GSN will be airing a head-to-head elimination game show/tournament with 16 former big-money-winning game show legends, competing for a $100,000 grand prize. The premiere date is August 7. The format's based on a popular UK quiz show which also pitted big game show winners head-to-head. I found a comprehensive link with information and a production back-history (the show was originally going to be on ABC in 2004). Definitely be sure to check the clip of the final round from the original 2003 UK competition (also in the link in the first paragraph). That round's questions are designed for the best 2 contestants, but I can only imagine the gameplay is just as intense in the preliminary rounds.

Dennis Miller has been announced as the host by GSN, although if it's anything like the original, Miller will only be doing between-round commentary. Amanda Byram is set to co-host. Some sources are speculating on who the actual question reader will be--there are a few good guesses on Pat Kiernan, but no information released yet.

Based on the original UK version and the potential contestants, this could be huge. And game show fans across the board should be pleased by the (partial) list of contestants--hopefully GSN will provide a complete list soon. Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings from Jeopardy will be there, as well as Dr. Kevin Olmstead and John Carpenter from Millionaire. Other contestants will also be from Jeopardy and Millionaire, as well as Tic Tac Dough (best guess is 43-game 1980s winner Lt. Thom McKee), Wheel of Fortune, Twenty-One (the Maury Povich version, which produced a few million-dollar winners) and Lingo (because it's GSN, naturally). Also a possibility are contestants from Greed and Weakest Link.

The official site is now up, but there's no listing of contestants yet. However, it now lists the premiere episode as Saturday August 4.

A news link has revealed the 16 contestants and first-round matchups. It looks like new episodes will air each Saturday and Sunday, for the next 4 weekends starting August 4 and 5. Contestant and matchup lists have been spoiler-tagged just in case. Rankings are assigned from 1 to 16 by total prize money won (including all game shows they appeared on, as well as tournament of champions appearances, etc). The news link's #15's "TBA" spot has been confirmed by another source (as well as in the ad airing on GSN). It was presumably listed as TBA when written, so as not to spoil another fairly recent show's outcome. There are two matches per show. Subject matter of each match's rounds include math and logic, words and letters, and pop culture and current events.

#1 Brad Rutter ($3.255 mil)--Jeopardy!
#2 Ken Jennings ($3,020,700)--Jeopardy!
#3 Kevin Olmstead ($2.207 mil)--Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
#4 Ed Toutant ($1.871 mil)--Jeopardy!, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
#5 David Legler ($1.765 mil)--Twenty-One
#6 John Carpenter ($1.25 mil)--Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
#7 Rahim Oberholtzer ($1.12 mil)--Twenty-One
#8 Nancy Christy ($1 mil)--Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
#9 Ogi Ogas ($500,000)--Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
#10 Phyllis Harris ($497,150)--Card Sharks, Wheel of Fortune, Trivia Trap, Scrabble, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Super Greed
#11 Thom McKee ($312,700)--Tic Tac Dough
#12 Frank Spangenberg ($269,596)--Jeopardy!
#13 Leszek Pawlowicz ($194,700)--Jeopardy!, Win Ben Stein's Money, History IQ
#14 Michelle Kitt ($107,500)--The Weakest Link
#15 Victor Lee (over $83,000, plus $1000 Jeopardy! third-place winnings)--World Series of Pop Culture 2, Jeopardy!
#16 Amy Kelly ($20,500)--Lingo

First Round Matchups:

Saturday, August 4: #2 Ken Jennings vs #15 Victor Lee; #3 Kevin Olmstead vs #14 Michelle Kitt
Sunday, August 5: #1 Brad Rutter vs #16 Amy Kelly; #4 Ed Toutant vs #13 Leszek Pawlowicz
Saturday, August 11: #7 Rahim Oberholtzer vs #10 Phyllis Harris; #6 John Carpenter vs #11 Thom McKee
Sunday, August 12: #8 Nancy Christy vs #9 Ogi Ogas; #5 David Legler vs #12 Frank Spangenberg

Quarterfinals are on August 18 and 19. Semifinals are on August 25. The final is on August 26, which will also include highlights and interviews.

Why isn't GSN showing Pat Kiernan any love in the promos? He's going to be doing most of the heavy lifting on this show. Dennis Miller and Amanda What's-her-name are just doing commentary. When Alex Trebek retires, Kiernan would be my top choice to take over Jeopardy!

