Temptation (game show)

Infobox Television
show_name = Temptation


caption = "The New Sale of the Century"
genre = Game show
creator =
director =
developer =
presenter = Ed Phillips
Livinia Nixon
theme_music_composer =
opentheme =
endtheme =
composer =
country = AUS
language = English
num_seasons = 3
num_episodes = 539
list_episodes =
executive_producer =
producer =
asst_producer =
editor =
location = Melbourne, Victoria
camera =
runtime = 23 minutes
network = Nine Network
picture_format =
audio_format =
first_aired = 30 May 2005
last_aired = 30 November 2007
preceded_by = "Sale of the Century" (1980 – 2001)
followed_by =
related = "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"
"Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune"
"Sale of the Century"
website = http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/section.aspx?sectionid=2187&sectionname=temptation
production_website = http://www.fremantlemedia.com/our-programmes/view/Game+Shows/viewprogramme/Sale+Of+The+Century
imdb_id = 0472580
tv_com_id = 35613

"Temptation" is an Australian game show which premiered on the Nine Network on May 30, 2005. Hosted by Ed Phillips and Livinia Nixon, the show is a remake of "Sale of the Century", which aired on Nine in the same timeslot for more than twenty years between 1980 and 2001. "Temptation" has the same general format of its predecessor, but with several new features and a de-emphasis on the "shopping" aspects of the endgame. Temptation's second season finished on 1 December, 2006 and season 3 began on January 29, 2007. It was originally announced that the third season would be the last season of "Temptation", which ended on 30 November, 2007, then it was axed by the network followed by the strong competition of the show's major rival Seven Network game show "Deal or No Deal" winning the top ratings prize, during that, Nine is filling its 7pm timeslot with episodes of "Two And A Half Men". [cite news|first=Fiona|last=Connolly|title=Temptation axed for McGuire|url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22276288-5006014,00.html |work=The Daily Telegraph|date=2007-08-20|accessdate=2007-08-23] When Ed Phillips made a appearance on the NRL Footy Show he said "maybe summer" would be the return of the show.

A syndicated U.S. version of "Temptation" hosted by Rossi Morreale began airing in fall 2007. A version was also launched that year on Brazil's SBT network with Silvio Santos at the helm.

Current format

Main game

As in "Sale", the game is split into four rounds, and correct answers are worth $5, and incorrect responses are minus that amount.

Round One: After the first three questions, there is a 20 second "Sprint" speed round. Immediately after this, the first "Gift Shop" of the night is offered to the leading player or players. The first gift shop item costs $6, and usually has a retail cost between $1,500 and $2,500; this $6 price can be reduced at the discretion of producers, or alternatively an additional cash incentive can be included into the prize, which is usually either $200 or $400. In any gift shop, if two or more players are tied in the lead, Ed will conduct a Dutch auction.

There are a few more questions, and then the first "Who am I?" question, known as the "Fame Game".

Round Two: After the first few questions, the second Gift Shop is offered. This item is offered for $10, and usually has a retail value of between $3,000 and $7,000; this can again be accompanied by a cash incentive, or the $10 price can be lowered. More questions are asked, and then the second "Who am I?". After the "Who am I?", three more questions are asked before another 20 second sprint round. This ends round two.

After round two, co-host Nixon gives the home viewer a question called "On This Day" where she tells the home viewer facts that happened on that day. In the first two seasons (2005 and 2006) Nixon asked the home audience a question relating to the event on that day before the break and gave the answer after the break and then round three began. In 2007, only the question is given by Livinia, allowing the viewers at home to call in the answer by phone or SMS the answer overnight to win a $500 cash prize. Before the next night's "On This Day" question is asked, Ed gives the correct answer to the previous night. Viewers at home can then visit the program's website to see if they have won.

Round Three: After the first three questions, the leading player or players are offered a chance at opening the "Temptation Vault", at the price of $15 - this price is never reduced from $15 unless there is more than one player eligible, in which case a Dutch auction is held. Whoever opens the vault receives a cash prize of random value between $1 and $10,000; the probability distribution of Vault prizes is unknown, but values below $1,000 in particular are rare. After the Vault, there are three more standard questions followed by the final "Who am I?".

Final Round: The final round consists of a single 60 second fast money speed round.

Famous Faces: Correct "Who am I?" answers choose one of nine boxes, identified by celebrities' faces. As before, most of the faces conceal small prizes, but there are cash values (also known as "Money Cards") which are added directly to the player's score:
* $10 - present in all three rounds until chosen
* $15 - present in the second and third rounds
* $25 - added only in the third round
* Wild Card - added only in the third round; gives the contestant either a $2,000 cash prize, or allows them to select from the remaining faces in the hope of finding the $25.

The new Temptation series has also added three special selections. All of these selections are present from the beginning of the game, however the Lock Out and Turbo are removed from the board in the third round:
* Burglar - the player elects one opponent from whose score $5 is deducted and that $5 is added onto their score.
* Lock Out - the player elects one opponent to lock out; they will then be unable to answer any of the next three questions.
* Turbo - the next three questions are automatically worth $10 instead of $5, but only for the contestant who selected it. Furthermore, the penalty for an incorrect answer also increases to $10.

