Sale of The Century (U.S. Game Show) - Game Format

Game Format

The game format varied in its details over the years; however, the core format, as presented below, remained unchanged.

From 1969–1973, all contestants began with $25. General knowledge questions were posed to the contestants by the host at a value of $5 for correct answers. Should the contestant answer incorrectly, $5 is deducted from his/her score and a new question is asked; unlike most other quiz shows, only one answer is permitted per question. Midway through the game, the question values doubled to $10. At first, the final round consisted of 30 seconds of $15 questions; later, this was replaced with five $20 questions (called "The Century Round," as the total value of the questions was $100). If a contestant's total was reduced to zero (or lower), that contestant was eliminated from the game.

According to the several editions of "The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows" by David Schwartz, Steve Ryan, and Fred Wostbrock, during the show's last thirteen weeks on the NBC network and the year in U.S. syndication, Sale used two married couples instead of three single competing studio contestants. Each couple was given $20 at the start of the game. Host Joe Garagiola, after conducting one round apiece of $5 and $10 questions, then asked a concluding series of five $20 questions to determine the winning couple. If either couple's score reached $0, both couples were given an additional $20.

In the 1980s series, each contestant was given $20 at the start of the game and all questions were worth $5. Any contestant whose score was reduced to zero stayed in the game and never dropped below zero.