Ultimate Fan League

A tournament-typed game show for sports trivia buffs.

Broadcast
Fox Sports Net - October 1998 - January 1999

Packagers
Dugan's Pub Productions/Fox Television Studios

Host
Bil Dywer

Line Judge
Amy Miller

Announcer
Paul Koslowski

Gameplay
Two teams of two male contestants representing their own town in which they watch Fox Sports Net or a sports network associated with it competed in a game of how much they know about the world of sports.

Rounds 1 & 2
In the first two rounds, one team (starting with the visiting team) threw a Nerf ball at a game board with nine TV monitors. Each one has a sports laden category. When the ball landed on a category, the category handed on was played, but if it hit an already played screen of if it missed the board entirely, it was considered a "foul ball" and the team that threw that ball lost control of the board to their opponents and was humiliated by the cast, opponents & the audience.

On each category, three questions from the category chosen were asked, and the contestants tried to buzz-in using their hand buzzers. Each correct answer scored points, while an incorrect answer lost points and gave the opposing team a chance to answer. After the third question, the team that answered correctly last got to throw the next ball.

Scoring
In round one, questions were worth 1, 2 and 3 points. But in round two, points were doubled meaning that questions were worth 2, 4 and 6 points.

Mystery Sport
The Mystery Sport category was a special category in which the team that swept the category (answered all three question correctly) scored an additional five points.

Speedballs
One of the categories on the board in each round as a special "Speedballs" category in which the team that found that category had to give as many answers in a specific category as they can in 10 seconds and earning points for correct answers (one for round one and two for round two).

Rest Your Thumbs
At some point on one category, the teams were to a viewing of an exercise video in terms of relaxing.

Home Team Challenge
At the end of the first round, both teams played the Home Team Challenge. This was where each team gets one question based on their home town FSN affiliate. Each team got to decide how many points they wish to go for (either 5, 10 or 15 points). A correct answer added the chosen point value, but an incorrect answer deducted the value.

2-Minute Warning
In the final round of the game, the "2-Minute Warning". Host Dwyer read a series of rapid-fire questions for the next two minutes. After each sports question, Bil read a "Get a Life" question which was a general knowledge question associated with the first question. The sports questions were worth 10 points while the "Get a Life" questions were worth half price of 5 points. As it is with the entire game, points were deducted for incorrect answers. When time was up, the team with the most points won prizes and continued in the tournament.

Tournament
Twenty teams competed in this year long tournament. During the "regular season" each team played six games and the teams with the best records advancing to the playoffs. In the playoffs (the final week of the series), the winners of the regular season were arranged and played whatever days were assigned to them. Each game was single elimination, so the losers of each game was out of the tournament. On Friday's championship show, the winners of that day's final game won tickets to Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami and and the 1999 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Boston, plus a new big screen television.

Trivia
Frank Nicotero was a contestant on the show whom previously was a contestant on Debt. He went on to become the host of TV's Street Smarts.

Links
Rules for Ultimate Fan League Another Ultimate Fan League rules page