The Confidence Game

The Confidence Game was an unaired pilot quiz show.

Broadcast
Unaired 1976

Host
Jim McKrell

Announcer
Kenny Williams

Gameplay
In the main game, four players are seated in a semi-circle, each with their own podium. On the podium are two hidden buttons and a non-hidden phone. Each player is asked a question from McKrell while the phone receiver is planted on his ear. They can press a button and be given the answer, or they can choose to go it alone. The other players then guess whether that player got it on their own if they knew it or didn't ("got help"). The one player then gives an answer, and if they're correct, they get $100 for every player they were able to fool into thinking they knew it or not. In the first round, the two male players each were able to fool two of their fellow contestants, and tied at $200 each. The tiebreaker consisted of one of the players hearing a question, with the other guessing "knew it" or "got help". One player was able to successfully bluff the other, and moved on to the "Challenge Round". The champion and the winner of the main game face off in the Challenge round, there was a money tower with values of $50-$75-$100-$200-$300-$400-$500-$1,000-$1,000 (yep, 2 at $1,000). A question is asked, and the champion may try to answer for $50. If he declines, the challenger then may try for $75, and then the champion at $100, and so on until someone decides to answer the question. If they're right, they get the money, otherwise, $300 is given to the opponent. For the second Challenge Round, the money tree increased to $300-$400-$500-$1,000-$2,000-$3,000-$5,000-$5,000, with the incorrect answer penalty increasing to $1,500. The target in this round was $5,000 or two minutes, and the winner also received a new Chevrolet-Heatter-Quigley Vega.