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Host
Janelle James
Announcer (Fred)
Josh Robert Thompson
Tipsy the Panda
Peyton Manning
Broadcast
The Final Straw
ABC: 7/10/2022-9/18/2022
Packagers
Walt Disney Television Alternative
Omaha Productions
B17 Entertainment

The Final Straw was a short-lived game show based on the popular board games: Kerplunk & Jenga (mainly Kerplunk). This features contestants encountering big and unstable towers for the chance to win a cash prize of up to $250,000.

Gameplay[]

The game is played with four teams of contestants facing off in a tournament-typed contest of luck & skill. They will be tackling towers, each with a common theme. Their job is to take the items off the tower without having it fall down, otherwise they will be out of the game. The last team standing will be playing for up to $250,000 in cash.

Main Game[]

Qualifying Games[]

The first half of each main game sees two teams playing two Qualifying Games, one for each pair of teams. In each round, the teams are faced with thematic towers. Flat circular platforms are sandwiched between adjacent layers, and the diameter of the stack remains constant along its entire height. A random draw determines which team has initial control.

Each team and each player in turn will be removing one of the objects from the tower, and once an item is touched, it must be played and must be removed. They may rotate or slide the object as desired and take as much time to remove it as they wish. A movable stepladder is provided so that teams can reach the upper layers of the stack. Some objects are rigged to make them more difficult to remove ("stack traps"), such as a laundry basket with a hidden rope of socks threaded through a hole in the platform on which it sits.

If the stack remains upright for an unspecified length of time after a team has removed an object, their turn will be over and play goes on to the next team and player. But once the tower falls down, the team that caused the fall down or is the last to remove an object will be eliminated. The other team will receive $5,000 and will move on the final round.

Final Round[]

The two surviving teams will tackle one last tower for an additional $10,000 and the right to play for the $250,000.

There is a thing in this game called the sabotage and if a team pull a stack that trigger the sabotage the other team will have to do a challenge that's going to make their next pull harder.

The team that survives this round will win the additional $10,000 and a chance to take on the $250,000 Mega Stack.

Mega Stack[]

The Mega Stack Game is not only played against the forces of gravity but also against the clock. The Mega Stack itself consists of light capsules which offer money and extra time. The winning team starts with two minutes (2:00) on the clock. The object of the game is to remove a certain number of "cash capsules" within the time limit. If at any time the team gets into time trouble, they can pull out and remove a large time capsule, good for an additional two minutes. But in order to score any capsule they must place it in a vault at the edge of the stage after being removed. Now the game is played in five levels and here's how the counts are distributed and how the money grows:

Cash Capsules Needed Cash Winnings
5 $10,000
4 $25,000
3 $50,000
2 $100,000
1 $250,000

As you can see, the winning team needs a grand total of 15 cash capsules to win the big money. But if at anytime the tower falls or the team runs out of time, the game is over and the winning team will be knocked down one level of bonus money. That's why to prevent this from happening, whenever a level is competed, the clock stops and the winning team will have the option to stop and take whatever they won from this game.

In the event that the tower is still standing due to a win or a bailout, Tipsy the Panda (Manning) will press a button to make the tower fall automatically.

Trivia[]

  • Host Janelle James is one of the stars of the hit ABC mockumentary school-themed sitcom, Abbott Elementary since its premiere in 2021 where her character is named Ava Coleman.
  • Peyton Manning the show runner, is also the host of the current version of College Bowl (more specifically, Capital One College Bowl); making this his second foray into the game show world, in front of or behind the cameras. On the show, he plays as the character named Tipsy the Panda.
  • This is the first ever unscripted show produced by Walt Disney Television Alternative.
  • On March 24, 2023; it was announced[1]that the series was officially cancelled after one season.

References[]

Link[]

Official Website

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