Sports Geniuses

A Jeopardy!-like sports game show. Was the 2nd game show to air on FSN.

Broadcast
FSN - March 2000-June 2000

Host & Hostess
Matt Vasgersian & Lisa Guerrero

Gameplay
Three contestants played a sports trivia game for big prizes.

Rounds 1 & 2
In the first two rounds, the three contestants faced a game board with four little monitors & one big monitor below them. Housed in each monitor is a sports category with five questions of increasing point value. A player in control would choose a category & point value, then host Matt posed the chosen question to all three players. The first player to buzz-in with a correct answer won the points & control of the board. In the second round each incorrect answer incurs a penalty.

Point Values
Here are the point values for each round.


 * Round 1 - Values ranged from 10 - 50 points.
 * Round 2 - Values were doubled in this round. So they ranged from 20 - 100 points.

Panasonic Double Play
In round one, behind two of the point values were special questions called "Panasonic Double Plays". Those questions came with a video clip. The first player to answer the video questions right won a chance to double the points by answering a follow-up question.

30 Second Blitz
At the end of the first round, all three contestants played a speed round which consisted of seven pictures of sports athletes. Each time a player buzzed in and identified the athlete, they scored 30 points. True to it's name, this round lasted for 30 seconds.

The Shaft
In round two, the player in last place won first possession of "The Shaft" (indicated by the baseball bat). As soon as a player who owned "The Shaft" heard a question, that player can use it to force either of his two opponents to answer that question. "The Shaft" stayed in play until it was given to a player who used it once before.

Home Viewer Question
At the end of round two, a home viewer winner of an interactive game on the show's website was asked a question about his/her favorite sports team posed by Sal Iacano (the real-life cousin of former Win Ben Stein's Money co-host & current late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel). A correct answer to that question won a prize.

The two players with the highest scores at the end of round two moved on to the final round.

Final Round
In the final round, the two finalists faced-off in a series of categories with multiple answers to it. On each category, the two survivors went back and forth naming items that fit the subject; as soon as one of the players gave an incorrect answer, repeated one or ran out of time, the other player won the category. Each category had a pot which increased by 10 points for each correct answer given; the first category started at 100 points, the base value grew by 25 for each new category played. The winner of each category won all the points in the pot. Categories continued coming into play until time ran out. As soon as time ran out, the player with the most points won the game & a prize package.

Link
Rules for Sports Geniuses