Sale of the Century (Australian game show)

Sale of the Century
Created by	Al Howard
Directed by	Dennis Rawady Peter Ots Craig Coster Adrian Dellevergin Graeme Sutcliffe
Presented by	Hosts: Tony Barber (1980–1991) Glenn Ridge (1991–2001) Co-hosts: Victoria Nicholls (1980–1982) Delvene Delaney (1982–1985) Alyce Platt (1986–1991) Jo Bailey (1991–1993) Nicky Buckley (1994–1999) Karina Brown (2000–2001)
Narrated by	Ron Neate (1980) Pete Smith (1980–2001)
Theme music composer	Jack Grimsley
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of episodes	4610
Production
Executive producers	Andrew Brooke Michael Whyte Karen Greene
Producers	Lisa Chatfield Michelle Seers Steve Marshall Suzanne Stark Karen Bentley
Production locations	GTV-9 studios, Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Grundy Productions
Original release
Network	Nine Network
Release	14 July 1980 – December 2001

$ale of the Century was an Australian game show that aired on the Nine Network from 14 July 1980 – December 2001. Tony Barber hosted an early version of Sale of the Century under the title of Temptation from 1970–1976, and was also the initial host of Sale, replaced by Glenn Ridge in 1991. Hostesses over the years have included Victoria Nicholls, Delvene Delaney, Alyce Platt, Jo Bailey, Nicky Buckley and Karina Brown. Pete Smith was Sale's announcer for the majority of its run. Ron Neate was announcer for only the first ten episodes in 1980 before Smith took over.

From 30 May 2005 – 23 January 2009, the series was revived under its original Australian title, Temptation.

Main Game

All contestants are spotted with $20 to start. The host reads a trivia question to the three contestants (one of which was usually the winner of the previous show). The first to press a buzzer gets an opportunity to answer the question (even if the host is still in the middle of reading the question). Players' scores increase by $5 for each correct answer and decrease by $5 for each incorrect answer. If a player answers incorrectly, the correct answer is revealed and the game goes on to the next question - that is, only one person can try to answer each question.

Gift Shop

Once per round, the highest-scoring player gets to go to a "gift shop" and was offered the chance to sacrifice some part of his/her score to "purchase" a prize. The prizes, and the cost, increased in each round. Contestants were allowed to haggle with the host, who, depending on the game situation, could reduce the cost and offer inducements including actual cash in order to entice the contestant to purchase. If two or more players had the same score at this point, a Dutch auction was conducted for the prize.

Some gift shops also included a bonus prize called a "Sale Surprise", revealed only after the conclusion of the gift shop (whether the contestant bought the prize or not).

Cash Box/CashCard

In 1986, the third Gift Shop prize was replaced by these two mini-games, giving players an opportunity to win some cash, an extra prize, or earn extra score money:

Cash Box

The player in the lead (auction if there was a tie) would be given the opportunity to play for a cash jackpot, which started at $2,000 and increased by $1,000 every day until it was won. To play, he/she would have to give up his/her lead over the second-place competitor. If the contestant opted to play, he/she selected one of three boxes. One box contained the jackpot while each of the other boxes contained $100.

Cashcard

In 1989, the Cash Box was replaced with "Cashcard," an opportunity for the leading contestant to either win a cash prize equivalent to perhaps a month's average wages for a middle-class Australian at the time, earn the opportunity to win a car later in the game (see section on major prizes), receive the score he/she sacrificed back, or reduce the score of a competitor slightly. This cost a player $15 to play.

Four playing cards (the Aces of each suit) were presented; the player selected one, and it was turned over to reveal one of four elements:

• "$15": Gave the player the money back.
• "Joker": worth a "booby prize"; essentially a worthless card.
• "Prize": A bonus prize, usually worth between $2,000-$3,000 or more.
• "Cash Card": A growing jackpot that began at $5,000 and increased by $1,000 each night it wasn't won.

For the first three years of this format, if the leading player opted not to go for the Cashcard, the second-place player was then offered that chance, but the jackpot card was removed from the lineup. In the event of a tie-breaker between the second- and third-place contestants, a general knowledge question was asked, and the first person with the correct answer played. This option was discontinued after 1992.

In 1993, two significant changes were made to the Cash Card: The Cash Card itself froze at $5,000, but occasionally was worth $10,000; and the "Joker" was replaced with the "Take $5" card, which allowed the player to remove $5 from one of their opponent's score.

A year later, keeping with the "casino" theme, the playing cards were replaced with four single-reeled slot machines (referred to in Australia as "poker machines" or "pokies"). Each one was rigged to land on one element, and when the player selected a suit, the co-host pulled the handle to reveal the outcome. In addition, the "Take $5" was relegated to celebrity specials, and replaced on the regular shows with a machine displaying the logo of the car on offer that week. If the player selects this machine, then goes on to win the game, the car is placed on the Winner's Board (see below).

Who am I?/Fame Game

A longer-format question generally known as the "Who am I?" question was asked once in each of the three rounds. Here, a succession of increasingly larger clues were given to the identity of a famous person, place, or event. In this round, players could buzz in and answer at any time, without penalty for an incorrect answer. However, each player only had one chance to answer. If one of the players buzzed-in and answered correctly, he/she had an opportunity to play the "famous faces" sub-game, where he/she got to choose randomly from a game board with nine squares featuring the faces of celebrities, mostly performers on the network's shows. Once chosen, the face selected would be spun around to reveal either a relatively small prize (typically appliances or furniture valued at around a weekly wage) or a $25 money card, which awarded $25 to the player's score.