Saw another commercial for this over the weekend, and it looks like on Saturday starting at 2 pm, they'll be showing some of the contestants' original game show appearances when they won big. Then the premiere of Grand Slam comes on at 7.

Well now that I've seen the show, I guess the answer is that Pat isn't Pat at all...he's "The Questioner." Not sure if I like that idea though, I have no problem with Pat being put on a pedestal, but it means that he can't use his wit and charm, he's just all business like he was on Studio 7 Anyone remember that show...just me? Ok then, moving on, anyway, that indecisiveness might have doomed that show, and I'm afraid it will do so here. Then again, anyone who's ever heard Pat Kiernan can recognize his voice...or at least I can.

That said, I'm hooked. I watched the YouTube clip of the Brit version that somebody posted, and even though I knew what was coming in terms of format, I found the show refreshing and exciting. I'll add it to my TiFaux Season Pass.

I watched the first episode tonight and really enjoyed it as well. I think there were more questions in one round of this game (there's a total of eight rounds per hourlong episode) than in a whole season of some other shows (1 vs. 100, 5th Grader, etc.). OK maybe not quite that drastic, but if it's questions you're after this is your show!

This is the only show I've been tempted to pause my DVR to slow down the show rather than fast forward to speed through the filler. I never actually did it, but some of those questions there's no way I could think of that fast. I pretty much rocked the numbers round, and was decent at some of the words & letters round, but was hit or miss on the general knowledge round. I'm definitely in this one for all the episodes!

Who won tonight? I sadly discovered that my cable company has discontinued GSN sometime recently.

Second-seeded Ken Jennings advanced to the next round, as did Michelle Kitt, who won just over $107k on The Weakest Link.

I enjoyed this show. I think that the Jeopardy! champions, and perhaps Michelle from The Weakest Link, DO have an advantage in that they were accustomed to answering questions quickly, as opposed to those from Millionaire, who had about a week and a half for each question. It was interesting to see the math and logic questions - those measure real "smarts", not just retention of a bunch of random facts.

Dennis Miller and Amanda Byram were interesting as the commentators. They provided a bit of a sporting event feeling with their color commentary and recap of the previous round. I think it's a pretty good show - especially as a summer game show. I wasn't too keen on the set, however, particulary the way they made the contestants face each other with no podium, etc. They looked uncomfortable.

Michelle also made a point that unlike some shows like Jeopardy, you really don't know what specific category is coming up within the general category.

I remember "Studio 7," and I think Pat got some of his rapid-fire question-reading practice from that show, but yeah, he is more fun to watch in WSoPC. In Grand Slam, he has an exceedingly challenging task of reading quickly enough, checking for correct answers. He's even forced to give the correct answer rather than just say "incorrect" and move on (e.g. that spelling answer where he had to spell the word out correctly, eating up seconds on the clock).

All Dennis asides aside, I think the talk of strategy was pretty dead-on. What's going to be interesting is that some matches, lopsided as they appear to be, may not be so lopsided.

Besides Dennis Miller and The Swan lady, whose commentary I fastforward through, I love the show. I don't know many of the answers, but I love it nonetheless.

This should have been on network television with a bigger jackpot; it would have been great summer television filler. Unfortunately, game shows that require anything resembling thought are no longer welcome on the major networks.

Well Brad Rutter delivered an asswhooping tonight. Then again, it was Rutter, someone who has a valid claim to best Jeopardy player ever (though KenJen will still be #1 in my heart), versus LingoMaster whatsherface, who is good at spelling 5 letter words, so I don't suppose it was supposed to be much of a contest. And it wasn't...she even lost the word round (though Rutter got all the spelling questions in the round, all of them were more than 5 letters).

Line of the night goes to Dennis Miller speaking about Rutter's lead: "It takes less than 1:42 to consumate...the game"

ETA: Hooray, I'm a Video Archivist now!!! I guess that explains these 100 GB of TV shows I've downloaded off iTunes...

I'm in heaven! Finally, there is another gameshow out there for smart people! Yes, Jeopardy! is always there for us braniacs, but I feel that even that has been dumbed down too. I found myself saying 'i dunno' a lot!
As for the commentary--do we really need that? To me it seems like more time for Dennis to 'riff' and doesn't add to gameplay. Granted, I only watched about 1 minute of the first section of commentary of the KenJen match, but that was enough for me. I DVR'd it and FF through Commentary and Commercials.
Great show. And yay for the team that won the WSoPC! I didn't get to see the semi-finals, so I had no idea...

