Trivial Pursuit: America Plays
| Trivial Pursuit: America Plays | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Game show |
| Presented by | Christopher Knight |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 170 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Wheeler/Sussman Productions Hasbro |
| Distributor | Debmar-Mercury |
| Release | |
| Original network | Syndicated |
| Original release | September 22, 2008 – May 22, 2009 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Trivial Pursuit (1993-1995) |
| Related shows | Trivial Pursuit UK (1990, 1994) |
Trivial Pursuit: America Plays is a syndicated game show loosely based on the board game of the same name. It premiered on September 22, 2008 and aired first-run episodes through May 22, 2009 (with repeats continuing until September 18). The host was Christopher Knight (the pilot was hosted by Mark L. Walberg), and the show is produced by Wheeler/Sussman Productions in association with Hasbro. The series was syndicated by Debmar-Mercury.
Trivial Pursuit: America Plays replaced Temptation on a majority of stations that carried it, and inherited its predecessor's abysmal ratings. In January 2009, it was announced that America Plays would not be renewed for a second season.
The show pitted three in-studio players against "America's Team", which consisted of people who submitted their questions via video.
Six categories which roughly corresponded to the actual categories (green was most often a miscellaneous category titled "Whatever"):
A computer (called the "Randomizer") randomly picked a category and value ($250 to $500 in increments of $50 depending on the difficulty) for each question. Each correct answer by the studio contestants put the value into the studio bank, and earned that player a wedge for their scoring token, if they didn't have one of that selected color. An incorrect answer put the value in America's bank, and no money was put in the studio bank for that question, even if it was answered correctly by another player. The money was added each time a contestant attempted to answer the question and failed to answer correctly, so America's bank could have been credited with double or even triple the value of the question if more than one player gave an incorrect answer. If nobody buzzed in, or if nobody attempted the question after somebody answered that question incorrectly, the money was added to America's bank un-multiplied.
The first question of the round was an "All Play" question, in which anyone was eligible to answer. The player who answered this toss-up question correctly had first chance at the following question, and kept control until they either missed a question or earned their third wedge. If they missed or took too long to answer the question, the other two were able to buzz in and steal control and the wedge with a correct answer. However, as in the board game, if a contestant answered a question in a category they already had a wedge for, no wedges were awarded, but the contestant earned control of the next question.
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