Make Me Rich

Make Me Rich is a Michigan Lottery game show filmed in Detroit, hosted by Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight and co-hosted by Beth McLeod. The show is produced by Jonathan Goodson. Unlike other lottery game shows, the program airs on a quarterly schedule instead of weekly. The first special aired on October 16, 2009 at 7:30 PM, without commercial interruption (as with all subsequent specials).

Format

Contestants must purchase an instant lotto ticket in order to win a chance to compete on the program.

In the first game, three contestants attempt to win a new car. Each of the contestants stands in their own lane at the end of a "race track," each four steps away from the finish line. The contestants' names are randomly hidden behind twelve numbered spaces on a gameboard, each name appearing four times. After calling a number, the player verbally states how many spaces the player whose name is hidden behind that number will move forward, either one or two spaces. The first player to move all four spaces and cross the finish line wins the car.

In the second game, five new contestants participate in a game called "The Eliminator." Each of the contestants pull a lever that sends a ball which bounces on pegs as it falls through a shaft, eventually landing in one of eight slots, numbered one through eight. The two contestants whose balls land in the lowest numbered slots are eliminated from the game. In the second part of the game, the three contestants who were not eliminated attempt to send a "wrecking ball" through an area without knocking over either of two columns standing on a rotating platform. The contestants turn their back to the turntable and release the ball. After the first contestant is eliminated, a third column is added to the rotating platform. The contestants continue taking turns releasing the ball. After the second contestant is eliminated, the remaining contestant had to successfully swing the ball without knocking over a column to win $1,000,000. If both contestants knocked over a column, play continued as before.

In the third game, four new contestants again played "The Eliminator" to determine which two would move on to compete for another $1,000,000 prize. The two winning contestants draw cards from a special deck consisting of only jacks, queens, kings and aces. The first contestant is presented two cards, one of which is revealed while the other remains face-down, and then selects which card to keep for themselves and which to pass to their opponent. Each of the four cards has an equal chance of appearing and the same card may appear more than four times in one game, unlike a standard deck of cards. Play alternates between the two contestants and the player who makes the better four-card hand wins $1,000,000. Possible hands included four-of-a-kind, three-of-a-kind, two pair and one pair; straights do not count.

The final five contestants compete to win $2,000,000. Four contestants are isolated backstage while the first contestant selects a card containing a bar code from a rack of 100 cards. The bar code is scanned and a number between 1 and 100 is revealed; the contestant can keep that number or return the card to the rack and select a second card to scan. After the contestant makes their decision and their final number is revealed, the next contestant is brought out and follows the same process. However, the current high-scoring number is not revealed to the current contestant until after they decide to keep or return their first card; they must base their decision solely on the number they have selected first. The process repeated with the remaining contestants and the contestant whose number is the highest after all five have played wins $2,000,000.

All contestants who won nothing on the show received a trip to Mackinac Island and $5,000.

Changes

During the special which aired on February 10, 2010, the car game was eliminated and the top prize for the game featuring the wrecking ball was reduced to $500,000. The prizes for the two other games remained the same. On June 4, 2010, the car game returned but the wrecking ball game was eliminated.

Broadcast history

• Alpena - WBKB 11 (CBS)
• Detroit - WDIV 4 (NBC)
• Flint - WNEM 5 (CBS)
• Grand Rapids - WXSP 15 (My Network)
• Lansing - WLAJ 53 (ABC)
• Marquette - WJMN 3 (CBS)
• Muskegon - WMKG-CA 38
• Traverse City - WGTU 29 (ABC)

References