I really like the format of the show and level of questions as well. After attempting to stick with them for the first half of the first show, I gave up and FFed all commentary by the two in the booth. I watched the second episode in less than 25 minutes.

Did anyone else break out the Austin Powers "Moley, moley, moley!" on first sight of the Irish(?) woman?

Go Ken!

I love this show because I do enjoy game shows and seeing past winners is cool [McKee v Carpenter is going to be awesome], but I also love this show because of the Math category. I'm a huge math geek, and I like doing math quickly.

I am enjoying this show. I really could do without the commentary, but at least it is easy to fast forward through. I wish we got to see Pat Kiernan a bit!

Whoo, Victor Lee sure was humbled by Ken Jennings! I didn't hate him during The World Series of Pop Culture, but he showed that he certainly has quite an ego, so it was nice to see him taken down a peg. And I think Kevin would have had a better shot at beating Michelle if he hadn't been so preoccupied with peeking at how much time he had remaining.

It looks like GSN will be reairing the weekend's episodes on Wednesdays at 8pm and 9pm Eastern. So if you missed them the first time, they're highly recommended.

Who knew Rutter had a weakness for math? Maybe that'll level out the playing field a little bit.

Thanks for the info about the reruns. Love Brad Rutter although I could do without Jennings.

Same here. To me, Ken Jennings is the Tiger Woods of game shows. Yes, he's good, but he is beatable (go Brad!!) and not everyone loves him as much as the media think.

I missed the second episode, so I need to catch it on Wednesday. I noticed there was not enough strategy used on the 'switches.' On one question, the Millionaire guy and the Weakest Link woman, switched a question back and forth (I think he sent the question to her and then she sent it back). Bad idea. Just gives the other player time to figure it out.

Yeah, I was surprised by that. Ken, by comparison, was lightning-quick with his math questions.

I still really like Ken Jennings. He just seems like a cool, regular guy who loves trivia. I haven't seen Brad Rutter on anything before, but I'm liking him, too.

This is such an accurate assessment. I've never liked him, and I know a bunch of people who feel the same way (for one reason or the other). Not to say I actively hate him, be if (and/or when) he loses, I know that will be on my TIvo loop for a while.

Word on the Ken Jennings hate. He's one of many people who I would like to see get taken down a peg, along with Tiger Woods.

I like the game's format, along with Dennis Miller being... well, himself. $100k seems like kind of a paltry amount when must of the contestants are millionaires. The way the timers flip back and forth reminds me of a chess clock. Is there a chess clock out there that can measure time to a tenth or a hundreth of a second?

I've got to tip the scales a bit and throw in my love for Ken. He's really good at what he does, and he's a nice guy. YMMV.

Very few of the contestants are millionaires, at least not from their game show winnings. I think there are two players who earned over $2 million on their respective shows, but that's immediately cut in half by taxes.

I think Jennings is great. His blog cracks me up consistently, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy. And how cute was little Dylan?

Wow, I had no idea I was such a polarizing figure.

I don't know about polarizing. To sort of paraphrase a another post upthread, it's like Tiger Woods: some people love him for his skill and success, others want to see the greats get taken down a peg, be it in the spirit of competition or America's tendancy to root for the underdog or simply jealousy and spite. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, and thus it's not really polarizing.

In any case, I can't wait to see Ken and Brad compete, they really seem like the heavyweights in the field (not that there aren't other big, capable names in there, but those are the two that i'm rooting for).

Hi Ken! *waves enthusiastically* I was hoping that you would post here. I always enjoyed your comments during your Jeopardy run. You always came across as smart (of course), droll and remarkably modest. Count me among your fans.

As for the game, I also think that contestants that have experience answering questions quickly have the advantage as evidenced by the outcomes of the games played thus far: Jeopardy 3 wins out of 3, Weakest Link 1 of 1 and Millionaire 0 for 2, including two top seeds. But then, a Millionaire contestant never has to answer more than 15 questions during his or her entire stint, so a big winner had to get lucky and get one in his or her wheelhouse. Victor Lee of TWSOPC did better than I predicted he would, considering his specialty, displaying a broader range of knowledge than expected. And the Lingo girl -- well, since she was no better than many contestants on that show, essentially getting here because she pulled a numbered ball out of a bowl, her results were a foregone conclusion.

