs I’ve had over the years:

Writer – comedy game show All Star Squares (1999)

Head Writer – comedy game show Sunday Roast (1999)

Head writer – quiz show Shafted (2002)

Writer – comedy quiz show The Einstein Factor (2004 – 2005)

Producer – game show Deal Or No Deal (2004 – 2005)

Writer and adjudicator – comedy panel game show Spicks and Specks (2005 – 2006)

Head writer and adjudicator – comedy panel game show You May Be Right (2006)

Question contributor – game show The Rich List (2006)

Scriptwriter and question contributor – game show The ConTest (2006 – 2007)

Question contributor and verifier – game show 1 vs 100 (2007)

Writer / head writer – comedy panel game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation (2009 – 2012)

Question writer - The Chase Australia (2015)

More details can be found on my imdb page.

In addition to these TV jobs, I served as a question researcher and writer for the Australian version of the Cranium board game, and co-created and presented the live trivia quiz show Not So Serious Trivia. My colleague Vin Hedger and I have presented Not So Serious Trivia in hotels, private functions and corporate settings since 2000.

So hopefully, I have some relevant wisdom to impart. Along the way, I've been able to work with - and get to know - a huge number of key figures in the Australian TV game show industry. Many of them have granted me interviews for the blog, and this eBook brings their words of wisdom together in one place, for the very first time. As you dip in and out of this book, you'll see that I've recapped all the salient points at the end of each chapter.

Now, let’s begin with a little look at how I got here, and why I think I can help you...

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED...

The year is 1994, and I am 25 years old.

I have been watching the Australian version of $ale of the Century (1980 – 2001) throughout my childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, keenly playing along at home every weeknight. After 14 years of being an armchair expert, I decide that I am now finally ready to audition to become a contestant on the show for real. So the next time there's a next round of advertisements calling for contestants, I apply.

I go along to the test / audition... and fail the general knowledge test. Of the 50 questions that were asked, I did not get enough correct answers to proceed to the interview / audition part of the process. 

The cheerful contestant coordinators say that we’re welcome to come back and try again, but as I make my way home, I can't help but feel a little crestfallen.

After waiting a month or two for the next test / audition session to be advertised, I go along again… and this time, I do get enough answers right to proceed to the interview part of the process! This is where the contestant coordinators have brief one-on-one chats with all the potential contestants, before asking each one to stand up in front of the group and tell everyone a bit about themselves. You can have the highest score possible on the written test, but if you don’t come across as likeable and confident when you meet the contestant coordinators, you won’t hear from them again. The interview ends, I stand up and chat to the room about some of the various gigs I've had in my working life, and I leave full of hope. That part of the process went better for me than it did for some others. I remember one would-be contestant shaking like a leaf as she very nervously and haltingly told us all about her three cats. It seemed to be even more excruciating for her than it was for us. Eventually, one of the producers sensitively (and mercifully!) said Thank you very much. I’m so sorry to cut you off, but we have lots of people to get through. Thank you, though – that was really interesting.

Yeah, it actually wasn’t.

Now I'm not 100% sure, but I’m tipping that would-be contestant didn't make it onto the show.

I leave the session feeling confident that I’m in the mix, and that I may be receiving a call from the production soon...

Or I may not. It’s a sad fact that sometimes people get all the way through the selection process and then never hear from the show. There can be many reasons for this (outlined elsewhere in this book), and it’s helpful to try and put it out of your mind, if you can. Forlornly waiting by the phone doesn’t make the call come any quicker.

Eventually, the call did come – I'm on! The big day arrives, and I make my way into the Channel Nine studios in Richmond for the recording. $ale of the Century always taped five episodes on each recording day, and there was no way of knowing whether you’d be scheduled for show #1 (the Monday night show), show #5 (the Friday night show), or any of the shows in between. They asked me - as, indeed, they asked all contestants - to bring three changes of clothes (in case I won more than one game, and came back on different nights), Upon arrival, I was shown to the dressing rooms, where I sat nervously with the other contestants. We were briefed about all the things we needed to know. Among them;

- Smile! Even if you're nervous, smile! Everyone looks better when they smile!

- If, for some reason, your episode doesn't go to air, you will not receive any of the cash or fabulous prizes you win on the show. We all signed documents to this effect. 

