Rodeo Drive

Three contestants played a game all about celebrity gossip based on the world famous Beverly Hills street of the same name.

Round 1
To start, a monitor opens up behind & over the contestants. On that monitor is a game board with seven hidden words connected to a famous celebrity past or present. On his/her turn, the contestant chose a number from 1 through 7. The word was revealed to the home audience as well as his/her two opponents, after which the opponents predicted in secret whether the contestant in control would say the word or not. The contestant in control had 15 seconds to "do some gossipping" – in other words, to describe the celebrity as much as possible. If the contestant said the chosen hidden mystery word in 15 seconds they won a hidden point value next to that word (anywhere from 100 to 250 points based on the difficulty of the word). If he/she can't, the contestant still received five points for each of the remaining six words that player did say. Then the other players' predictions were revealed and a correct prediction was worth 50 points. Play continued until all three contestants had described one celebrity and predicted twice. If two players were tied at the end of the round, a toss-up true or false statement about a celebrity was read. The first player to buzz-in with correct answer scored one point (preventing any further ties involving that player) and the advantage in round 2. An incorrect answer automatically gave the opponent the point and the advantage.

Round 2 (Fact or Rumor)
The contestants were rearranged and seated from left to right in order of how they finished the first round. In this round host DuArt read a series of statements about celebrities, each one being either a fact (a true statement) or a rumor (a false statement). Play started with the first place player and guessed if the statement given was a fact or a rumor. A correct answer earned answer that player 100 points and kept control, but an incorrect answer passed control to the second place player. That player continued answering questions until he/she missed, at which point the third place player gained control. An incorrect answer from the third place player gave control back to the first player. During this round, host DuArt would also do her famous voice impersonations, appropriate to that question's subject, more often if the answer was wrong. The round lasted for approximately seven minutes. When two bells rang, its a two-minute warning, and when more bells rang, the round and the game was over. The player with the most points at the end of the game won the game. If the game ended in a tie, a tiebreaker similar to that used in Round 1 was used to determine a winner. The winner of the game became the champion, won $500 and went "Window Shopping & Eavesdropping down Rodeo Drive for thousands of dollars in cash and prizes.

Rodeo Drive (Bonus Round)
Before going to Rodeo Drive, the championship player was asked five more questions to increase the money deposited in the Rodeo Drive bank with the basic starting amount being $1,000. On each question, host DuArt gave a choice of two celebrity names. Sometimes the answer could be one of the celebrities, other times the answer could be both. Each correct answer added $200 more to the bank.

After the second commercial break, the winning contestant along with Louise went strolling down Rodeo Drive which consisted of four shops and the bank. On each store, the winning contestant was overhearing some gossip about a celebrity. If the contestant can guess who's being talked about he/she moved on to the next store. If the contestant can get pass all four stores and the bank in 60 seconds or less, he/she won all four prizes and all the money in the bank. If the contestant can't do that when time ran out, he/she still won a choice of any of the prizes from the stores passed. Either way, the contestant returned to play the next show as champion.

Trivia
Rodeo Drive started out as a 1981 pilot for CBS hosted by future Hit Man & Press Your Luck host Peter Tomarken.

Links
Rules for Rodeo Drive @ Loogslair.net Josh Rebich's Rules for Rodeo Drive