What I really like about this is the rapid fire pace of the questioning. Contestants never get a respite during the rounds -- heck, they cannot even relax during what is technically their opponent's turn because of the possibility of the switch being utilized. So the pressure is relentless.

That's what I like as well. So many of the new game shows are unwatchable for me because they are soooooo slow.


Sorry, Ken, nothing personal, but I just got kind of tired of seeing you everywhere during your run on Jeopardy. And I guess I'm just not over it yet. And that's really not your fault. It's the typical media overload, which is where my Tiger Woods comparison came from.

This is where I curse and swear at my TV/cable/technology for not providing GSN. Curses!

If it comes down to Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, who's going to win? I like them both, really.

Hello, waving at Ken. Big fan of yours. Your response of "hoe" is still my favorite Jeopardy moment. I was glad to see that you had nice comments about Victor Lee. My team competed against his in the World Series of Pop Culture tryouts and got to watch the tapings as the alternate team. His team, and him especially, got kind of a bad rap on the show, so it was nice to see some positive stuff about him. Glad to see you on the game show circuit again.

I'm a huge fan of Ken's. I wasn't watching Jeopardy during his legendary streak (although the hype about it brought me back and I've been a loyal viewer since around Game #70), but I loved him more and more with every page of Braniac. Particularly when he described being given a binder of old TV Guide grids...I had the same reaction when I discovered those in a book in the library when I was in college. ("Look! This was when Bewitched came on right after That Girl!")

I enjoyed the first two episodes of Grand Slam, but only because I had them on TiVo and could FF through the irritating (and baffling) "color commentary." I'll definitely keep watching.

I wonder why they didn't find the big-money winners from Blockbusters? They have several who won the maximum ($120,000), which I think would have qualified them for the tournament, no?

Perhaps these individuals were approached and declined to appear. If this show is a success, they may widen the net and approach winners from more different types of game shows.

I agree, TiVangelist, Brainiac is a great read. It was fun to read all about the history and niches of trivia and fascinating to find out the behind-the-scenes information behind Ken's run on Jeopardy.

I'm hoping that Ken wins this one. During KJ's run on Jeopardy!, I had a chance to visit my Dad, whom I hadn't seen in 2 years because of the distance. He was suffering from some health issues and needed me to stay with him while Mom had minor surgery. Every night, Dad and I would watch Jeopardy!, (he was still sharp as a tack). Our big nightly debate was whether Ken should have been allowed to continue playing - I said yes, he said no. Sadly, my dad died before Ken's run ended, so we never resolved the issue. I swear that it was poetic justice that Ken lost on a question regarding H&R Block - my dad was a CPA!

Good luck, Ken!

That would have been me a year ago! Fortunately my cable company finally broke down and added GSN earlier this year, and I've been watching it ever since! This is probably my favorite of their original shows.

I kind of hope Ken and Brad make it through to the finals too, although some of the so-called underdogs have been making good showings, so I don't think it's a foregone conclusion. With the seedings based on winnings, it's very deceiving, especially with the "old" winners who were on shows with very limited jackpots. I was very impressed by Leszek - I think he has a chance of going to the end. Not only did he get almost all of his questions right, he did it incredibly quickly. His opponent (Ed) also did quite well for the most part, but basically got blown out.

The second round should be where it really heats up - I can't see there being any big blowouts after the first round, unless someone catches a really tough run of questions and/or just freezes.

Hey, I understand completely. Back in 2004, nobody was sicker of me than I was, believe me.

By the way, I have some Grand Slammery up at my blog, and I'll probably be doing post-mortems on subsequent matches as well, whether I'm in them or not.

I thought Carpenter would do well, but I didn't think that Thom would fall apart that badly. I guess a quarter-century is a long time in the game show industry...


Nice try, Ken. I can see your "wink-wink" from here!

Pat Kiernan! That's who the questioner is! I happened upon Grand Slam over the weekend, and although the show is great fun, I was distracted trying to figure out where I'd heard that voice before. Who knew a guy doing local news up here in Canada many years ago would be doing this gig. He was/is a news guy in NYC, is that right?

Sunday night's show was a big disappointment for me. I was so looking forward to Frank Spangenberg kicking ass and he completely choked. And I hope Brad bones up on his numbers and logic 'cuz he's up against Ogi Ogas next and I'll put my foot through the TV if Ogi Pringle beats him.

