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Cram (game show)

Cram was a game show television program that aired on GSN. The show featured pairs of contestests who answered questions while trying to stay awake. Graham Elwood was the host.

Just before taping, the teams were sequestered in a Hollywood store front, and given stacks of books and magazines to study. The players had to stay awake for 24 hours, memorize the material, then compete on the actual game show.

Contents

The Rant

While all four players are inside large hamster wheels, each team must talk about a magazine article that they had been assigned to read. The winners of a coin flip got to pick from three topics; the other team picked from the two remaining choices. Each player had to talk continuously for 20 seconds; stopping, stalling, repeating information was a violation, and penalized the team 5 points. The team was trying to name eight keywords or phrases related to the article, because they added 10 points to the team's score, along with 60 to start the game. (Both teams had to continue walking inside the wheels while this round went on.

The Stunt Round

For round two, each team played a stunt and a list question. The idea was that it is hard for people fighting off sleep deprivation to do two things at once. The stunts took various forms, demonstrating yoga poses, matching cuts of meat to a picture of a cow, even firing hard candies at small chocolate bunnies. Each successful part of the stunt won 20 points for the team.

while the partners alternated playing the stunt, they had to play a list question read by Graham. After he read the item, the partner had to give the relevant answer to score 10 points. The list had 12 parts to get through in 45 seconds.

The Riddle Round

After the stunt round, both teams had one last chance to add to their points. Starting with the trailing team, one partner climbed into an exercise bike or rower, and the other would get into a sidecar. The partner had 45 seconds to answer riddles posed by Graham, each for 30 points. The catch was that the exercising player had to meet a minimum threshhold of physical output; 10 miles per hour on the bike, or 50 watts of power on the rower, If the red light was on, the exerciser had to work harder to turn the light green. Once the light was green, the rider could answer. A wrong answer meant that the output had to increase (3 miles per hour, 50 watts.) After both teams got to play, the team with more points won the game and $1,000. The losers divided $500.

The $10,000 Quiz

During the last break, the two winners climbed into a bed onstage, and donned blindfolds while the lights went down. "Miss Pickwick," the resident 'sleep therapist (played by Andrea Hutchman) would read the team a series of bizarre facts. When the show came back from break, their memory was put to the test, assuming they didn't fall asleep.

On the sound of an alarm, a 60 second countdown started, and the team had to get out of bed and down to the stage. Before they could answer a question, they had to get all four feet off of the ground, on either a small peg, a pair of teeter totters, or a motorized surfboard. After they did that, Graham would begin to read them a question from the list. If at any time a foot hit the floor, Graham would start the reading over. A right answer scored a point, a wrong answer lost a point, and five won a total of $10,000. If the team could not get to five points, the team would split $100 per right answer.

Last updated: 05-28-2005 18:12:13
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