The Chamber
Lifespan: FOX, January 12, 2002
PREMISE: Two contestants play the seesaw category from Tic Tac Dough to see who will brave the physical and mental challenges of "the chamber" for over $100,000.
PLAY: Two contestants begin the game. A question with multiple answers is read ("the novels of Stephen King") and players alternate giving answers until someone goofs. The other player can score a point by giving one more correct answer. Two points allow the player to enter the chamber, the other leaves with nothing.
PLAY: As the contestant descends into the arena, the computer chooses whether the contestant will challenge the "hot" or "cold" chamber. The contestant is hooked up to electrodes that monitor heart-rate and blood pressure. The player is given the chance to wuss out, take $500, and leave, head hung low. Everyone decided to enter the Chamber.
Inside the Chamber, the player is asked either short answer or four-choice questions. A right answer wins $1,000; two consecutive wrong answers ends the game, and cuts the prize money in half. The player can voluntarily end the game, "Stop the Chamber!", and lose 50% of the accumulated money. The last way to end the game early is if the medical team determine that the player's "stress quotient" is too high for 20 seconds.
After each minute, the Chamber conditions intensify (temperature rises/falls 10 degrees), on the hot level the chair starts to rotate at level two, wind gusts of 55 mph are introduced at level four, electronic muscle contractors start their job at level two, the ice storm begins at level four, and foul odors were introduced at some point on the third show. If a player could survive all seven minutes in the Chamber without ending the contest, all the money is kept. If the contestant managed to answer 25 or more questions, the winnings were tripled, and that Chamber would be retired, with an even more sinister environment created (swarming insects? electric shocks? Chinese Water Torture? Having to listen to "Tiny Bubbles" ad nauseum? Guess we'll never know...)
Scott Brown was the only person to last the entire seven minutes (in the cold Chamber) and won $20,000 for his efforts. $10,500 was the next highest win.
The show lasted three episodes, and even they weren't that great. The show was being rushed into production in order to beat ABC's competing program, "The Chair". FOX may have won the battle, but they lost the war. The premiere episode was full of minor and major problems. The on-screen question was frequently one question behind the one that was currently asked. The rules were explained after every game, so we only got 20 minutes of real game play out of an hour show. Host Schwartz may have been a fair host, but he was relegated to color commentator, since a male voice (some believe it's announcer stalwart Don Morrow) read the questions, while Teresa Strasser (While You Were Out, Lover's Lounge) gave the instructions ("Answer the next question correctly, or the Chamber will stop," that sort of thing.) Schwartz' would read the rules to start the game, conduct the pre-game interviews, then ask the typical inane interview questions during the between-level downtimes ("Are you sure you can continue? Your vital signs are sky-high, we don't think you can stay in there.")
All that stuff is fairly minor, but major problems concerned the question writing. On the premiere, some contestants were asked questions relating to personal information ("What is your mother's maiden name?" "What is your father's birthdate?") while others were given more typical trivia fare. The last contestant on the premiere, Jennifer Basa, was plugging along nicely, and had racked up $21,000 and was at Level Six. But for a big mistake, she might have gone all the way. The question asked a question, and John Glenn was the correct answer. She called out "Glenn...Glenn" Most game shows accept the last name as enough for a correct, but not "The Chamber". Poor Jennifer was left grasping for straws, and got to "Somebody Glenn, Glenn somebody," before weakly offering up "Glenn Armstrong." It was her second consecutive wrong response, and the game ended, and she left with $10,500.
The backlash was enormous, as people were up in arms about the closest game shows have gotten to "The Running Man". Three more episodes are reported to exist, but they likely won't ever see the light of day.