Duel (U.S. game show)

Last updated
Duel
Duel game show logo.jpg
Genre Quiz show
Developed byBermanBraun
Rocket Science Laboratories
French TV
Directed byMark Gentille
Presented by Mike Greenberg
Composer(s) David Vanacore
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes16
Production
Executive producer(s) Gail Berman
Lloyd Braun
Running time ≈61 minutes (Dec. 17-18)
≈44 minutes (All other episodes)
DistributorFrench TV
Release
Original network ABC
Picture format NTSC (480i)
Original releaseDecember 17, 2007 –
July 25, 2008
Chronology
Related shows Duel (UK version)
External links
Website

Duel is an American game show hosted by Mike Greenberg that first aired from December 17 to December 23, 2007 on ABC. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The show aired as a week-long six-episode tournament at 8:00 PM (7:00 Central) from Monday through Friday with the finale on Sunday.

United States Federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Mike Greenberg television anchor, television show host, and radio host

Michael DarrowGreenberg is a television anchor, television show host, former radio show host for ESPN and ABC, and novelist. At ESPN, he hosted the weekday evening, most often Monday, SportsCenter and previously ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike show with Mike Golic. At sister network ABC, he was the host of Duel, which aired from 2007 to 2008. He also co-hosts Battle of the Network Stars with Joe Tessitore.

American Broadcasting Company American broadcast television network

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building.

Contents

The show's website described the program as a cross between Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and the World Series of Poker . The game was played in a head-to-head format in which contestants answered general trivia questions, with wrong answers contributing to a growing jackpot. The winner of the Duel jackpot of $1,720,000 was Ashlee Register, whose grand total was nearly $1.8 million when combined with previous winnings, making her the highest-winning female game show contestant in the U.S.

<i>Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?</i> international game show franchise

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television, contestants tackle a series of multiple-choice questions to win large cash prizes, with the format being a twist on the game show genre – only one contestant plays at a time, similar to radio quizzes; contestants are given the question before attempting an answer, and have no time limit to answer questions; and the amount offered increases as they tackle questions that become increasingly difficult. The maximum cash prize offered in most versions of the format is one million of the local currency.

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment Corporation. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament, with a set start and stop time, and a winner determined by a secret ballot of the seven players.

The second season aired in a weekly format with modified rules from April 4 to July 25, 2008 at 9:00 PM (8:00 Central). [9]

Both seasons were sponsored by Diet Pepsi Max [10] led by Russell Findlay, the Pepsi marketing executive who launched Pepsi Max in the USA.

Pepsi Max

Pepsi Max is a low-calorie, sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo as an alternative to their drinks Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. It is sold primarily in European and Asian markets.

J. Russell Findlay is an American businessman, philanthropist and an advertising and marketing executive. He is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Hiscox, an international specialist insurer as well as a small business owner and a Managing Director of a non-profit organization.

Gameplay

Season 1

Each player began a duel with ten chips, each worth $5,000 (for a combined total of $50,000). Before each question was asked, a screen rose between the contestants to hide their answers from each other. The duel always began with the catchphrase "Let's Duel!" before the question was heard. Each question was multiple choice with four choices. The question was read by the host while the contestants used their chips to cover choices, one chip per choice. They were allowed to cover any number of choices, provided they had enough chips. After both players had locked in their answers, the screen was lowered so contestants could see each other's choices, and the correct answer was then revealed. All chips placed on wrong answers were collected and their value was added to a jackpot.

Casino token small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos

Casino tokens are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal, injection-molded plastic or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines. Casino tokens are also widely used as play money in casual or tournament games.

Multiple choice or objective response is a form of an objective assessment in which respondents are asked to select only correct answers from the choices offered as a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections, when a person chooses between multiple candidates, parties, or policies.

While the questions normally had no time limit, a contestant who had already locked in his/her answers could "press" the opponent and impose a seven-second time limit, after which answers would be automatically locked in. Each contestant was given two presses per duel.

The duel continued until at least one contestant failed to cover the correct answer to a question. If only one contestant failed to answer correctly, that contestant was eliminated; any chips the contestant had not played were not added to the jackpot, though any played on wrong answers were still added. The winning contestant became champion and won the value of any chips they still possessed, including the one covering the correct answer. That money was theirs to keep, regardless of the outcome of future duels.

If neither player covered the correct answer, however, the duel went to a sudden death "shootout". For the shootout, there were no presses and each player received four new chips with no cash value. If only one player answered correctly, that player won the duel and became champion, but won no money. If both players answered correctly, the player who covered fewer choices won. (It is unknown what would have happened in any other situation, as no such situation ever aired.)

