Temptation (TV show)

Game Show loosely based on Sale of the Century which ran from 2007-08 and was hosted by former Arkansas Razorbacks kick returner Rossi Morreale. As before, three players (one typically a returning champ) were given $20...er, sorry, Temptation Dollars. The show began with a Speed Round for 30 seconds, with correct answers winning T$5 and wrong answers losing T$5.

After this was the Instant Bargain, complete with occasional incentives (extra cash, reduced price, even plane tickets)...however the player was now put on a five-second "Shop Clock" instead of the auctioneer style which frequently led to more incentives.

Following the Instant Bargain was the Fame Game, but this wasn't your mother's Fame Game (or, for that matter, anything decent) — while the "Who am I?" clues remained, the solution was revealed much like a Toss-Up on Wheel of Fortune; a correct answer won a flat T$15. The commercial bumpers promoted special offers, read by announcer Rolonda Watts.

The game then continued with "Knock-Off", a wholesale ripoff of Wipeout despite the whole "not owned by Fremantle Media" thing. A category was given, with 12 possible answers — nine right (for amounts of T$2, T$5, T$10, or T$15), three wrong (which Rossi compared to knock-off handbags or jewelry). A player who found a Knock-Off was eliminated for the rest of the round; like the short-lived Dirty Rotten Cheater, the less obvious answers awarded more money. Another Instant Bargain was done, followed by...

Dis or Dat? from You Don't Know Jack (aka Speed Round #2), with the same time limit and awards/penalties as the first Speed Round. This was followed by Instant Cash, which remained the same but with wallets and smaller payouts, then a game-ending Speed Round for +/-T$10. As before, the winner was the person with the highest score.

The winner went on "the shopping spree of a lifetime", with prizes much like the original Sale endgame...although this prize list ended with a car or very expensive trip, with no big cash jackpot (unless one of the tiers was $10,000 cash) or opportunity to win all the prizes on display. The contestant first played Super Knock-Off, which was the same as Knock-Off except with a 6/6 structure and awards of $25, $50, or $100. The champion could either elect to buy one prize (or a Croton watch if s/he didn't have enough to buy the lowest prize) or return on the next show.

Saying Temptation was a disaster would be an insult to disasters — it debuted on September 10, 2007 to low ratings and low-to-no praise (most fans had been expecting a continuation of the 1980s Sale or a good translation of the popular Australian Temptation, and as a result blasted the resulting show for failing in almost every aspect). It didn't help that to beat the oncoming Writer's Strike, they did about 13 episodes per taping session.

The ratings never got above 0.5, resulting in last place among the games that season; first-run episodes aired through May 23, with reruns through September 5. Most stations replaced it with Trivial Pursuit: America Plays, whose ratings were...pretty much the same, actually.

Game Show Tropes in use:

 * Bonus Round: Shopping, preceded by Super Knock-Off.
 * Bonus Space: Instant Bargain and Instant Cash.
 * Celebrity Edition: Two preview episodes aired on September 5, 2007 with former American Idol finalists competing for charity, and later reran on March 13-14, 2008 in a slightly edited form (no mention of being previews). The "preview" rating, 0.8, was the highest the series ever got; the fact that half of those viewers tuned out afterward should tell you something.
 * Consolation Prize: Those who didn't win any Instant Cash or Instant Bargains appeared to get exactly nothing (not even their final score in cash) except "lots of love and hugs" from Rossi. Even the former American Idol finalists competing for charity didn't get anything if they didn't win; think about that for a second.
 * Game Show Winnings Cap: Five days, which ended with you being forced to buy a single prize and then getting the hell out.
 * Personnel:
 * The Announcer: Rolonda Watts, who never appeared on-camera (unlike Jay Stewart in the 1980s, who sometimes helped model prizes and even filled in as co-host) and may have never been in the studio.
 * Game Show Host: Rossi Morreale.
 * Lovely Assistant: Subverted, as almost all the models were male.
 * Progressive Jackpot: Instant Cash, which allowed the leading player to spend their lead for a 1-in-3 shot at a mini-cash jackpot. The top prize was $500, which increased by that amount per show until won (or reached $5,000, it which point it froze); the consolation prize was $100.
 * Speed Round: There were three, each 30 seconds long, the last at T$10 a question. After the last one, the player in the lead won.
 * Prize Letdown: Rather than the vacations, household appliances, furniture, etc. of other versions, Temptation mostly offered designer women's clothing, perfume, jewelry, etc. — prizes which not many male contestants want (well, unless...). One of the largest offenders was a prize package which included backstage passes to a Chippendales show; luckily, the contestant who won it was female.
 * Averted in the case of Wii gaming packages, trips to Washington D.C., and a few others that harked back to better days. Sadly, outside the bonus game, these were few and far between.
 * Unexpectedly Obscure Answer: And you can rest assured that it was to save money.


 * Cut Short: The Grand Finale, which also got to be the last repeat, had the champion opting to return "next time".
 * Early Installment Weirdness: The first taped week, aired March 3-7, 2008, had the either/or Speed Round played after the Fame Game and a second Fame Game for T$25 done right before Instant Cash. Some episodes also had Knock-Off answers worth T$3.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Instant Bargain and Instant Cash. Knock-Off was a knock-off of Wipeout; Super Knock-Off was a rip-off of Wipeout's bonus round, or at least the giving of a category and the correct/incorrect answer layout.
 * Idiot Ball: Quite a few, including Mark Coyle, got handed this during the run.
 * In Name Only: The New "Sale Of The Century". Sure...
 * No Budget: Some champs walked away with nothing to show for their efforts, while losing contestants didn't even get their final score in cash. Several episodes managed to give away a grand total of $0!
 * Out of Order: You'd think a show with returning champs would avert this on principle; you'd be wrong.
 * Short Title: Long Elaborate Subtitle: Temptation: The New Sale Of The Century.
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: Used if they wanted to save money.
 * Viewers are Morons: Among other things, those in charge thought players needed the answer spelled-out in front of them during the Fame Game instead of making said players use logic, deduction, and reasoning.