Card Sharks (2001 game show)
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The 2001 version of Card Sharks was a daily syndicated game show that ran from September 17, 2001 until January 11, 2002. Pat Bullard was the host. Tami Anderson served as the card dealer. Gary Kroeger was the announcer. The show was taped at Tribune Studios in Hollywood.
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[edit] Format
[edit] Main game
The gameplay was drastically different from the successful incarnations of the 1970s and the 1980s. Four players competed, two at a time. They played in a best-two-out-of-three match, each playing a common row of seven high-low cards.
No survey questions were used on this episode. Instead, one player started the game in control of the cards and kept control as long as they kept guessing correctly. An incorrect guess passed control over to the other player unless it was on the last card of the row, when it meant a loss for the player who guessed it wrong.
All four players were given two "Clip Chip" tokens to start the game, and if one of them wanted to change the card in play they would place the token in a slot on their podium. A video clip would play, with one of three possible options:
- A situation (a la Candid Camera or Street Smarts) which was stopped before its resolution.
- Someone introduces himself/herself and then asks which of two others he/she is associated with.
- Someone trying to list answers related to a topic within 10 seconds, or sing the correct lyrics to an obscure song.
Correctly predicting the solution of the clip allowed the contestant to change the card, while an incorrect answer did not.
The player who won two games would advance. The losing contestants earned $500 if they won a game, and also won an Argus digital camera as a consolation prize.
The third game, if necessary, was played similar to the tiebreaker on the original Card Sharks with three cards. The difference, other than the fact that there was only one row of cards used, was that no Clip Chips could be used.
The two match winners then squared off in the Big Deal, one final row of seven cards. Clip Chips, if the players had any left, were still in play. Whoever won this final showdown advanced to the Money Cards. The loser of the Big Deal kept their prior winnings and won a consolation trip to Las Vegas.
[edit] Money Cards
The day's champion advanced to the Money Cards, which differed greatly from the original two versions of Card Sharks. Three rows of 3, 2, and 1 cards were dealt, with the last card being called the "Major Wager".
The champion began with $700 on the first row, with $700 added to their total for each row they advanced to, including the Major Wager row. The contestant was dealt a card to start and wagered as they went along. They could only change the base card on each row (similar to the original NBC version of the show), and minimum bets were $100 except during the Major Wager, when they had to bet at least half of their bank (similar to the first two versions' Big Bet). Originally, a tie was considered a push, but for reasons unexplained, this was later changed to a loss of wager. If the champion goes bust on the last row, they receive a minimum of $700. The most money ever won on this version was $27,450.
Unlike the earlier versions, the games were self-contained, starting with the semi-finals and ending with the Money Cards. In addition, there were also no returning champions and no car games.
[edit] Special shows
During the show's 13-week run, there was a special week of shows taped after the September 11, 2001 attacks where firefighters and police officers played the game for charities aimed at helping victims and their families recover from the attacks.
[edit] Cancellation
This version of Card Sharks, which aired in some markets as a companion show to the syndicated To Tell The Truth and Family Feud (which Pearson Television was also producing), suffered from extremely low ratings and failed to make it to midseason, being cancelled after thirteen weeks. Reruns continued into January, and most of the set was reused on GSN's Whammy! The All New Press Your Luck which premiered 2 months later.
[edit] Episode status
All episodes exist.
