Merv Griffin's Crosswords - Gameplay

Gameplay

Crosswords initially pitted two contestants in direct competition, filling in answers in the day's crossword puzzle one at a time in random order. The answer boxes denoting the number of letters in a word was shown with a crossword clue and a dollar value. As the game progressed a word could have multiple blanks already filled in.

After the clue was read, the contestants could ring in, with the order they did so denoted on the screens on the front of their podiums. A contestant had to give a correct answer and also spell it correctly to earn the money attached to the clue. If the contestant misspelled the word, did not come up with the correct solution, or failed to give an answer, the amount of the clue was deducted from their score.

For all but one week of episodes in December 2007, Round 3 values were the same as in Round 2; the Round 3 values shown above were later made permanent.

At the beginning of Round 2, three more contestants, dubbed "spoilers", joined the game and stood in a row of three podiums behind the players that started the game. The spoilers were able to ring in, but the front row players always had priority when answering and a spoiler could only attempt a word if nobody on the front row either got it right or rang in. If a spoiler gave a correct solution to the clue, he/she instantly moved to the front row and traded places with one of the players. If both of the main players got the answer wrong or failed to ring in, the spoiler had a choice of which podium to take. However, if only one contestant got the answer wrong the spoiler had to take that position. Ringing it with an incorrect answer locked a spoiler out of play, and spoilers could only return to the game if one of the other two answered correctly and took a position on the front row or if they each gave an incorrect answer, at which point all three spoilers would be let back into the game.

The player standing at the podium with the highest money total when time ran out at the end of Round 3, regardless of whether his/her score was positive or negative (the latter occurred once during the show's run), won the game and whatever money was in the podium, and advanced to the bonus round. The losing player and spoilers received a Croton watch with the show's logo on it.

In the event of a tie, one final tiebreaker clue was played to determine the winner with all players and spoilers involved; the first to solve it correctly won the game.