| Hosts | |
| Pat Harrington Jr. (1974) Jack Clark (1975) | |
| Announcers | |
| Johnny Jacobs (1974) Joe Seiter (1975) | |
| Broadcast | |
 | |
| Packagers | |
| Carruthers Company Productions Warner Bros. Television NBC Productions | |
"Today, these three couples will compete in open bidding for the chance to spend $10,000 in 30 seconds, on television's fastest game show, Big Spenders, starring Pat Harrington/Jack Clark!"
Big Spenders was an unsold auction-based spending game show where three couples competed. Similar to the famous "One Bid" round from The Price is Right.
Gameplay[]
Three married couples (one colored green, another colored yellow, and the last colored blue) competed in an auction-type game for big prizes.
Main Game[]
To start the game, the couples were staked with the total dollar value of seven prizes to be given on the show ($6,576 on the Harrington pilot, $7,441 on the Clark pilot). The couples used that money to bid on those prizes.
On each prize, one spouse locked in how much money he/she wished to give his/her mate, hopefully not to exceed the actual price of the prize nor their balance; for that money would then be taken out of their balance. Then after the host gave an opening bid, the partners took turns making bids by buzzing in. If a partner gave bid that was higher than what the first player had locked in or exceeded the actual retail price, he/she was eliminated from the bidding. The last partner standing or the one with the best bid won the prize, and guessing the price exactly automatically won it.
The spouses swapped roles at different points of the game.
Each pilot, however, had slightly different rules.
Harrington pilot[]
The husbands' auction was held at the host's discretion, all seven prizes were offered in succession, and the couple with the highest total value in merchandise were the winners. The couple who won the last prize of the day got to keep it regardless of whether they won the game or not.
Clark pilot[]
The spouses alternated roles with every prize, and the first couple to win three of them won the game and any remaining money in their balance.
Either way, the winning couple couple kept their prizes and went on a $10,000 Shopping Spree.
The $10,000 Shopping Spree[]
The winning couple was shown three trios of luxurious prizes. On each group after the descriptions, the wife chose one prize from that group within a 10 second time limit (30 seconds in all). One group was jewelry, another had trips and the last group had cars. The object of the game was to buy three prizes hoping that the grand total exceeded $10,000. The husband then had the option to change one prize in its respective group if he wished.
If the total of the three chosen prizes exceeded $10,000, the couple got to keep them.
Music[]
Harrington Pilot: "Theme from 'Shaft'" by Maynard Ferguson
Production Slate[]
Links[]
Big Spenders (Clark pilot) at The Game Show Pilot Light