Russian Roulette (game show)

Russian Roulette

Created by	Gunnar Wetterberg
Presented by	Mark L. Walberg
Narrated by	Burton Richardson
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	131
Production
Location(s)	Sony Pictures Studios Culver City, California
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Gunnar Wetterberg Productions Columbia TriStar Television (season 1) Sony Pictures Television (season 2) GSN Originals
Release
Original network	GSN
Original release	June 3, 2002 (2002-06-03) – June 13, 2003 (2003-06-13)

Russian Roulette is an American game show created by executive producer Gunnar Wetterberg that ran for two seasons on Game Show Network from June 3, 2002 to June 13, 2003.

Gameplay

The Russian Roulette set consists of a circle with six trapdoors (referred to as "drop zones" by the host), four of which are occupied by the episode's contestants.

First round

The four contestants are each given $150 at the beginning of the episode, and questions in the first round are all worth that same amount.

The number of red lights on the field indicates the number of active drop zones. At the start of the round there is only one drop zone active. After each additional question, another drop zone is added, increasing the odds that the contestant will be eliminated after providing an incorrect answer. From the fifth question onward, there are always five drop zones.

One contestant is shown a question and must challenge an opponent to answer it. The challengee is then shown three possible answers and has 10 seconds to choose the right answer. If they are correct, that contestant wins $150 and becomes the challenger for the next question. If they guess incorrectly, they lose all their money to the challenger and must play Russian Roulette by pulling the handle in front of them to rotate the drop zones in play around the six spots. If a drop zone lands on that contestant's spot, they drop through the floor and are eliminated from the game; otherwise, they remain in play.

The round ends when a contestant drops and is eliminated. If time expires before this happens, one player is eliminated at random via one final handle pull at the center of the stage. The player with the highest score is granted immunity from the drop by coming to the center of the stage to pull the handle. If there is a tie for the lead, host Walberg pulls the lever himself, with all contestants in danger of elimination. The eliminated player's money (if any) is distributed evenly among the remaining contestants.

Second and third rounds

The second round is played similarly to the first, with the three remaining contestants answering questions valued at $200 each, and questions now having four possible answers. In round three, the two remaining contestants face off with questions are valued at $300 (season 1) or $250 (season 2). Play is similar to rounds 1 and 2, except that the player who first hears the question may elect to answer it themselves or challenge their opponent. At the conclusion of round 3, the remaining contestant keeps all their money and goes to the bonus round.

The $100,000 Bonus Round

First season

The winning contestant is moved to the top-left zone and has 60 seconds to answer five "brain-teaser" questions referred to by the host as "Five Killer Questions". These usually consist of word jumbles, math problems and general-knowledge questions. The timer begins ticking while the host asks the first question. After every ten seconds, one drop zone opens on the playfield. If time runs out or the contestant at any time gives an incorrect answer, he or she drops, but receives $500 for every correct answer. The contestant has the option to pass on a question and return to it if time allows. Also, the contestant must say "My answer is..." before their answer so that thinking aloud is not mistaken for an answer.

Second season

The endgame is similar to the first version, except the contestant must answer 10 multiple-choice questions (each with three choices) in 60 seconds in order to win $10,000. The timer only starts ticking after the first question has been read. If the contestant fails, he/she drops and receives an additional $300 for every correct answer given. Saying "My answer is" before the answer is no longer required. As before, should all 10 questions be answered correctly, the clock stops, and the contestant then has the option of risking their bonus round winnings for a final pull.

Russian Roulette

In the case of both seasons, the contestant can keep the $10,000 or risk it on one final game of Russian Roulette, with the number of drop zones opening during the game used as the number of zones for the final game. The player keeps their front game winnings no matter what, but loses their $10,000 if they drop. If they survive, they win an extra $100,000.

