Rules
For the entire American run, the game was conducted the same as the British version, with a team of players trying to reach and bank a set target within a time limit by compiling a chain of correct answers that would be broken with an incorrect answer or if a player decided to bank the money that was already in the chain. On NBC, the team was composed of eight people looking to win up to $1,000,000. In the syndicated series, the team size was reduced to six players and the potential top prize to $75,000 in the first season and $100,000 in the second. One player would be eliminated after each round until two were remaining. On the syndicated version, each round thereafter was reduced by 15 seconds (with the first round lasting for 1:45); on the NBC version, the clock was reduced by 10 seconds (with the first round lasting for 2:30). As on the British version, contestants who are eliminated in the rounds leading up to the final round are told by the host: "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!," although Gray's snarling taunts clearly were intended for a "smart aleck" gimmick.
For the NBC series and the first season of the syndicated series, the final vote occurred prior to the penultimate round, with the two players competing in one more round together for double stakes (with the round lasting for 1:30 on the NBC series and 0:45 in the first syndicated season). The double-stakes round was eliminated from the syndicated series at the start of its second season, with the final elimination occurring prior to the final round.
Unlike most versions where the game started with the player whose name is first alphabetically, a random draw backstage, similar to most multiple-player game shows, was held among players to determine order, and the player who drew the first position starts the first round. Each round thereafter begins with the strongest link from the preceding round (or if that player had been voted off, the second strongest). For the head to head round, he or she also had the option of going first or passing play to the other finalist.
Read more about this topic: The Weakest Link (U.S. Game Show)
Famous quotes containing the word rules:
“... geometry became a symbol for human relations, except that it was better, because in geometry things never go bad. If certain things occur, if certain lines meet, an angle is born. You cannot fail. It’s not going to fail; it is eternal. I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total. Thus, I’m able to avoid or manipulate or process pain.”
—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)
“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.
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—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“Rules and particular inferences alike are justified by being brought into agreement with each other. A rule is amended if it yields an inference we are unwilling to accept; an inference is rejected if it violates a rule we are unwilling to amend. The process of justification is the delicate one of making mutual adjustments between rules and accepted inferences; and in the agreement achieved lies the only justification needed for either.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)