| Hosts | |
| John O'Hurley (2002) Kennedy (2003) | |
| Announcer | |
| John Moschitta | |
| Broadcast | |
  | |
| Packagers | |
| Mindless Entertainment/Hasbro | |
"Welcome to the fastest word game on television. It's The Scrabble Challenge! And here's the man/woman with all the tiles, John O'Hurley/Kennedy!"
The Scrabble Challenge featured two players racing to answer questions and make words in this variation of the classic board game, unrelated to the previous format and the future Scrabble Showdown.
Rules[]
Before the show, the players selected seven tiles at random, these were worth the regular Scrabble values.
- Blank tile, could be used for any letter but no points were awarded.
- 1 Point - A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T and U.
- 2 Points - D and G.
- 3 Points - B, C, M and P.
- 4 Points - F, H, V, W and Y.
- 5 Points - K.
- 8 Points - J and X.
- 10 Points - Q and Z.
After seeing the tiles for the first time, the first player to buzz in and find a word then had ten seconds to place it on the board using the touchscreen monitor in front of them. If the opponent felt that the word was invalid, they could challenge it. Standard scoring applied, meaning the first word is a double word score; all other double/triple letter/word spaces were in play as well.
After the word was placed, the players could earn more tiles by answering questions in one of seven categories. Two were worth one tile, three were worth two tiles, and two were worth three tiles, with difficulty increasing as such. Seven tiles were needed to play the board. All questions were toss ups. The first player to buzz-in with the right answer could play the board (if they had seven tiles) or they could exchange for letters taken from the answer of the question; less than seven and they receive a random letter from the answer. A new category replaced the used one, and if the category had a red star behind it, it was worth tiles and a bonus, such as a correct answer increasing a player's tile count to the full seven; in this instance, the player could pick the letters from the answer.
Each point earned was worth money, $25 in Round 1, $50 for Round 2, and $100 in Round 3. The player with the most money at the end of Round 3 won the game and advanced to the Bonus Round. The loser received a selection of Hasbro games. Also, using all seven tiles at any point in the front game (aka "a bingo") awarded a trip.
Bonus Round[]
The winner, prior to the show, selected 30 tiles to use in the endgame. Starting at the center, the goal was to build a chain of words in order to reach a randomly selected corner of the board within 45 seconds or less, with the option to swap letters if need be. Doing so before time ran out doubled the money. If seven letters were used in one turn, the player automatically won, doubled the money and received a brand new car.
Rating[]
Set Pics[]
