Trivial Pursuit (American game show)

Nine players (originally twelve) competed for three spots in the second half of the show.

Five questions with four multiple-choice answers were asked by the host. The players had 10 seconds to answer by pressing a number from 1–4 on a keypad in front of them. They scored points based on how fast they answered the question correctly, with a maximum of 1,000 points available. After five questions, the six players with the highest scores played round two and the other players were eliminated.

This round was played in the same way as Round 1, except the three highest-scoring players won a prize and a chance to play Trivial Pursuit in the next half-hour show.

As in the board game, three contestants raced to complete their game pie first by answering questions from categories that match the colored wedge. Unlike the board game, however, it took two questions to complete a wedge and no board or die was used. Red replaced the brown-colored wedge.

In the first three rounds, each player received two turns consisting of a category choice followed by a question posed by host Martindale. A correct answer lit up a wedge but an incorrect answer gave the two opponents a chance to ring-in and steal the wedge with a correct answer.

In the first round, the six traditional Trivial Pursuit categories were used.

The second round used either the categories from the Movie Edition or Television Edition.

In the second half of Round 2 (later known as Round 3), a new set of categories were played. (In early episodes, the questions related to a certain year in history.) The category sets used were different each show and were borrowed from multiple versions of the board game.

Rounds 2 and 3 included three special questions known as "Bonus Questions" hidden behind three of the categories--one in one half of the round and two in the other. When chosen, the player who answered an audio or video question correctly had an opportunity to answer a follow-up question which awarded the player $100 and another half-wedge in the color of their choice with a correct answer.

The final round again used the traditional basic categories as in Round 1, but the round was played in a different manner. The round started with a toss-up question and the first player to ring-in and answer correctly controlled the round. The player in control kept choosing categories and answering questions until he/she either filled his or her pie (thereby winning the game), or missed a question, at which point the other two players could ring-in and steal control and the wedge. If nobody answered the question another toss-up was played. The first player to completely light up the entire pie won the game, $500, an additional prize and played the bonus round. But if sometime later during the final round, a warning sound would signal that there was one minute left to play in the round and if neither player had completed their pie when the one minute expired (signified by a buzzer), then the player with the most lit wedges won the game.

The winning player had 45 seconds to answer six questions (again from the six basic categories) in order to fill up a pie shown on a monitor. Each correct answer lit a color in the pie. A wrong answer or a pass automatically moved to the next category. After the first six questions the player went back to questions from the categories missed as time permitted (later episodes observed that the categories continued in sequence even if a question was already answered in that category). The winning player received $100 for each wedge lit and if they lit up all six wedges before the 45 seconds expired, he/she won $1,000 and a trip.

If there was extra time at the end of the show, an audience member was called on stage and given the opportunity to answer five multiple-choice questions (much like the "Interactive" portion of the show) worth $20 apiece, for a maximum payoff of $100.