As it turned out, I was to be on the Friday episode. This was good news and bad news...

Good news, because it gave me the opportunity to watch – and study – the four shows that would be recorded before mine. I could get the lay of the land, and analyse the carry-over champ’s strengths and weaknesses (if indeed there was a carry-over champ)…

and bad news, because the suspense – and therefore the time to worry about everything – was increased.

So, I’m sitting in the studio audience as the show is being recorded. Most of the seats are filled by the actual studio audience, but a small area has been set aside for us – the upcoming contestants. At one stage, the audience warm-up man Pete Smith works this into his routine; See those well-dressed people down there?, he asks the audience. They’re the next contestants on the show. That’s why they look so much smarter than you!

Eventually, the fourth show of the day (the Thursday episode) is recorded, and the champ decides to leave with everything they’ve won so far. This means that my episode (show five – Friday) would begin with three brand new contestants, and my two opponents would be unknown quantities. So much for studying my potential opposition.

And so Robin, Kate & I take our seats... and the game begins.

You can watch this episode here, and if you do, you’ll see that I was extremely nervous, and made classic rookie mistake after classic rookie mistake. I was completely unfocussed, and got thrown every time things didn’t go my way. Although I was ahead for most of the game, I fumbled time and time again in the dying seconds, to eventually lose to Robin by $10 (two questions). If I hadn't thrown away my $15 lead by gambling on the slot machines (at the 13:14 mark on the video), I would have won.

Quite the Baptism of Fire. 

Here are the mistakes I made that day, which I learned from, and vowed never to make again….

– Buzzing in too early; I hadn’t got my anticipation skills honed finely enough. I’d buzz in early enough to lock the others out, but too early to get all the information I needed in the question, that would enable me to answer it.

– Every time I got a question wrong, I’d beat myself up for getting it wrong.  And of course, while I was doing that, the next question was being asked, and not receiving my full attention.

– Getting overwhelmed by my run of incorrect answers, and allowing it to give me brain freeze. My question-answering abilities were clouded by the accumulation of negative results, and worrying about those results.

When the final siren sounded, Robin seemed amazed that she had won the game. Or perhaps she was amazed that I had lost it. I had handed it to her, through my own (unintended) self-sabotage.

I went home extremely disappointed. I’d been waiting for this opportunity for such a long time! On my way out, the producers were very consolatory – which of course is part of their job - reminding me that I was welcome to re-apply to go on the show again after a year had passed.

I would be back.

Oh yes, I would be back…

So let's review; what have we learned in this chapter?

Before the game:

You can have the highest score possible on the written test, but if you don’t come across as likeable and confident when you meet the contestant coordinators, you won’t hear from them again.

During the game:

Smile! Even if you are nervous, smile! Everyone looks better when they smile!

In buzzer-based games, hone your anticipation skills. You don't want to be buzzing in early enough to lock the others out, but too early to get all the information you need.

If you get a question wrong in the heat of battle, let it go and focus on what's coming next. This takes some practice (which you can do by playing along with your chosen show at home), but it's an absolutely INVALUABLE skill to have. Once you've got this skill, and you're using it correctly, even giving a series of incorrect answers won't rattle you.

TRY . . .

Jump forward five years. It is now 1999. $ale of the Century continues to rate well on Australian TV, as a fixture of  Channel Nine’s schedule, from Monday to Friday at 7:00 PM.

Since my humiliating defeat in 1994, I’d been to two more $ale of the Century auditions. I remember I failed the first one, not getting enough questions correct in the general knowledge section. But I kept watching the show, and when, from time to time, they advertised that they were auditioning more contestants, I’d follow that up.

My second audition in 1999 was successful - I got through the general knowledge test, and did well in the interview. In fact, the contestant coordinator later told me that one of my answers stuck in his mind:

When they’d asked me What’s the most impressive thing about you?, apparently I’d answered My future...

Again, the Big Day comes. I’m ushered in, just as I was five years earlier, I’m briefed with the other contestants, and we all wait patiently in the audience, watching the show being recorded, until it’s our turn. It becomes clear that one woman playing the game – Barbara – is a real force to be reckoned with. She wins game after game after game. 

I’m called