Scrabble Showdown

The second game show based on the crossword game that everyone loves to play, where every word's a winner.

Rules
Two teams (consisting of one kid and his/her parent/relative) compete in a series of Scrabble-based games, with the winners of each game winning a prize & extra "tiles", those tiles produce a starting score for the final Scrabble Lightning round. There are three games each show, so the teams have a chance to pick up up to three prizes & six tiles.

Games
Scrabble Knockout - To start, the team in control selects one of two categories, the team has a minute to get up to five words that fit into the chosen category. Each word is presented with three extra letters mixed in; the round is called Scrabble Knockout because the idea is for one team member to "knockout" the extra letters by touching them on the giant projection monitor based on calls from the other teammate. If a letter that's actually in the word is knocked out, the board locks up; that non-guesser must hit a plunger to unlock it. The team who can guess all five in the shortest amount of time wins.

Scrabble Scream - A word is cut in half, and the letters scrambled. The team must decipher the word, each team member taking one half, then scream it out. After each word, the players on the controlling team swap places. The teams have a minute to solve five words, fastest time/most words wins.

Scrabble Babble - This round is a Pyramid-like round. One team member gives the other team member clues to 3, 4 or 5-letter words that have one letter missing in them. The clue giver has to think of a word (the blank in some words can make more than one word – for example a word like -lass can be "class" or "glass" – the clue giver can choose what they’d like the word to be), then give his/her partner a description/clues without saying the word in the clue. One team will be isolated, while the other sets the time. The teams have a minute to solve five words, fastest time/most words wins.

Scrabble Slam - All four players compete in this round. The players must switch out a given letter and replace it with one of the four letters in a 4-letter word to create a new one. To answer, they say "slam the (insert letter)" and then hit a button in front of them. Then the host states the new word. Example (1): "Slam the 'P'" in the word "PLAN" using the "C" to create the word "CLAN" Example (2): L-UCK becomes D-UCK, and so on. Players take turns throughout and arranged this way "adult-kid-adult-kid". This is an elimination contest played in up to three rounds; each round is played within a time limit (up to 30 seconds) which will be unknown to the players in the studio but not the home audience, although it is the first contestant to play that round that sets time by hitting his/her button. The team whose player is the last person standing wins.

Scrabble Speedword - There are five letters on an eight-circle board; three of them appear on the top line & the other two are on the middle line. The teams will use the bottom line to form up to four three-letter words by sliding the appropriate letters down to that bottom line. One team will be isolated, while the other sets the time, fastest time/most words wins.

Scrabble Flash - Five tile-like monitors (with a letter on each one) were placed on a table in front of the teams. The idea is to make 3, 4 & 5 letter words using the letters shown. They took turns, and if the word they make was legal, they scored as many points as there are letters. Each team has 30 seconds to play with the second team isolated so they won't see the first team's progress. Team with the highest score wins.

Scrabble Lightning
This round pays homage to the classic Scrabble from the 1980s on NBC. The differences are that instead of putting letters on the board, the words involved are scrambled and they're worth the standard Scrabble value of the letters used with the values doubled or tripled if any of the words touch any of the two colored squares ( red & orange, no blue or green ). Also, each new word uses a letter from any previously played word, not just the immediate previously played word.

Before the round, sixteen "tiles" appear on the board and they flash at random; the teams hit a button to see what tile they get. Upon selection, the point values of those tiles will determine a head start for the team.

After that, the scrabble board appears, along with a scrambled word and a clue. The first teammate to buzz-in and unscramble the word earns the point value of that word. Teammates alternate turns throughout in between words (with the kids going first), and the first team to score 100 points wins the game and tickets to anywhere they want to go.

2012 Changes
These are changes from the episode shown on January 1, 2012.

Instead of each of the three games worth two bonus tiles each, the first game is worth one bonus tile, the second game worth two, and the third game worth three. Instead of the randomizer, tiles are pulled out of a container after each game is won and revealed by the host before Scrabble Lightning is played.

The coin toss at the beginning of the game determined who goes first in each game. It was not clear that teams got to decide to go first or second anymore.

In Scrabble Babble and Scrabble Scream, the first team gets to choose which specific puzzles they would be playing by choosing one of three bags. The second team can choose from the remaining two bags.

In Scrablle Scream, the child always unscrambled the first three letters and the parent unscrambled the rest of the word. After the word was spelled out, both the child and parent now say it. The players now stand at the podium used for Scrabble Lightning when they play (since no switching order is necessary).

Trivia
This show used the famous Price is Right bell to signify who won each game, making it the first show in 17 years to use this bell; the last was Think Twice.

Inventor
Based on the board game of the same name by Hasbro, originally by Selchow and Righter.

Link
Official Site