In each case, the next three questions are never part of a fast money round. This is also the evident reason why the Lock Out and Turbo items are removed from the board for the final "Who am I?".

On occasions throughout the year, "Temptation" will break from its normal running style for a week and run a celebrity edition. In most cases these celebrities are playing for home viewers, where the normal prizes and money cards are present. Sometimes the celebrities will be playing for charities, where instead of small prizes cash donations to their charity are given (usually between $500 and $5,000). The money cards still remain.

Bonus Game

A first-time winner is offered a major prize, worth about $10,000, and given the choice to take it and leave the show, or to return to play again. Gradually larger prizes are offered each night, leading up to a $50,000-$95,000 car on night five, all five prizes (roughly $130,000) on night 6, a cash jackpot in night 7, and all the prizes and double the cash jackpot on night 8.

The cash jackpot amount is determined as follows. Each champion has $50,000 placed in their cash jackpot if they choose to return after their first night. They are then given the chance to play "Top Ten". If they correctly answer 10 of the questions asked of them in a 60 second segment at the end of each night, $50,000 more is added to the cash jackpot. The cash jackpot can only be claimed after night 7 or 8 (cf 2005 when a contestant could take their cash jackpot if they chose not to return the following night). Contestants may choose one of five sets of questions to be asked. Passes and incorrect answers don't reset the value at zero (cf 2005 below).

Theoretically, the highest cash jackpot a contestant can win is $800,000:

$800,000\; =\; 2\; left(\; 50,000\; imes\; 7\; +\; 50,000\; ight)$

2005 format

When "Temptation" premiered on 30 May 2005, there were some slight differences to today's format:

Main game

* The "Temptation Vault" was offered in Round 1 for $10 (instead of the "Gift Shop") with the value going up to a maximum $5,000.
* The "Burglar" on the "Fame Game" only took away $5 from an opponent without it going onto the "burglar's" score.
* The "Turbo" on the "Fame Game" applied to all three contestants as opposed to the one contestant who selected it - this was not actually changed until April 17, 2006.
* The "Gift Shop" was offered in Round 3 for $15 (instead of the "Temptation Vault").
* The "Wild Card's" value was half the value at $1,000.

Bonus Round: Ten in a Row

In 2005, if a contestant won on night 7, then they would win all the prizes, the money in their cash account (which was "not" doubled), and $500,000 in gold bullion. In Ten in a Row, contestants had to answer ten questions consecutively within the space of one minute. The amount of cash won increased through a non-linear scale:

$100,000
$60,000
$30,000
$20,000
$15,000
$10,000
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
$1,000

Any incorrect, passed answer or fails to answer the question in three seconds resets the value to $0, and a contestant who doesn't reach $100,000 wins whatever value they have when time expires.

Theoretically, the highest cash jackpot a contestant could win was $600,000 ($1,100,000 including the gold bullion):

$1,100,000\; =\; 100,000\; imes\; 6\; +\; 500,000$

Carry-over champions would also be able to leave the show at any time with money won during Ten in a Row won up to that point.

The format for the bonus round was modified in 2006. First-night champions would automatically be given a $50,000 cash jackpot, which could not be won until at least their seventh night. The Ten in a Row segment was changed so that ten correct answers would add another $50,000 to the jackpot. There was no need to correctly answer the questions consecutively, but at least ten answers had to be answered correctly before time ran out.

Grand Champions

Record-breaking champions which won since the end of "Temptation":

* Brigid O'Connor (Episode 18, 22 June 2005, $663,738)
* Stephen Hall (Episode 63, 24 August 2005, $672,357)
* Rob O'Neill (Episode 75, 9 September 2005, $701,241)
* Yolanda Stopar (8 March 2006, $932,577) (First grand champion under the current format; biggest winner in combined history of "Sale of the Century" and "Temptation".)
* Tracey Korsten (2 November 2006, $857,655)
* Blair Martin (11 June 2007, $603,002)
* Sunil Badami (22 August 2007, $638,068)

Specials

Since its inception, "Temptation" has produced a number of special serials.

Quizmaster

Quizmaster aired from March 27 – April 3, 2006, featuring nine of the most successful contestants from "Temptation," "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and "Temptation's" predecessor, "Sale of the Century", competing to win more money for themselves (the format is similar to the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions). 2005 grand champion Rob O'Neill defeated 2006 grand champion Yolanda Stopar in the head-to-head final by the score of 110-80, pocketing an additional $115,000 in cash and prizes.

Other specials

Special series are often run featuring celebrities, sports personalities, and former champions. The format varies from special to special, depending upon the number of contestants available, and some specials have seen celebrities compete in pairs. Prizes for these specials are either donated to a charity of the celebrity's choice, or awarded to randomly chosen home viewers.

