The Pyramid Game
| The Pyramid Game | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Bob Stewart |
| Presented by |
Steve Jones (ITV) Donny Osmond (Challenge) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 (LWT) 2 (TVS) 1 (Challenge) |
| No. of episodes | 46 (LWT) 80 (TVS) 30 (Challenge) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) |
LWT in association with Bob Stewart Productions and Philip Hindin (1981–4) TVS in association with Talbot Television (1989–90) Sony Pictures Television International (2007) |
| Distributor |
ITV Studios ABC Family Worldwide |
| Release | |
| Original network |
ITV (1981-90) Challenge (2007) |
| Picture format |
4:3 (1981-90) 16:9 (2007) |
| Original release | 5 September 1981 – 15 June 2007 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Pyramid (US version) |
The (£1,000) Pyramid Game was a United Kingdom game show based on the American format of the same name that was originally shown on ITV from 1981 to 1984 then 1989 to 1990 hosted by Steve Jones, then revived by Challenge in 2007 hosted by Donny Osmond.
The show first appeared in 1978 as a segment of Bruce Forsyth's Big Night, then was a segment on The Steve Jones Games Show in 1979, before becoming a series in its own right in 1981.
The Pyramid's game boards, both in the main game and in the Winner's Circle bonus round, featured six categories arranged in a pyramid, with three categories on the bottom row, two on the middle row, and one on the top. In the main game, a category's position on the board was not an indicator of its difficulty. In the Winner's Circle, categories became progressively more difficult the higher they were on the board.
The game featured two teams, each composed of a celebrity and a "civilian" contestant. At the beginning of the game, the teams were shown six categories, whose titles gave vague clues to their possible meaning (e.g., "I'm All Wet" might pertain to things found in the water). Once the category was chosen, its exact meaning was given. For up to 30 seconds, one player would convey to the other clues to a series of seven items belonging to a category. One point was scored for each item correctly guessed. If a word was passed, the giver could not go back to that word, but if the receiver knew the word later on and guessed it, the team still earned a point.
Using any part of the answer in giving a clue resulting in the item being disqualified with a "honk" sound effect. The celebrity gave the clues in the first round and the contestant gave the clues in the second round. The teams alternated choosing subjects in the first two rounds. If the game hadn't been won yet the teams then chose which member would give the clues in the third round with the lower scoring team going first.
A team won the game when either: it was impossible for their opponents to surpass their score or by having the higher score after three rounds.
If there was a tie score at the end of the third round, a tie breaking round was played. The team which had just played its third round and had thus created the tie was given a choice between two categories, all answers of each of which began with a certain letter of the alphabet. The other team would then select whichever letter the first team did not pick. The objective was to score as many words as possible within 30 seconds. The team with the higher score won. If they were tied then it was the team with the faster time.
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