In a sport or game, sudden death is a form of competition where play ends as soon as one competitor is ahead of the others, with that competitor becoming the winner. Sudden death is typically used as a tiebreaker when a contest is tied at the end of regulation (normal) playing time or the completion of the normal playing task.

The champion then chose a new challenger from a randomly selected group of three from the remaining members of the "Players Gallery" (those in the contestant pool who had not yet participated), based on a small amount of information revealed about each potential contestant. Contestants who had dueled were ranked by number of duels won, and then by cash winnings as a tiebreaker; After five nights, the four top contestants competed for the jackpot on the finale. [8]

During the finale, the top-seeded player was given the choice of which other finalist he wanted to face in the first semifinal duel, leaving the two other finalists to play in the second. The winners of each semifinal advanced to the final duel to play for the entire jackpot. The final round duels played the same as the qualifying duels, with lost chips continuing to add to the jackpot, and any winnings kept. The winner of the final duel claimed the jackpot, as well as all earnings accumulated in previous duels.

Results

The finals consisted of the top four players overall during the first five nights, ranked first by the number of duels won, then by total winnings. In the final round, the contestants played for a jackpot totaling $1,720,000. Ashlee Register's grand total was $1,795,000, including the $75,000 she had earned in previous duels.

Season 2

The way questions were played remained the same, but the producers changed the game format to accommodate continuing weekly episodes. First, each contestant received one press per game rather than two. Second, the chips had no monetary value; instead, the prize value of a duel was determined by its length. Thus, unlike the first season's tournament, the potential prize increased as a duel progressed:

Questions asked12345678910+
Winnings$1,000$2,500$5,000$10,000$15,000$20,000$25,000$30,000$40,000$50,000

If both contestants missed a question, the value of the duel was frozen at the previous value; the format of the "shootout" used to determine the winner was identical to the tournament format.

For the weekly series, a bonus round was added after each duel. The winner was asked a single "Max Question," for which the winner got one chip and seven seconds. A correct answer doubled the contestant's winnings from the just-played duel, for a potential maximum of $100,000. There was no penalty for a wrong answer.

Winning contestants then had the option to take their winnings and leave, or to risk them to play another duel against their choice of three contestants. If they lost in their second or third duel, they forfeited all their winnings, while a loss in their fourth or fifth duel cut their winnings in half. A contestant who won five duels in a row had his/her winnings increased to a total of $500,000, without having to play a Max Question after the fifth victory, and retired as an undefeated champion. When a contestant chose to leave or won the jackpot, the next two contestants to play were the ones not chosen by the champion for the previous duel.

On Friday, May 2, 2008, a former film executive for Reason Pictures / GOOD Magazine, 24-year-old Gabriel Reilich from Los Angeles, California, won five duels to claim the $500,000 prize (he had won $75,000 in his four previous duels and correctly answered every Max Question). Gabriel won on the question, "What Rolling Stone was a student at the London School of Economics?" The four choices were Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Robert Plant, and Mick Jagger. He covered the correct answer (Jagger) while his opponent covered the other three; in doing so, he became the season's only five-time champion.

Broadcast history

Duel was created by the Francophone production house FrenchTV, with BermanBraun being the U.S. production firm. It is headed by Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman, both former network executives.

The series first aired from December 17 to December 23, 2007 on ABC at 8:00 PM (7:00 Central) from Monday through Friday and its finale on Sunday; for its first four nights, it was up against Clash of the Choirs on NBC.

Initial reviews were mixed; some praised the show for bringing something different and original to American television, while others derided Greenberg's hosting on the first night and the amount of "padding" the first episode (which was 90 minutes in length) seemed to have. Several critics derided the show for giving contestants "stereotypical" titles, such as "The Fire Captain" and "The Alligator Wrestler".

As the series progressed, however, critics began noticing how several contestants were chosen at random several times in a row, yet were never picked by the on-stage contestant; three contestants didn't play in the tournament at all.

The question of the final duel between Ashlee Register and Robert Elswick for $1.72 million was:

(A) Gallon of water
(B) Gallon of crude oil
(C) Gallon of vegetable oil
(D) They all weigh the same

While Register covered all four answers on her side (later stating that she "didn't want to take a gamble on the first question"), Elswick covered all except the correct answer; when Greenberg asked him about his logic, Elswick eventually realized that oil floats on water and hence is lighter than water, so A was correct.

Nielsen ratings

Season 1

Duel's ratings were not as good as its opponent for its first four shows, NBC's Clash of the Choirs .

