Game Show Philosophy: A Series of Collages (2/5)

Hello again:

Here it is...part 2 of the explanation of my first collage. I've reposted said collage for your convenience.


2) Consistent: "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Granted, the first five questions force contestants to risk $200 for $300, and than $300 for $500...but both of those risk/reward figures are close enough, and the questions at that level are easy enough for there not to be any real problem. Also, when the second milestone changed from $32,000 to $25,000...this meant that a contestant is risking $15,000 to add $9,000 to his/her total. However, since the contestant is playing to jump from a guaranteed $1,000 to a guaranteed $25,000...it seems to justify this gap, but I still think it was better before the changes to the "Money Tree" ($32,000 to $25,000, $64,000 to $50,000, and $125,000 to $100,000). After that, however, the reward always outweighs the risk...with a maximum risk of $475,000 for a reward of $500,000 on the $1 million question.

Conflict: "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" With a guarantee of $25,000 after 4 songs correctly filled in...the reward outweighs the risk until the player reaches $200,000. The next level is $350,000...meaning the player risks losing $175,000 to add $150,000. Here the risk outweighs the reward, but at least it's relatively close. However, when going from $350,000 to $500,000...the contestant has to risk losing $325,000 to add another $150,000. That has got to be the most lopsided risk/reward combination I've ever seen in television game shows...and the producers of "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" should consider fixing it. Whether or not they actually will is another story, however....

Stay tuned for part 3 of the explanation for this image....