Street Smarts

A game show featuring two contestants win cash by guessing how three street people answered a series of questions.

Broadcast
Syndication - October 2, 2000 - September 23, 2005

Packagers
Entertain the Brutes/Dawn Productions/Telepictures

Distributors
Telepictures Distribution (First Three Seasons) Warner Bros. Television (Last Two Seasons)

Host
Frank Nicotero

Gameplay
Two in-studio contestants compete in a game where they faced three on-the-street players for cash.

To start, the three street contestants were introduced with a brief interview.

Who Knew It? (Round 1)
In the first round, the contestants tried to guess which of the three street savants gave the correct answer to a question. Three questions were played this round, and each correct answer was worth $100.

Who Blew It? (Round 2)
In the second round, the contestants tried to guess which one of two of the three street savants gave an incorrect answer to a question. Again three questions were played this round, and each correct answer was worth $200.

In addition, there was also a "Dunce Cap" placed in between the studio players. When a question was asked, and if either player thought that his/her opponent does not know the answer, that player must then hit the buzzer and placed the dunce cap on his/her opponent's head. The "dunced" player was then forced to answer the question him/herself. If the "dunced" player answered wrong, the challenger won the $200 and the "dunced" player continued to wear the dunce cap. But if the "dunced" got the question right he/she won the $200 for him/herself, and the challenger was the dunce.

Pick Your Pony/Brain (Round 3)
In round three called "Pick Your Pony" (later called Pick Your Brain in the last two seasons), each contestant picked which of the three street people to play with for the entire round. The contestants took turns predicting whether the street people they chose answered right or wrong on each of the three questions. Each correct prediction was worth $300. The "Dunce Cap" was back in play in this round except that the value was upped to $300 as well.

The Wager of Death
The final round was called, Wager of Death because the studio contestants now wagered any or all of their current dollar total on any one of the three street people. To start, the final question was asked before the break, after that, that's when the contestants made their bets, chose their street player, and predicted whether the street person chosen answered the question right or wrong. A correct prediction added the wager, but an incorrect prediction deducted the wager. The player with the money at the end of this round won the game.

Ties
If both players risked it all and predicted wrong, they finished with zero and lost the game. But if the game ended in a tie with more than zero, a final tie breaker question was asked to both the studio contestants. The first player to buzz-in with a correct answer won the game, but if that player buzzed in and was incorrect, the opponent automatically won the game. That's why when a player buzzed in, he/she had the option to either answer the question him/herself or pass the question to his/her opponent.

In celebrity games, if the celebrity contestants were tied, the cash they both won went to both their favorite charities.

The winner of the game got to keep the cash.

Contestant Setting
During the first season, studio contestants sat in chairs with their scoreboards as TV monitors next to them. They held rolling devices for the street people's names, right/wrong paddles for round three and writable flip cards for the Wager of Death.

In the next four seasons, the contestants stood behind a large podium. Behind the podium were lock in buttons used to choose a street player, select right or wrong and reveal how they did on The Wager of Death. Their TV monitors in front of them showed the selections of the street players, right and/or wrong displays and the wager in addition to being scoreboards.

Revenge Shows
On special shows called "Revenge Week" shows, the contestants playing those shows were all past street players trying to win money for themselves.

$100,000 Street Smarts Tournament
In the final season of the show, winners of each day's game had a choice to make. The winning contestants can either keep all the cash they won that day or risk the money and play for a chance at $100,000.

Links
Rules for Street Smarts Street Smarts Rules @ loogslair.net Sports Smarts featuring wrestlers Chyna & Dallas as contestants

YouTube Videos
A 5th season episode with Randa vs. Kina

Part 1 Part 2

Wild Contestant Brad Contestant John finished with $1