Debt

"Drowning in a sea of bills? Then it's time to play 'Debt'! The game show where three debt-laden Americans just like you compete to have us pay off all of their bills and go home with nothing!!"

—Opening spiel, as read by Wink Martindale.

American Game Show hosted by genre veteran Wink Martindale which ran on Lifetime from 1996-98,and could be argued as the Ur Example of the show that revived the whole genre after an early-1990s swoon. It aired on Lifetime, a cable/satellite network that caters to women. It got good ratings but was canceled after two seasons when it was learned that some half of its viewership consisted of men.

Three contestants began the game, each with fairly sizable amounts of debt (ranging from about $6,000 to over $8,000). The object of the game was to eliminate your debt by answering pop culture questions, each worth "negative dollars" (i.e., -$100) that would subtract from your debt.

Round 1 - General Debt: Five categories were shown, each with five clues worth from -$50 to -$250. One of the players picked a clue, which was read as a first-person clue ("I'm the TV show about a bar 'where everybody knows your name'."). Players would then buzz in and answer it with a second-person response ("You are Cheers, Wink!") Wrong answers added to your debt. One clue was called the "Debt-O-Nator", and was worth -$500 for getting it right. In the second season, the rules were changed so that players simply picked the category and had all five clues read in increasing order, the Debt-O-Nator double the value of one category's clues, a -$1 toss-up was asked to award control at the start (originally the player with the most real-life debt started off), and players no longer had to answer in second-person. The player with the most debt remaining after time was called was eliminated.
Round 2 - Gambling Debt: The two remaining players were shown a category, and would bid on how many of the five clues they could answer correctly. The value of the category either went to the player who fulfilled their bid, or the other player if the bid was not completed. Categories were worth -$300, -$400, -$500, -$750, and -$1,500; whoever had less debt remaining (or was so far ahead the other player couldn't catch up) won the game.
Round 3 - Get Outta Debt: A 60-second Speed Round where the player tried to answer 10 questions in a given category correctly. Successfully doing so effectively eradicated their debt by winning a cash prize equal to it. Otherwise, they got the money earned in the front game.
Round 4 - Bet Your Debt: The player was offered a double-or-nothing gamble by answering one final question based on the contestant's chosen pop culture specialty. If they got it right, they doubled their winnings; if not, they lost the money and settled for a Consolation Prize.

Not to be confused with the fanfic of the same name, the novel Debt of Honor, or the trope Debt Detester.

The following Game Show tropes appear in Debt:

All or Nothing: Played with; the whole premise of the show was for people to walk away with "nothing"; i.e., no more debt. Early in the run, contestants who were unsuccessful in Get Outta Debt had to answer their specialty question correctly in order to claim their front game winnings; in these cases, Wink would mention "It's all or nothing, and what you want is nothing."
Bonus Round: Get Outta Debt and Bet Your Debt, collectively.
Consolation Prize: Players eliminated in the first two rounds got a Debt-branded piggy bank and a savings bond ($200 for the Round 1 loser, $500 for the Round 2 loser). Players who bombed on Bet Your Debt got either a $1,000 or $1,500 savings bond, depending on whether they had initially won Get Outta Debt or not.
Golden Snitch: Averted; Gambling Debt ended as soon as one player was mathematically eliminated from contention. In some runaway games, this could happen as quickly as the third category.
Let's Just See What Would Have Happened: The Bet Your Debt question was always asked, even if the player decided not to take the gamble.
Personnel:
- The Announcer: Julie Claire.
- Game Show Host: Wink Martindale. Commonly known as one of the cheesier hosts in the business, he turned it Up to Eleven for this show.
Rules Spiel: Pretty much all the rules, but most notably "All of our questions use the 'I am/You are' format, and you will be penalized for an incorrect answer."
Speed Round: Get Outta Debt.
Unexpectedly Obscure Answer: A side effect of Bet Your Debt, as few people outside of experts on the subject chosen would know the answers to the questions given.

Tropes used in Debt include:

Briefcase Full of Money: Brought in by the "Debt Security Guard" when tempting a contestant with Bet Your Debt, but only if s/he won Get Outta Debt.
Canis Latinicus: For some reason, Wink sometimes referred to the contestants as "contesti" during the show's opening.
Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Having only five clues in each category of Round 2 made it so the vast majority of the time, the opening bid was four questions. This would then force the other player to bid a perfect five or tell the first player to complete their bid.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: The first-season game board looked kind of like a horizontal Jeopardy! board.
Gratuitous Disco Sequence: Wink would emerge from silhouette in the classic Saturday Night Fever pose when being announced, under a generic disco music bed.
Opening Narration: As described at the top of the page.
The Stoic: The "Debt Security Guard", a bald and bearded man (nicknamed "Mr. Clean") whose only role was to present the Briefcase Full of Money when Wink explained Bet Your Debt. During one famous instance where a Bet Your Debt winner ripped off his toupee, the guard put it on and danced a bit.
Writers Cannot Do Math: If you add a negative number (the value of the clues) to a negative number (the player's score), the sum would be even lower, thus the contestant would end up going deeper into debt.
You Wanna Get Sued?: The original logo looked almost exactly like the Visa card logo and, after threats of a lawsuit, was changed to a more generic maroon title surrounded by a light-blue border.