#Air DateViewers
(millions)		HouseholdsAdults 18-49
RatingShareRatingShare
1December 17, 20077.685.082.57
2December 18, 20077.314.572.47
3December 19, 20077.424.982.26
4December 20, 20076.454.271.96
5December 21, 20076.704.481.76
6December 23, 20076.153.871.64

Season 2

Season Two aired on Friday nights at 9:00 PM (8:00 Central). The first two episodes had to compete with CBS' The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular , which aired at the same time. Also since the season premiere, the show was standing and lagging at sixth place behind The CW's second hour of WWE Friday Night SmackDown and the Univision telenovela Pasíon .

#Air DateViewers
(millions)		HouseholdsAdults 18-49
RatingShareRatingShare
7April 4, 20083.932.531.24
8April 11, 20083.992.651.24
9April 18, 20083.292.140.93
10April 25, 20083.732.441.03
11May 2, 20083.862.651.03
12June 27, 20083.271.04
13July 4, 2008
14July 11, 20083.560.83
15July 18, 2008
16July 25, 2008

Other versions

Actually ITV in U.K. were the first network to purchase the rights to Duel in September 2007, swiftly followed by ABC in the U.S., who launched their first series of the show, hosted by sport broadcaster Mike Greenberg, on 17 December 2007. The American version ran 16 episodes in 2 seasons and was not renewed for a third season. France 2 was the third network to obtain the rights to the game show under the name Le 4e duel, aired on 2008 until 2013.

The Duel format was optioned by television networks in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain, but, with the exception of Hungary, Portugal, and Duel's native France, never made it to production in those territories. [11]

Hungarian version

The game is produced in Hungary titled Párbaj (Hungarian for Duel), starting on 31 Aug 2009 on TV2. It is hosted by István Vágó. It runs on weekdays from 19:05 to 20:15. [12] After each duel, the winner it is given a bonus question with 3 tokens to use. Winnings are determined by the number of duels won and the number of tokens used in the bonus question (as long as the correct answer is chosen). The highest prize is possible after winning 5 duels and its value is 25 million forints. Players have 2 accelerators per duel. The phrase at the beginning of each duel is "En garde!".

A web version of the game is available on TV2's official website.

French version

France 2 was the third network to obtain the rights to the game show under the name Le 4e duel, aired on 2008 until 2013.

CountryTitlePresenter(s)Broadcaster(s)PremiereFinale
Flag of the Arab League.svg  Arab League Duel BelArabi Flag of Egypt.svg Yousef Aamer Abu Dhabi TV
ON E 		March 19, 2019
Flag of France.svg  France Le 4e Duel Tania Young (2008)

Julien Courbet (2009-2012) Bruno Guillon (2013)

 France 2 July 5, 2008September 7, 2013
Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary Párbaj István Vágó TV2 August 31, 20092009
Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal [13] O Duelo Final Jorge Gabriel RTP1 20092009
Flag of Spain.svg  Spain [14] El Duelo Antonio Garrido Selected FORTA TV channels 20122012
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom Duel Nick Hancock ITV January 19, 2008April 5, 2008

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References

  1. ↑ Shales, Tom (December 17, 2007). "ABC's 'Duel' Personality? Dull and Dumb". Washington Post. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  2. ↑ Albinak, Paige (December 16, 2007). "'Duel'". New York Post. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  3. ↑ Kinon, Cristina (December 16, 2007). "'Duel' purpose: Contestant wins big". NY Daily News. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  4. ↑ Patterson, Troy (December 19, 2007). "Why ABC's Duel is painful". Slate. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  5. ↑ Garron, Barry (December 16, 2007). "Duel". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  6. ↑ Lowry, Brian (December 16, 2007). "Duel". Variety. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  7. ↑ "The Futon Critic - ShowWatch - Duel (ABC)" . Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  8. 1 2 "ABC.com - Duel News Release". Archived from the original on 2007-12-04. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
  9. ↑ Hibberd, James (March 13, 2008). "ABC game for more 'Duel'". Reuters. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  10. ↑ ""DUEL," A NEW TOURNAMENT-STYLE GAME SHOW BASED ON SMARTS, SKILL AND STRATEGY, WILL PREMIERE WEEK OF DECEMBER 17 ON ABC".
  11. ↑ "French TV - Duel Format (in French)". French TV. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007.
  12. ↑ "Minisite of Duel on TV2.hu". Archived from the original on 2009-08-28. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  13. ↑ "DUELO FINAL - Concursos - RTP". RTP . Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  14. ↑ Press, Europa (2012-05-31). "Antonio Garrido, al frente de 'El Duelo'". www.europapress.es. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
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