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Host
Johnathan F. McClain
The Players
Allie Berdebes
Tim Dorsch
Julia Kay
Vanessa Lengies
Scott Irby-Rannier
Miles Thompson
Louie Torrellas
Lori Wells
Announcer/SID
Karen Fowler
Broadcast
Sponk!
Noggin (Weekly): 9/10/2001 – 3/4/2002 (reruns aired 4/1/2002 – 1/1/2003)
Packagers
Insight Productions/Sesame Workshop

Opening Spiel: SID: Hey, you, watch this! It's Sponk! It's starting right now! (the kids set up the stage as their names on the screen are revealed) [after set up scene]SID: And here's your host, (insert funny comment), JOHNATHAN MCCLAIN!

Sponk! was somewhat of a junior version of Whose Line is it Anyway?. It was produced by Sesame Workshop for Noggin.

Gameplay[]

Sponk! featured young actors and a young studio audience. The performers were four boys and four girls but with two sitting out and six competing in a red team and blue team. The ideas for the improvisational and sketch contests were submitted by the home audience through Noggin.com. SID would then pick a submission and provide credit for the home audience (as their screen name). Later, SID announced the winner of a small electronic device.

The studio audience participated as judges for the sketches. They disqualified a contestant by yelling out, "SPONK!". When time ran out, the audience voted the winner by raising the side of their "Spaddle" to vote for the red team or blue team. The "prize" that the performers competed for was the Sponk! Trophy, a golden rubber chicken. Occasionally an audience member would be the sketch participant while the original performers acted as a celebrity panel, and won a small prize.

Games[]

Here are some of the games featured on the show:

  • Action Figure Theater
  • Armpit Chef/Drama
  • Dr. Allspeak
  • Ballet
  • Buy This
  • Conducted Whatever/Story Survivor
  • Identity Crisis
  • Letter Rip
  • SponkMart/Workaholic
  • Where's Your Homework?

On some games, members of the studio audience voted on which team they thought was best with the best team receiving 100 points, if it was the final game of the day they scored 201 points+. On some others, teams scored 50 points a pop with the help of an audience member. There were also games which was about eliminating all members of the opposing team.

+ - the extra point was most likely to prevent a tie

Sponk! Challenges[]

Two Sponk! challenges were played each show. The first was where a member of the team that won the second game created a challenge for the opposing team. The second was the "Mondo Sponk Challenge" where host Johnathan set up a challenge for the losing team.

Music[]

Chris Phillips

Inventor[]

Jeffrey Solomon

Additional Page[]

Sponk!/Video Gallery

Trivia[]

  • The announcer, Karen Fowler, was previously a contestant on the first season of the game show Big Brother. She was the third person voted out and officially placed 8th.

Links[]

Official Website (via Internet Archive)
Rules for Sponk! (Archived)
Opening to Sponk

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