| Host/Producer | |
| David Spade | |
| Broadcast | |
 | |
| Packagers | |
| Electric Avenue FOX Entertainment | |
SERIES PREMIERE:
SPADE: Tonight, we gather eight business people here to pitch us their amazing products. The problem is, half of them are lying straight to our faces. And I'm used to that 'cause all my friends are showbiz phonies. Our contestants have to sniff out the phonies, to win a bunch of money. I’m David Spade, let’s play Snake Oil!
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Snake Oil! The brand-new guessing game with a bite!
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ANNOUNCER:...With the help of our business savvy celebrities...
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ANNOUNCER:...can you detect which product are real...
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ANNOUNCER:...and which are “snake oil”?
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ANNOUNCER:...Crazy products...
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ANNOUNCER:...insane infomercials...
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ANNOUNCER:...intense interrogations...
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ANNOUNCER: ...Who will enter The Snake Pit for a chance to win up to $220,000?...
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ANNOUNCER: ...It’s time to make hissstory, it’s SNAKE OIL!
Snake Oil is a one-hour game show that features contestants who are pitched unique products by convincing entrepreneurs -- some of whom are showcasing real business ventures while the others are considered as "Snake Oil Salesmen" whose products are fake.
Premise[]
With the help of guest celebrity advisors, contestants must determine which products are real and which are a sham for a chance to win life-changing money. In each round, contestants choose a pair of entrepreneurs and learn about their extremely unique (and often bizarre) products through visuals, a custom-made informercial exclusively produced for the show and by quizzing the business representatives themselves. With the help of their celebrity advisors, the contestants must then decide who is selling an authentic product and who is hawking a sham. In other words, will they make the right choice or be duped by snake oil?!
Part 1: The Initial Investment[]
Each contestant started the game with a bank of $50,000. The first contestant will pick one of the four pairs of items in The Emporium and they and their advisor will get to know a little bit better about the two items, their taglines, and get some clue by looking at their infomercials. Then they got 60 seconds (1:00) to ask each entrepreneurs about the items, as many questions as they can, in other words, interrogate them. The entrepreneur with the real item will always tell the truth, only the entrepreneur with the snake oil items, also known as the Snake Oil Salesman can lie to fool the contestant and their advisor. After they ask both entrepreneurs, they will decide which item they want to invest and how much money they want to invest (wager) by taking on the ticker. The ticker starts at $1,000, and then increases by $500 as time goes by, up to $10,000. Contestants have to press the button to lock in any amount they are willing to invest. Their opponents have an opportunity to poach the item that the player didn't choose and decide how much money they would like to invest on that item by secretly investing any amount of money. Such wagers must also be a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $10,000 with an increment of $500. They also can choose not to poach the items to keep their money safe. After that, Spade will reveal if that item was real or "snake oil." If they pick the real item, then whatever amount of money they invested on that item will be added to the player's total. But, if that item were a "snake oil" item, which is not a real item, whatever amount of money they invested was deducted. If their opponents decide to poach the item, the same rules will be applied. The round is complete when there are only two pairs left in play.
Part 2: The Big Investment[]
In this round, the contestants and their advisors still need to pick their pair of items from the remaining 2 and they still can learn a bit about the two items, their taglines and keep looking for a clue on their infomercials, but they can only ask one brand, that means the contestant and the advisor must pick which brand they want to ask, and after that, they need to pick their items and make their wagers in secret. Contestants may no longer poach items on this round. The investments shall range from $20,000 to $50,000, again with an increment of $500. If a player's bank has less than $50,000, they can only wager up to everything in their bank. Just like before, the real item added the amount of money wagered, while the "snake oil" item subtracted that amount of money. After this round, the contestant with the most cash goes on to play the bonus round at the "Snake Pit" for a chance to add up to $100,000 to their total.
Final Round: The Snake Pit[]
In the bonus round, the contestant has to find the one "snake oil" item. Spade reveals the combined sale total of the real product(s), and then shows the items and gives them some short information about them. After conferring with their advisor, (s)he must lock in which one is the "snake oil" item. After that, Spade will reveal which one is real and which one is "snake oil" If (s)he was able to find that item, they won that money, as well as any winnings accumulated in the main game. However, if they got it wrong, their current total was cut in half. The contestant will need to decide, before playing the game, how many items they want to play. The more items they want to play with, the higher the additional cash prize they will be playing for.
The contestant can play for any of the following money values:
| Number of Items | Potential Cash Bonus |
|---|---|
| 2 | $10,000 |
| 3 | $25,000 |
| 4 | $50,000 |
| 5 | $100,000 |
The top prize for this game is $220,000. A contestant can achieve this goal by making the maximum investments in all the rounds, and getting the real item in round 1, someone getting a "snake oil," while poaching with a $10,000 investment, getting the real item in round 2, and selecting to play with all 5 items in the Snake Pit and getting the "snake oil" item.
Inventor[]
Matt Laesch
Music[]
Lisa Harriton & Josh Bartholomew
End-of-Show Disclaimer[]
"This show pokes fun at both real and fake products and services. Claims made during the show about the real products or services should not be relied upon. Those claims might be embellished or completely made up for entertainment purposes. Viewers who want to purchase those products or services should do their own research to determine if the product or service is right for them."
Poster[]
Trivia[]
Snake Oil is a term used to describe deceptive marketing, health care fraud, or a scam. Similarly, a snake oil salesman is a common label used to describe someone who sells, promotes, or is a general proponent of some valueless or fraudulent cure, remedy or solution.