Merv Griffin's Crosswords
| Merv Griffin's Crosswords | |
|---|---|
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| Created by | Merv Griffin |
| Presented by | Ty Treadway |
| Narrated by | Edd Hall |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 225 |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 22–26 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Yani-Brune Entertainment Merv Griffin Entertainment |
| Distributor | Program Partners |
| Release | |
| Original network | Syndicated |
| Picture format |
NTSC (480i) 720p/1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release | September 10, 2007 – May 16, 2008 |
Merv Griffin's Crosswords (commonly shortened to Crosswords) is an American game show based on crossword puzzles. The show was created by its namesake, Merv Griffin, who died shortly after beginning production on the series. Ty Treadway was the host, and Edd Hall was the announcer.
The series ran in daily syndication from September 10, 2007 and aired first-run episodes until May 16, 2008, with reruns airing in most markets until September 5, 2008; it has remained in continuous reruns on various outlets since then.
The show was produced by Yani-Brune Entertainment and Merv Griffin Entertainment, and was distributed by Program Partners.
Crosswords initially pitted two contestants in direct competition, filling in answers in the day's crossword puzzle one at a time in random order. The answer boxes denoting the number of letters in a word was shown with a crossword clue and a dollar value. As the game progressed a word could have multiple blanks already filled in.
After the clue was read, the contestants could ring in, with the order they did so denoted on the screens on the front of their podiums. A contestant had to give a correct answer and then spell it correctly in order to earn the money attached to the clue. If the contestant misspelled the word, did not come up with the correct solution, or failed to give an answer, the amount of the clue was deducted from their score.
For all but one week of episodes in December 2007, Round 3 values were the same as in Round 2; the Round 3 values shown above were later made permanent.
At the beginning of Round 2, three more contestants, dubbed "spoilers", joined the game and stood in a row of three podiums behind the players that started the game. The spoilers were able to ring in, but the front row players always had priority when answering and a spoiler could only attempt a word if nobody on the front row either got it right or rang in. If a spoiler gave a correct solution to the clue, he/she instantly moved to the front row and traded places with one of the players. If both of the main players got the answer wrong or failed to ring in, the spoiler had a choice of which podium to take. However, if only one contestant got the answer wrong the spoiler had to take that position. Ringing it with an incorrect answer locked a spoiler out of play, and spoilers could only return to the game if one of the other two answered correctly and took a position on the front row or if they each gave an incorrect answer, at which point all three spoilers would be let back into the game.
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