Trivia

*The highest score ever achieved on "Temptation" is $135 by Yolanda Stopar on two occasions: February 28 and March 1 in 2006.
*The largest winning margin ever achieved was $100 by Yolanda Stopar on February 28, 2006.
*The most number of ten in a rows ever achieved is by Yolanda Stopar nine times.
*On the November 1, 2005 episode of the show, Phillips began a Fame Game question, as per usual, with "Who am I?..." A contestant immediately buzzed in and answered "Ed Phillips". The contestant went on to lose the match by 5 dollars.
*On the September 22, 2006 episode, the game ended with a three way tie, which had not happened in the immediate memory of the hosts. This happened again on the November 28, 2006 episode.
*A large amount of controversy erupted after the October 20, 2006 episode in which Lainie kept buzzing in during the "mad minute" without necessarily knowing the answers. Eventually, Charles became the champ, winning by $20 over [http://www.harrystrivia.com/ Harry] while Lainie (who finished on just $10) admitted, "I helped Charles, I hope." Harry, dismayed (as can be seen after the final siren), missed out on winning a $20,000 holiday to Japan, but still left with over $12,000 in cash and prizes. After the episode went to air, there were many complaints made either in the news or directly to Grundy, the company that owns Temptation, demanding that Harry be reinstated as champion. The Nine Network's "A Current Affair" reported that Grundy executives had decided that Harry would not be coming back. Grundy then re-reviewed its decision, but it is still unchanged as it was clear during the footage that Harry did not once 'simultaneously' buzz with Lainie, instead not attempting to buzz in at any time at all.
* "Sale of the Century", the precursor to "Temptation", premiered on the Nine Network in 1980 and ran for 21 years, finishing in November 2001.
*The youngest contestants to ever appear on the show were "Josh", at age 15 on November 28, 2006 and "Rob", at age 15 on June 27, 2007.
* On June 27, 2007 a time record was set for the final round with all 10 questions being answered in 37 seconds without any mistake being made.
*A local version of "Temptation" airs in South Africa on the M-Net channel, hosted by James Lennox and Bridget Masinga. It is the first new game show to air on the channel since "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". It premiered on 25 September 2006, airing weeknights for six weeks. Contestants could become grand champions and win all of the prizes by winning six times. At the end of the first series, the three top winners returned for a chance at prizes worth over R2,000,000. The winner of the South African Series was Theunis Strydom, who finished with over R2,600,000 in cash and prizes.
*In addition M-Net airs a version of "Temptation" in Nigeria, which premiered on November 6, 2006. It airs weekly on Monday evenings. It is hosted by Ikponmwosa "Ik" Osakioduwa and Oluwakemi "Kemi" Adetiba. The first series consists of 26 episodes. Contestants can become grand champions and win all of the prizes by winning six times. At the end of the first series, the three top winners returned for a chance at prizes worth over USD$100,000. The winner of the Nigerian Series was Erhabor Emokpae, who finished with over USD$155,000 in cash and prizes.
* There were 34 winners in Temptation's home viewer Lucky $5 note competition running in April 2006, with each winner taking home $2,941.18.
* Upon finding a "lucky" $5 note, one winner spent the note on food while driving to collect his winnings.
* On the July 6, 2006, reigning champion Maki Miyaguchi, a sports journalist from Queensland, and contestant James, a police officer from Victoria, were tied leading into the final question of "fast money". The final question was, "The word 'regard' is derived from the old version of which language?" With less than a second left on the clock, James beat Maki to the buzzer. However, the buzzer misfired, with the lights going off without any sound. Host Ed Phillips called for the clock to be stopped, in order to confer with the judges. He then asked James for his answer. The policeman incorrectly answered "English", instead of the correct answer. "French". Maki won by default. He continued on to the next night, winning and then going on to retire as undefeated champion, netting more than $108,000 in cash and prizes, including the major prize, a Volvo XC90 SUV, valued at $69,000 Australian. [http://web.archive.org/web/20060704232452/www.dailyexaminer.com.au/localnews/]
* A syndicated U.S. version of "Temptation" hosted by Rossi Morreale began airing in the fall 2007 season.
* Temptation Models are Scott McGregor and Chelsea Butler. The two met on the show, and are now are in a relationship and living together.

Board Game

There is a Temptation board game made by Crown and Andrews. The following contents are in the board game: playing board, electronic umpire (an electronic item that determines which player buzzed first), 6 buttons, a 'Question and Answer' book, 6 score markers, 16 Show Prize cards, 24 Leader Prize cards, 26 Winner Prize cards, card tray and the rules.no longer availableA picture of the game can be found here: [http://www.crownandandrews.com/HTMLFiles/Temptation%203D%20Box%20-%20WEB.jpg]

ounds

The sounds that are used on "Temptation" were borrowed from "Sale of the Century". Those sounds are the ring-in sound, the right answer bell, the wrong answer buzzer, the Gift Shop bell, and the Fast Money buzzer.

References

External links

* [http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/section.aspx?sectionid=2187&sectionname=temptationsectionid=1716&sectionname=temptation Official website]
* [http://temptationtv.com.au "Temptation's" additional website]
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* [http://tvweek.com/news/2007/01/twentieth_clears_show_based_on.php Twentieth Clears Show Based on 'Sale of the Century']