The Big Money Game

"The Big Money Game" is an Irish game show, broadcast on RTÉ One on Saturday nights during the summer months of June, July and August as a seasonal replacement for "Winning Streak". The successor to "Fame & Fortune" (1996–2006) and "The Trump Card" (2007), "The Big Money Game" was first broadcast on Saturday, June 14, 2008. As with "Winning Streak", production costs for the programme are paid by RTÉ and the prize money is funded by the Irish National Lottery. Entry to the game show is based on getting three "lucky stars" on associated National Lottery scratchcards and submitting them for a televised drawing. Contestants can win cash prizes up to €250,000, as well as cars, holidays, and other prizes. The show is hosted by popular RTÉ presenter Laura Woods.

Format

The format of the 2008 series runs as follows:

* 'Suit Pursuit':This is a game played on a large interactive screen or board. Each player choses a spade,heart or club, they then pick a card, out of four,in the hope of matching it with ther symbol, if it matches then they win cash. He/she continues picking cards and matching them with their selected symbol until he/she picks the wrong card.

* 'Three of a Kind':This game is also played on a large interactive screen. The player picks from a range of cards on screen, these cards are either clubs, spades or hearts, however the player doesn't know the kind of card until he/she picks it.For every card they pick the player receives a cash amount. The objective is to get three matching pairs. The idea is to pick all three card types at first, because once they match the three spades clubs or hearts the game is over, thus they don't win the full amount as there is still two other types to match, (eg: If a player pick a card and it is a heart, and if he/she picks another one, and reveals another heart, and then if he/she on their third pick reveal another heart then the game is over, even though they still have spade and club cards left to pick from, so they've failed to win the full amount, €10,000, in that game as a result.

* 'Jokers Wild':This game is played on an interactive screen. The player first picks one of 7 cards.He'she then receives cash for that card. Then the Joker is hidden randomly amongst the remaining cards. The player hopes not to choose the Joker and cause the game to end, but to instead reveal cash and holidays, and accumulate as much money as possible. Similar to the 'Goldmine' game on Winning Streak.

* 'The Shuffle': After the break, there are five prizes (Double your Money, 10k Euro, Car, Cash Cade, and Roulette), these appear on our TV screens.The prizes are numbered 1-5, with their contents a secret. They are then chosen by the players. The former three do exactly what they say on the tin. The latter two allow a player to participate in one of two games. The prizes are shared between the players, so contestants cannot get more than 1 prize.

* 'Cash Cade': The ball falls down a pinball machine and lands on top of cash prizes. The player wins this amount

* 'Roulette': Played on a roulette machine, The ball stops at cash prizes. The player wins this amount

* 'Ace Race': This is the game which decides the winner of the show. On the interactive board all five players receive five cards each. Each player gets a chance to pick one of their five cards, to reveal either an Ace 'A', or a cash amount. After this balls from 1-5 represent each player, and are chosen by a machine. The number revealed will be the player who has the chance to continue on and pick another one of their cards, (e.g: If the machine pulls out a number 1, then player 1 plays on. The machines picks more players, and this continues until a player finds all three of their aces. This player is the winner, and has the chance to win even more cash.

Each player is guaranteed a minimum of €10,000 from the entire show.

External links

* [http://www.lotto.ie/ Irish National Lottery]