International versions

On all versions of Russian Roulette outside of the U.S., U.K., Portugal, and Poland (in season two), there are also displays of the contestants' heart rates on the screen (examples include Russia's, Poland's (season one), and Hong Kong's versions), and most versions even have the contestants themselves asking questions to their opponents. There is also a camera underneath each of the trapdoors to catch footage of the contestant dropping from another angle. Some may also have a maximum time limit of 15 seconds instead of 10 to answer questions. The Polish version has 30 seconds to answer the question in season one and 20 seconds in season two. Most versions of the show (except for the versions in the U.S., Greece, Taiwan and India) run for an hour rather than a half-hour. As of 2013, there are no versions of the show still in production internationally. However, China's religional broadcaster Shandong TV revived the show in Spring 2015 in substitution of the previous edition using the format of The Million Pound Drop, this version using a format that a little different to other ones - and the daily prize fund always starts at RMB¥50,000, and each correct answer before the final round earns RMB¥1,000 to the final pot. The Chinese version is broadcast live on weekdays, and runs for 65 minutes (including commercials).

Legend: Currently airing No longer airing

Country	Name	Host	Channel	Prize	First year aired
Argentina	Decisión Final	Horacio Cabak	América	AR$100.000	June 6, 2003
Brazil	Roleta Russa	Milton Neves	Rede Record	R$500.000	October 2002-October 2003
Bulgaria	Руска pулeткa	Nikolay Georgiev	BNT 1	100.000лв	2003
Chile	Ruleta Rusa	Diana Bolocco	Canal 13	$100.000.000	May 5, 2013
China	让梦想飞·智命一击 Rang Meng Xiang Fei · Zhi Ming Yi Ji	Yang Bo	Shandong TV	No limit for top prize	March 16, 2015
Egypt	الدائرة El Daera	Ayman Kaisouni	ERTU1	250.000 ج.م.	September 2010
Greece	Ρωσική Ρουλέτα Rosiki Rouleta	Miltos Makridis	MEGA	€100.000	2002-2003
Hong Kong	一觸即發	Dayo Wong	TVB	HK$500,000	2002
India	Bachke Rehnaa Zara Sambhalna	Mohnish Behl	SET	Rs.1,000,000	September 9, 2002
Indonesia	Russian Roulette	Dede Yusuf	Trans TV	Rp100,000,000	September 4, 2002 – December 31, 2003
Poland	Rosyjska Ruletka	Henryk Talar Krzysztof Ibisz	Polsat	100,000zł	2002-2004
Portugal	Decisão Final	José Carlos Malato	RTP1	€30.000	May 28, 2012 – January 13, 2013
Romania	Ruleta Rusească	Razvan Exarhu Florin Mihoc	TVR	1.000.000lei	2003-2006
Russia	Русская Рулетка	Valdis Pelsh Maxim Galkin (25 December 2002)	Channel One	₽1,000,000	April 2, 2002 – August 6, 2004
Serbia and Montenegro	Ruski Rulet! Руски рулет!	Irfan Mensur	RTV Pink	Unknown	September 2003-July 2005
Serbia and Montenegro	Ruski Rulet Show! Руски рулет шоу! (VIP version)	Milan Kalinić	RTV Pink	Unknown	Unknown
Serbia Croatia Bosnia and Herzegovina Montenegro Slovenia Macedonia	Ruski Rulet! Руски рулет!	Dragan Marinković Maca	RTV Pink Pink BH Pink M	€2,000	January 2007 – 2008
Singapore	灵机一洞	Xu Nailin	MediaCorp TV Channel 8	S$10,000	2003-2004
Spain	Decisíon Fínal	Luis Crespo	Telecinco	€10,000	March 18, 2002
Taiwan	俄羅斯輪盤	Cai Kangyong	Star Chinese Channel	NT$1,000,000	Unknown
Turkey	Rus Ruleti	Berkun Oya	Star TV	1,000,000YTL	April 12, 2008
United Kingdom	Russian Roulette	Rhona Cameron	ITV	£10,000	October 31, 2002 (Pilot) April 1, 2003 – April 22, 2003

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.