Shop 'til You Drop

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Long-running Game Show franchise created by Stone Stanley Entertainment where two teams of two players competed for prizes by completing various stunt/trivia games. Round 1 stunts were worth 100 points, and Round 2 was worth 200; winning a stunt also allowed the team to pick a prize from one of the mall's stores.

The maingame ended with the Shopper's Challenge Round, a 90-second rapid-fire Q&A with correct answers worth 50 points. After time expired, the team in the lead played the bonus round.

In the Bonus Round (called "Shop 'Til They Drop"), the team was given a set of six "gifts" that one person opened; they could either keep the prize, or "take it back" to any store in the mall (all of which had gift boxes in front). In either case, the runner had to take the gift to a table on the other end of the stage and hit a bell sitting atop a podium before the opener could continue.

After that, the gifts would be revealed; if the team managed to get at least $2,500 in prizes ($1,000 during Season 1), they won the prizes and a "dream vacation".

The show is notable for having been Uncanceled twice, with each uncancellation also involving a Channel Hop — it aired on Lifetime from 1991-94, Family Channel from 1996-98, and PAX from 2000-05. Pat Finn hosted until 2002, when the show went into repeats for a year; it returned in 2003 with JD Roberto as host, running until 2005.


The following Game Show tropes appear in Shop 'til You Drop:
  • Bonus Round: Shop 'Til They Drop.
  • Bonus Space: One store in each episode was the "Shopper's Special", which awarded a mini-trip.
  • Celebrity Edition: An hour-long Christmas special was done on December 1993 with four teams (including one team of three) playing for charity and a far larger budget than the norm. Cash was used instead of points (Shopper's Challenge awarded $500 per correct answer), and the bonus round target was increased to $5,000 with victory awarding a further $10,000.
  • Personnel:
  • Speed Round: Shopper's Challenge.
  • Zonk: Gag prizes worth less than $50 were among the gifts in the bonus round during Season 1, and were removed when the goal was increased to $2,500.

Tropes used in Shop 'til You Drop include:
  • Christmas Episode: The aforementioned 1993 special.
  • Minigame Game: The show in a nutshell.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: The bonus round music and the original theme song were recycled from College Mad House.
  • Tempting Fate: Until the 2003 overhaul, Shop 'Til They Drop used both floors of the two-story mall. As such, contestants typically had to run down a flight of stairs holding a very large, vision-obstructing box.