Trivia Trap
Host: Bob Eubanks
Announcer: Bob Hilton
Exec. Producer: Jonathan Goodson and Chester Feldman
Packager: Mark Goodson Productions
Two teams of three play a game trying to cash in on the Trivial Pursuit craze. It didn't work.
The show went through two formats in its' eight month existence.
The teams consist of players under 30 years old on one team (the "juniors") and over 30 on the other (the "Seniors"), with one team returning champions (unless a team retired with five wins last time).
Round One
The champs are shown two rows of four monitors, each having a potential answer to the question. The champs pick which row of answers to play. The question is asked, with one right answer and three wrong
ones. The players go down the line trying to give the wrong answers, each worth $50, $50 and
$200. Finding the right answer ends that question. Each team plays twice.
In January of 1985, the first round changed. Each team now plays "Fact or Fiction" where each
team member gets a true-false question worth $25. Each team plays this twice. After that, a
question is shown, and the team tries to secretly agree on the right answer. One person right
wins $50, two right $100, and consensus wins $200. Each team plays twice. If there are any dissenting votes, and any players were wrong, the other players have a chance to pick up $50 or $100 by giving the wrong answer.
Round Two
The final round was always the $1000 Trivia Race. The team in the lead at that point was shown three categories, and one player chose a category. Bob asks an open-ended question. The player that chose the topic gets three seconds to guess. If correct, the team gets $100 and the next player in line chooses the next topic. If the first player is wrong, control goes down the line until someone is right, or everyone misses. If no one is right, the opponents get control. The
first ten questions are worth $100, and all questions after that are worth $200 (this rule came up after a few weeks after twenty or so questions were used in each game).
In the bonus round, the players from the winning team line up in order of their performance in the Trivia Race. The first
player is shown a question (with four answers, just like the opening rounds), and may either play it, or pass it to player two, who may play or pass
to player three who must answer. Whoever answers correctly wins $1,000; and a wrong answer
eliminates the player from the rest of the round. After three questions, if any players are left, they
may secretly lock in their answer for the $10,000 question, and if correct, they split the money. Whether they win or share the $10,000 (if all three are right, they each get $3,500). If no players get their ladder question wrong, no one gets to play for the big bucks. The championship team returns on the next show to defend their trivia crown until defeated or they win five games.