Russian Roulette (TV series)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A GSN Game Show in which four contestants competed in a last-player-standing quiz contest. Each player stands on one of the six trap doors on the circular floor. A player who misses a multiple-choice question must play Russian Roulette, by pulling a lever to spin the "Drop Zones", to stay in the game.

The first question had one Drop Zone, indicated by a red border; each question after that added a Drop Zone until five were in play. Any contestant standing in a Drop Zone fell three feet through the floor and out of the game. The last contestant in the game advanced to the Bonus Round for a chance to win up to $100,000.


The following Game Show tropes appear in Russian Roulette (TV series):
  • Bonus Round: A bit different, depending on the season.
  • Deadly Game: The game was named after and the premise was built around one.
  • Let's Just See What Would Have Happened: If a player won the $10,000, he could play one more round of Russian Roulette with the drop zones that had opened for a chance at $100,000. Even if he declined, they would pull the handle anyway (with the player off the drop zone) to see what would have happened.
  • Personnel:

Tropes used in Russian Roulette (TV series) include:
  • Catch Phrase: "Watch your step."
  • The Cameo: The Whammy was in the Studio Audience during the April Fool's 2003 show.
    • With Todd Newton of Whammy! hosting. Mark L. Walberg and Kennedy from Friend Or Foe were in the audience as well.
  • Obvious Rule Patch: The bonus round changed from answering five "killer" questions to answering ten multiple-choice questions, with the timer starting after Mark read the first question.
  • Opening Narration: "Four strangers. One goal: to win a head-to-head competition for the chance of $100,000. One wrong answer could be their last... this is Russian Roulette. From [place], [occupation] [name]; from [place], [occupation] [name]; from [place], [occupation] [name]; from [place], [occupation] [name]. Now here's our host, Mark L. Wahlberg..."