Card Sharks (2001 game show)

The 2001 version of Card Sharks was a daily syndicated game show that ran from September 17, 2001 until January 11, 2002. Pat Bullard was the host. Tami Anderson served as the card dealer. Gary Kroeger was the announcer. The show was taped at Tribune Studios in Hollywood.

Format

Main game

The gameplay was drastically different from the successful incarnations of the 1970s and the 1980s. Four players competed, two at a time. They played in a best-two-out-of-three match, each playing a common row of seven high-low cards.

No survey questions were used on this episode. Instead, one player started the game in control of the cards and kept control as long as they kept guessing correctly. An incorrect guess passed control over to the other player unless it was on the last card of the row, when it meant a loss for the player who guessed it wrong.

All four players were given two "Clip Chip" tokens to start the game, and if one of them wanted to change the card in play they would place the token in a slot on their podium. A video clip would play, with one of three possible options:

• A situation (a la Candid Camera or Street Smarts) which was stopped before its resolution.
• Someone introduces himself/herself and then asks which of two others he/she is associated with.
• Someone trying to list answers related to a topic within 10 seconds, or sing the correct lyrics to an obscure song.

Correctly predicting the solution of the clip allowed the contestant to change the card, while an incorrect answer did not.

Each game was worth $500, with two needed to win the match. Both players kept the money; the loser also received an Argus digital camera as a consolation prize.

The third game, if necessary, was played similar to the tiebreaker on the original Card Sharks with three cards. The difference, other than the fact that there was only one row of cards used, was that no Clip Chips could be used.

The two match winners then squared off in the Big Deal, one final row of seven cards. Clip Chips, if the players had any left, were still in play. Whoever won this final showdown won an additional $1,100 (for an overall total of $2,100) and advanced to the Money Cards. The loser of the Big Deal kept their prior winnings and won a consolation trip to Las Vegas.

Money Cards

The day's champion advanced to the Money Cards, which differed greatly from the original two versions of Card Sharks. Three rows of 3, 2, and 1 cards were dealt, with the last card being called the "Major Wager".

The champion's $2,100 front game winnings was used as the Money Cards stake and was divided accordingly. The contestant began with $700 on the bottom row and earned an additional $700 for each row they advanced to, including the Major Wager row. The contestant was dealt a card to start and wagered as they went along. They could only change the base card on each row (similar to the original NBC version of the show), and minimum bets were $100 except during the Major Wager, when they had to bet at least half of their bank (similar to the first two versions' Big Bet). Originally, a tie was considered a push, but for reasons unexplained, this was later changed to a loss of wager. If the champion went bust on the last row, they received $700 as a consolation prize. The most money ever won on this version was $27,450. Unlike the earlier versions, the games were self-contained, starting with the semi-finals and ending with the Money Cards. In addition, there were also no returning champions and no car games.

Special shows

During the show's 13-week run, there was a special week of shows taped after the September 11, 2001 attacks where Los Angeles area firefighters and police officers played the game for charities to help their brother officers in New York as well for helping victims and their families recover from the attacks.

Cancellation

This version of Card Sharks, which aired in some markets as a companion show to the syndicated To Tell The Truth and Family Feud (which Pearson Television was also producing), suffered from low ratings and failed to make it to midseason, being cancelled after thirteen weeks. Reruns continued into January, after which the show went off the air.

External links

• Card Sharks (2001) at the Internet Movie Database