Countdown Game Show
Countdown is a quiz show that got its start in 1982, and has been running ever since. It’s not an online game, but it is one of the longest running TV quiz shows where people do not win money, but prizes by competing in threetypesof contests. A celebrity appears as a dictionary adjudicator in each episode, and two contestants test knowledge as they try to form the longest word possible from nine random letter tiles in the first of the contests.
After that, they then use six random numbers to get as close to a target number by using different arithmetic functions: addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Finally, they test knowledge of anagrams by being the first to solve a nine-letter one in thirty seconds; hence the show’s name: Countdown. Whoever answers questions best gets invited back to try the contests again the next day and while they may not win money, they can win more prizes for up to eight consecutive contests. At this point, the player is declared an “octochamp”, and they leave the show until the series finale when all the ocotchamps compete in the same three contests. Each series is spread over 125 episodes, which take about six months to get through.
The contests on Countdown have always been of a friendly competition; the prizes are a custom-made Countdown teapot for winning the daily contests, and then a leather-bound copy of the Oxford English Dictionary goes to whoever answers questions best in the series finale. There was one exception to this. David Acton – winner of Series Thirty-one was a vegan, and thus didn’t want any prizes with leather. Instead, he took a CD-ROM of the dictionary and donated the difference between the books and the CD to charity. Teenager Julian Fell set the record for the highest score of 146, and fourteen-year-old Conor Travers won his knowledge test to become the youngest series champ ever. The youngest player so far has been eight-year-old Tanmay Dixit. He got a lot of attention for giving “fannies and “farted” as answers in his contests.
Money4intellect represents a step above Countdown. Not only do the contests allow you to win money, but you can do it from your own home. For an entrance fee of only $10, you test knowledge in a general information quiz against other players. Whoever answers questions the best, will win money, as much as $1,000 per quiz. The website then dispenses the prizes via PayPal; so when you win money, you get it right away. So, check out the contests at Money4intellect.