Thanks, cygnus for the background info. I guess it’s his coming across as so smug that gets people putting him down like that.
What I would like to see is them to post the correct answers on the screen. I usually see the show after work in a bar, and it can get quite loud, making it impossible to hear the responses.
Maybe I can help a bit. I was on the Israeli version, which is identical to the American one except for two major differences - a. the prizes, while identical, are in shekels (4 shekels = $1) and b. the host is a big, deep-voiced Argentinian with a ponytail rather than a skinny Canadian dweeb.
The show is real-time. The only editing is in the chat section, the interludes, contestant questions and complaints, and technical flubs. Besides that, what you see is what you get. As for the questions, it’s simple. You see, all the fancy graphics are just for the folks at home; there’s a small screen right in front of the contestants and host which shows the question (answer?) the moment the square is chosen from the big board. Everybody just reads from that, and quickly, too - we’d finish reading before he reached the fourth word. The podium, though, I was too focused on the questions to look at much. If I had wasted my time and attention on superflious details, I wouldn’t have won.
Incidentally, half of victory is in the reflexes. You have to press the buzzer as soon as he finishes reading; if you press before, it freezes on you, and if you wait, some else will take it. It’s tense stuff.
Alessan: As for the questions, it’s simple. You see, all the fancy graphics are just for the folks at home; there’s a small screen right in front of the contestants and host which shows the question (answer?) the moment the square is chosen from the big board. Everybody just reads from that, and quickly, too - we’d finish reading before he reached the fourth word.
I always wondered how people could read those screens clear across the stage. I’ve never noticed the contestants looking at their screens. That’s probably edited out.
No need to edit anything - the screen is off camera, and eye-level. All you have to do is stare straight ahead.
Thanks for the background. If you’ve ever played the online version, which is pratically identical to the T.V. version, you know you have to read and answer almost instantaniously. Makes for a intense game (online anyway).
But your leaving us hanging! How’d you do?
14,200 shekels.
A number of caveats, though:
a. Because the prize is in shekels, not dollars (it translates to some $3500), we didn’t have to compete with any of those photographic-memory, triple-pHd types. That way, a couple of college students had a chance to win.
b. As you may have inferred, I wasn’t working alone. It was a special Tu B’Av (Jewish Valentine’s Day) episode, and the competition was between three newly-married and engaged couples. There’s no way in hell I could have won it without my wife, if only because our intersts divulge enough to give us a very broad range of knowlenge. There were catagories I knew nothing about. I guess we each answered the same amount of questions (and for the record - we made no mistakes. We didn’t answer unless we were absolutely sure.)
We found out very quickly that I had better reflexes than her (probably due to years of Quake), so I got to use the buzzer; we improvised an effective system of hand symbols for communication. It was fun.