GAME SHOW CASE STUDYS

BY WILL MCKANE

THE CHASE• The Chase is a British television quiz show broadcast on ITV and hosted by Bradley Walsh. Contestants play against a

professional quizzer, known as the "chaser", who attempts to prevent them from winning a cash prize. The chasers are Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha and Jenny Ryan.

• A team of four contestants individually attempt to amass as much money as possible, which is later added to a prize fund if the contestant survives their individual chase. The chaser's job is to catch each contestant during their individual chase, eliminating that person from the game and preventing the money from being added to the collective prize fund. Any contestants who survive their individual chase later play collectively as a team for an equal share of the prize fund against the chaser.

• With a regular audience of three to five million, The Chase is one of ITV's most successful daytime shows ever. It has been nominated three times for "Best Daytime Show" at the National Television Awards, winning in 2016. It has also become a successful international franchise: regional versions have been made in Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and the United States. Labbett and Hegerty both feature as chasers on the Australian version, with the former also featuring as the sole chaser on the American version.

JEOPARDY!• Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show features a quiz competition in which

contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in the form of questions. The original daytime version debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964, and aired until January 3, 1975. A weekly nighttime syndicated edition aired from September 1974 to September 1975, and a revival, The All-New Jeopardy!, ran on NBC from October 1978 to March 1979. The current version, a daily syndicated show produced by Sony Pictures Television, premiered on September 10, 1984 and is still airing, making it by far the program's most successful incarnation.

• With 7,000 episodes aired,[2] the daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! has won a record 31 Daytime Emmy Awards and is the only post-1960 game show to be honored with the Peabody Award. In 2013, the program was ranked No. 45 on TV Guide's list of the 60 greatest shows in American television history. Jeopardy! has also gained a worldwide following with regional adaptations in many other countries. The daily syndicated series' 33rd season premiered on September 12, 2016.

• Three contestants each take their place behind a lectern, with the returning champion occupying the leftmost lectern (from the viewer's perspective). The contestants compete in a quiz game comprising three rounds: Jeopardy!, Double Jeopardy!, and Final Jeopardy!. The material for the questions covers a wide variety of topics, including history and current events, the sciences, the arts, popular culture, literature, and languages. Category titles often feature puns, wordplay, or shared themes, and the host will regularly remind contestants of topics or place emphasis on category themes before the start of the round.

WIPEOUT!• Wipeout was a game show series in which contestants competed in what was billed as the "World's Largest" obstacle

course. Wipeout was hosted and commentated by John Henson and John Anderson, while Jill Wagner acted as the "on-location" presenter. The show aired on ABC from June 24, 2008 until the show aired its final episode on September 7, 2014. The interim presenter for one season was Vanessa Lachey. The creators and executive producers are Matt Kunitz and Scott Larsen. Distribution of the show was handled by Endemol USA. The show was taped at Sable Ranch in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita, California, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles.

• Contestants compete through four rounds of competition until a final winner is chosen. The first round features 24 contestants (they were introduced from seasons 1-3, but from season 4 onwards, not all were shown) running through a series of obstacles. The top 12 finishing times move on. The show never made clear to viewers whether or how the finishing times are adjusted for failing to complete obstacles along the way.

• The next two rounds take place on two different complex obstacles. They typically involve large structures that competitors have to enter, navigate around while hostile devices try to knock them off, and then jump to a landing pad to finish, where Jill Wagner awaits them. The competitors keep trying on these structures until roughly half of them have reached the finish; the other half are eliminated. This leaves only the top four (top three in some seasons) to make it to the final round called the Wipeout Zone, where the winner earns the title of Wipeout Champion and a $50,000 grand prize.