Later series added additional $10, $15, & $20 money cards to the gameboard, with the $10 available at the outset, the $15 added at the second "Who am I" and the $25 at the third. Also added in the final "Who am I" was a "wild card," which offered the choice of $1,000 in cash or a chance to pick again. The $20 was removed in 1993.

Fast Money/Mad Minute

Originally, after the third Fame Game, three more general knowledge questions were asked, and the contestant with the highest score is the winner. This gave way to "fast money", where the host would ask the questions in a particularly rapid-fire manner, attempting to fit in as many questions as possible in a 60 second time limit. Starting in 1989, there was a shorter 30-second fast money section in round two with the original reduced to 30-seconds, later restored to a minute, and renamed "Mad Minute". Most of the more successful players proved themselves particularly adept at this section.

On 12 November 1986, part-time taxi driver David Poltorak achieved the highest front game score ever, $200, and consequently won the total endgame prize pool on offer (totalling a then-record $376,200). As far as a front game score, a close second may belong to a man named Ian, who in 1985 won a game with a score of $170. Virginia Noel, who won a game in 1983 with a score of $155 while not letting her opponents answer any questions during Fast Money may hold third.

The winner of the game was the person with the most money at the end. If there was a final tie, the tied players answered a tiebreaker "Who am I" question, where a correct answer from either contestant won the game, while an incorrect answer defeated the contestant in favor of his or her opponent.

Sale of the New Century

In a bid to combat declining ratings, the show was renamed Sale of the New Century in 2000. The format was also altered slightly to include four contestants per night in an elimination format; the lowest-scoring player would leave after the first fast money round, and another just before the final fast money round.

In addition, a lengthy question, called a 'brain drain', is introduced. Contestants can score $5, $10, $15 or $20, depending on how early they give the correct answer.

The Cash Card changed to a large touch-screen monitor, in which the co-host touched a suit, then hit a button to spin the "reels". In addition, the "Prize" was replaced with "Take $5".

Also, contestants who win 'all the way' then compete in a 'best of three' play-off entitled Super Sale. The first two contestants to win since the format change played against each other to win the same amount of cash as the latter contestant's cash jackpot. After this, the 'reigning champ' plays against the next Grand Champion to win 'all the way' for a cash amount equal to their jackpot prize.

The "New" was dropped from the title in 2001, and the show returned to a three contestant format, but continued to eliminate the low scorer before the final fast money.

Bonus Games

The show went through two bonus games during its twenty-one year run:

The Shopping Format

A series of six prizes was offered, culminating in one or sometimes two luxury cars. A contestant could take his or her cumulative winnings, buy a prize, and retire, or elect to return the next day and try to win enough to buy the next most expensive prize.

Starting in 1982, once the player had won all the major prizes on offer, they had the opportunity to play for one more night to keep those prizes (totaling over $100,000) and win a large cash jackpot (the combination of those prizes was referred to as "the lot"). The jackpot started at $50,000 and increased by $2,000 per night until somebody won it. The largest jackpot ever won was $508,000.

Winner's Board

In 1989 the producers did away with the shopping format. Instead, the contestant would face a 12-space board. The Winner's Board contained six prizes; five of them had two matching cards, one Win card (if picked, the next number selected resulted in an automatic match) and one Car card. The contestant called off numbers and the first prize matched is the first prize won, but in order to win the car, the player must select the Win card first before selecting a number that has the Car card. In 1993, the Car & Win cards were replaced by another prize; as mentioned above, picking the "car space" in the Cashcard (or have a winning score of over $100) allowed the Car & Win cards to be placed. If a champion clears the board, but didn't do either the aforementioned tasks, their next game is for the car.

After the player makes a match, he/she faced a decision: either leave with all the prizes earned off the board, or risk them and play another show. A loss cost the player all his or her prizes from the board, while clearing the board and winning one more game (usually taking seven days to do it) earns them the cash jackpot.

Celebrity Weeks

Starting in 1989, occasional weeks were set aside for celebrities to play the game. Each week consists of sixteen celebrities playing over four days. The four winners from those shows meet in a two-day final, in which the celebrity with the highest score over those two days wins the competition.

Each celebrity plays for a home viewer, who wins all cash and prizes earned during the show. The ultimate winner's home viewer also wins an extra prize, usually a car.

Top 10 Grand Champions

Rank	Name	Amount Won	Year
1	Robert Kusmierski	$676,789	1992
2	Kate Buckingham	$471,640	1990
3	Simon Fallon	$434,065	2001
4	Sandra Oxley	$421,080
5	Tom Beck	$420,573	2000
6	Richard Hitesman	$382,341
7	David Poltorak	$376,204	1986
8	Peter McMillan	$372,538
9	Cameron Burge	$360,844	1982
10	Louise Williams	$354,117	2001

Other notable wins include:

• Vincent Smith of Sale, Victoria, the first champion to win the lot (before the cash jackpot) with $73,099. In 1985, he would author The Great Australian Trivia Quiz Book.
• Andrew Lockett, who became the biggest winner in 1982 (before Cameron Burge or the cash jackpot) with over $85,000.

• Hayward Mayberley, who won $343,536 in cash and prizes (including a $206,000 cash jackpot, possibly a then-record) in 1983.