It was disappointing, I agree. I don't like the matches where one contestant stands there getting question after question wrong, or passing, while his clock runs out and his opponent basically has to do nothing but watch the other guy self-destruct. We had a couple of those this weekend.

I can't believe how fast this series is going. It will be over in, what, three more episodes? And then? That's it? Like the UTOC, it's a thing that happened and then it's over?

Those types of matches are painful to watch. Did John Carpenter even get a math question during that particular round? All I remember is Thom McKee getting question after question wrong.

I wonder why the contestants don't use their switches more often, but this game is so fast paced and intense, plus you aren't able to easily view how much time you have remaining, so it's no wonder some contestants get flustered or pass on the questions instead. Plus, it seems like a lot of these contestants genuinely are focused on answering the questions that are given to them. Frank Spangenberg is a good example of that, since he took a long time on a lot of his questions before passing or switching them.

If Thom had used one or two of his switches in the final round of his matchup with John, he may have been able to beat him. At one point, their time remaining was very close. Oh, well.

TiVangelist, the quarterfinals are on the 18th and 19th, the semifinals are on the 25th, with the final on the 26th. So I guess that means that there are four episodes left. I agree that the series is going by quickly, but it makes for a fun show to regularly watch over the weekends during this month.

I hope the semis & finals have more rounds or that they're 30 minutes long. I'd hate to see so few rounds dragged out to an hour program with filler by Miller.

I hope so, too, iMissEthan. The finale should really be something special. I'd hate to have to deal with even more blabbering by Dennis Miller. He irritates me enough as it is, and I fast forward through the majority of his commentary.

I can watch an episode in about 15 minutes. That includes 5 minutes/game of actual game play, plus the background videos and exit interviews. I can't listen to one moment of Dennis Miller talking.

I notice there is no interaction between the hosts and the contestants. Were they even on set at the same time?

iMissEthan said:


The quarters and semis will still be four rounds each. I've heard in the finals a fifth round is introduced, possibly like the keyword round at the end of the UK version.

Note: Schedule Change

I'd heard unofficial word on this news, but Ed Toutant (Grand Slam contestant) just put up an official message about it.

As of this Saturday, the remaining new episodes will premiere on Saturdays only (no longer Saturday/Sunday). That means the first quarterfinal match will still be on Saturday, August 18, with the second quarterfinal following on August 25. The semifinals will air on September 1, and the final episode will air on September 8. Repeats will now air on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

This choice was made to prevent the final two episodes airing on Labor Day Weekend. Also, the first 7 episodes will be aired as a marathon sometime between 9/1 and 9/8 (the link says 9/8, but I've also heard Labor Day 9/3).

Future contestants, work on that mental arithmetic. And Roman numerals.

Wow, I can't believe that Brad Rutter is out! I had him pegged for making it all the way to the finals.

I don't care for Ogi Ogas. He comes across as sort of a tool, the way that he blabs about how he trained his brain to work on word questions more quickly. And the way that he bobbled his head around while Brad missed several math questions in a row made it seem like he was bored with the match.

Yeah, Ogas is obnoxious. I'm not sure whether he thought the trash talk is cute, or villain-you-love-to-hate, or what, but he comes across like a real jackass. And the Grand Slam drinking game: take a drink every time he uses the word "heuristic".

I really wish the judges would get their act together on what the rule is about accepting answers that the contestant changes. There are times when the contestant gets out part of an answer, changes it, and is ruled incorrect; there are other times when the contestant gets out a full answer, changes it, and gets it accepted. This has the potential to be a serious problem.

That ridiculous fist pump of victory sealed it for me; it was such an assy move. I hope Ken demolishes him.

Ogi Ogis is a smarmy tool. So much hate for him. Which is unfortunate, because his name sounds like he could've been a Hanna Barbera cartoon character, but what an ass. "Brad does math like a little girl." Prick.

I'm glad Leggler won, but he and Lesceque(sp) both sounded like really good guys, and gracious too.

I think I'm in the minority, but I like Dennis Miller. He's good for a laugh. Even an inappropriate one.

Is there such a thing as an appropriate laugh for Dennis Miller?

Now that Brad's gone, I really hope that Ken takes it all. He just HAS to spank Ogis!