Winning Lines

Winning Lines was the big money quizzer based on the British series which came to pass due to the success of ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Broadcast
CBS - January 8, 2000 – February 18, 2000

Packagers
Stone-Stanley Entertainment/Celador

Host
Dick Clark

Announcer
Chuck Reilly

Premise
This was a show focusing on numbers, in fact, the answers to all the questions in the main game were all numbers.

Round 1
In the first round, 49 contestants played a qualifying round in which only six of them will advance to round two. Host Clark, read questions with numerical answers. The contestants typed in their answers using their keypad. Only the contestant who typed in the correct answer the fastest on each question will advance. The round continued until they got the six players advancing.

Round 2 (Sudden Death)
The six surviving contestants played this round using their numbers used in the first round. It was referred to as "Sudden Death" because each question can or cannot eliminate a player. Host Clark read questions in which the answers were the numbers in front of the contestants. All questions were toss-ups and the first player to buzz-in had a chance to answer. If the answer was the buzz-in player's number and he/she was correct, that player was safe and no one was eliminated. If the buzz-in player was correct and the number belonged to another player, the player with that number was eliminated. But if the buzz-in player was wrong no matter whose number it was, that player was eliminated. The round continued until there was one player left; at which point that contestant won the game, received $2,500, and went on to face the Wonderwall for $1,000,000.

Wonderwall (Bonus Round)
In the Wonderwall round, the winning contestant had three minutes to answer a series of questions and winning money. The Wonderwall itself was a set of three projection television sets displaying 49 answers to 49 questions numbered 1-49. On each question, the contestant had 15 seconds to answer, and he/she must answer the question by giving the number of the answer and the answer itself before moving on to another question. Each time the winning player answered a question correctly & properly, he/she won some money; but each time the contestant answered wrong or failed to answer in 15 seconds he/she gained a strike. Getting three strikes or having the three minutes expire, lost the round and won nothing but still kept the $2,500 won from the game. If the winning contestant was unsure of an answer or couldn't find it, he/she can pass on a question, but he/she can only pass twice. Also on two questions, the winning player can press the "Pit Stop" button he/she holds in his/her hand and take a 15 second "Pit Stop". Upon taking a "Pit Stop", the main clock stopped & the contestant had the time to look over the board, but the contestant cannot give an answer during that time. Now the one most important thing to remember is this... if the winning contestant got two strikes or if there's 15 seconds left on the clock which ever came first, a big button with glowing red light was activated; that's the "Bail Out" button. At that point on, the contestant can press the button to "Bail Out" at anytime, and keep all the money earned up to that point.

At home while all this was going on, the answers on the Wonderwall scrolled left & right back & forth; upon a correct or wrong answer, the board zipped to the spot with the correct answer. On a Pit Stop, the answers leftover scrolled to the left.

Money Values
Now the more questions answered correctly, the more money the winning contestant can win. Here's how the money grows:

Just like the money ladder says, if the winning contestant can answer 20 questions correctly in three minutes or less, he/she won $1,000,000. Dick Clark would refer to that contestant as "America's Newest Millionaire".

Home Viewer Contest
During the show, home viewers can win $50,000 with the use of their home or cell phone numbers by playing this home viewer game. In the first round, the last digit of each surviving contestant's number became the lucky number on the home viewer winning line. Plus, the last digit of the last correct answer given at the Wonderwall became the 7th & final number of the home viewer winning line. The home viewer's telephone number can be in any order at all, and if the viewer's home or cell phone number matched all seven numbers in any way, he/she won $50,000. The home viewers entered, simply by calling the 800 number on the screen.

Big Winners
Catherine Rahm - She was the show's first & biggest winner from the first show having won $500,000. She knew the final correct answer that could've won her $1,000,000, but time was running out, so she bailed out instead.

Mike McKay - He was the second biggest winner with the third top prize which was $400,000. He came very close to losing everything because the time was ready to run out when he pressed the Bail Out button after answering the final question and winning all that money.

Trivia
Eleven episodes were taped, but the show was canceled after ten shows.

Links
Travis' Winning Lines Rule Page Another Winning Lines Rule Page

YouTube Videos
Catherine Rahm wins $500,000 Mike McKay wins $400,000