Line #57 Main/BonusRound


1	The Bonus Round is that part of a GameShow which follows the main game, typically played by the player or team who won the main game. Usually, this is where the ''real'' money/prizes are handed out, with only a token amount of cash given to the winner of the main game. Quite often, a ProgressiveJackpot will be involved.
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3	SerendipityWritesThePlot is the main reason this game mechanic is so common. Game shows obviously do not have the budget to be giving away huge jackpots every episode; these productions are typically budgeted with an assumed average per-episode winning in mind. The Bonus Round thus acts as something of a failsafe, giving contestants a final extra-difficult test they must pass to win big and reducing the chance that the show will need to pay out in any given episode.
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5	!!Examples from real game shows:
6	* "Fast Money" on ''Series/FamilyFeud'', played by two members of the winning family.
7	* The "Lightning Round" on ''Series/{{Password}}'', the TropeMaker.
8	** "Alphabetics" on ''Password Plus''. ''Super Password'' and ''Million Dollar Password'''s bonus rounds had the same name as the series, though "Super Password" became referred to as "the endgame" later in the series' run. The 2022 Creator/{{NBC}} version somehow just used the term "Bonus Round".
9	* The "(Super) Gold Rush" on ''Series/{{Blockbusters}}''. The name was changed to "Gold Run" halfway through the original series' run, for unknown reasons.
10	* The "Golden Medley" on ''Series/NameThatTune''
11	* "Face the Devil" on ''Series/TheJokersWild''
12	* "Double Play" on the Jack Narz version of ''Series/{{Concentration}}'', and the Car Game on the Trebek version.
13	* The "(Big Money) Bonus Round" on ''Series/WheelOfFortune''.
14	** The German version, ''Glücksrad'', had an interesting pre-bonus round. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c8HJS2svLI#t=900 Super-spiel]] was a 4-5 word CrosswordPuzzle using the board that all three players played as a team. Each player picks two letters, and then they have 90 seconds (each player as captain for 30) to solve the puzzle. If they cleared the wall in time, they all got a share of a rolling jackpot (which in some cases was worth ''more'' than the actual Bonus Round win). Then the normal Bonus Round's played like usual.
15	* The "Best of Ten Test of Knowledge" on ''[[Series/WinBenSteinsMoney Win Ben Stein's Money]]'', where the winning contestant from the previous two rounds goes up against Ben himself for the show's full prize of $5,000.
16	* "Money Cards" on ''Series/CardSharks''
17	* The Sprint round on ''Series/{{Scrabble}}'' (and later, the "Bonus Sprint")
18	* The "Big Numbers" on ''Series/HighRollers''
19	* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' not only has a standard Bonus Round with the Showcase, but also has a "''pre-''Bonus Round" Bonus Round in the Showcase Showdown (that big wheel).
20	** The Showcase was played more true to "bonus round" form on the 1994 Davidson incarnation, with one player playing an adaptation of the Range Game for a single (usually massive) Showcase. This style of Showcase was adopted by many of the European versions that sprang up after ''The New Price is Right'' got canned.
21	** The nighttime version of the original ''Price'' had contestants who won certain items up for bids either winning a bonus prize or competing in separate contests to win bonus cash or prizes.
22	** It could be convincingly argued that the Showcase is actually a competitive apex that the first 40 minutes of show has been building toward, like a price-guessing UsefulNotes/SuperBowl, but it does fit on this list by virtue of being a chance for people who've already won to win even more.
23	* The Audience Match on the original ''Series/MatchGame'' and the Super Match on versions up to the 2016 revival.
24	* The "Winners' Circle" on ''The $10,000 Series/{{Pyramid}}'' (and its subsequent versions)
25	* The Obstacle Course on ''[[Series/DoubleDare1986 Double Dare]]''
26	* The "Room-to-Room Romp" on ''Series/FindersKeepers''
27	* The "Bonus Sweep" on ''Series/SupermarketSweep''
28	* The Temple Run on ''Series/LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple''
29	* The Map on ''Series/WhereInTheWorldIsCarmenSandiego'', later replaced by The Gates of History on ''Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?''.
30	* The "Video Zone" on ''Series/NickArcade''
31	* "Mega Memory" on ''Get The Picture''
32	* The Locker Room on ''Series/ThinkFast''
33	* [[TitleDrop "Shop 'Til They Drop"]] on ''Series/ShopTilYouDrop''
34	* The "most exciting fun-filled bonus game" in the "Prize Vault"... and then the less exciting "Master Puzzle" on ''Series/BreakTheBank1985''.
35	* The Big Wheel on ''Series/TheBigSpin''
36	* The Dutch lottery game show ''Miljoenenjacht'' had a curious one; the winning contestant (after several rounds of quizzes in various formats) chose one of 26 briefcases containing ascending dollar amounts (hoping it contained the top prize). Then, they opened other briefcases to narrow down what could be inside their own, and were given offers from an omnipresent character as a buyout for their case. Sounds familiar? Well, that's ''Series/DealOrNoDeal''.
37	* The "Gauntlet of Villains" on ''Series/{{Whew}}!''
38	* "Strolling down ''Rodeo Drive''"
39	%%* The ''Series/FunHouse1988''
40	* The "Honors Round" on ''Series/MakeTheGrade''; on a few episodes, a player who won the game early played a ''second'' bonus round, entitled the University Round.
41	* The "Million Dollar Round" on ''Series/TheOneMillionChanceOfALifetime''; you had to win the game AND the bonus round three times, without failing at any point, to win the million dollars.
42	* ''Series/RemoteControl'' had two: an identify-the-music-video round on the MTV version, and the "Wheel of Jeopardy" in the syndicated run.
43	* Inverted on ''Series/{{Distraction}}''. The player is awarded either a car or several bonus prizes at the outset, but must answer a series of questions in order to prevent them from being damaged or destroyed. Once the round is over, the player takes home the prizes in whatever condition they are in at the end of the game (smashed, blown up, vandalized, etc.).
44	* "The Big Deal (of The Day)" on ''[[Series/LetsMakeADeal Let's Make A Deal]]''. This is a slight inversion, as the big winner (or, if the big winner passes, one of the next in line) has to surrender their original winnings to play the Big Deal. All they have to do is choose one of the three doors, and they win what's behind it. The doors contain three prizes of increasing value (one of which being the Big Deal itself), but never {{Zonk}}s.
45	** Originally two winners were allowed to play, that is until the current run, where only one person okays, making it an even stricter endgame than before.
46	** The "Super Deal" on the same functions as a ''[[DoubleUnlock Bonus]]'' Bonus Round (The catch? the Big Deal ''must'' be won, because if it's not then it's skipped entirely, without a reveal of where it would have been).
47	* The UK version of ''Series/{{Duel}}'' gave contestants who won 2 consecutive Duels a bonus question for £10,000, and another for £20,000 if they won a third Duel. Also a rare example of a Bonus Round which did ''not'' offer the big money; the jackpot was won by winning four Duels in a row.
48	* Double-or-Nothing Video Bonus on ''Series/CashCab''
49	* "Jack Attack" in ''VideoGame/YouDontKnowJack''
50	* On ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', if only one player finishes Double Jeopardy! with a positive score, Final Jeopardy! effectively becomes this. The player simply wagers any amount of their score on a clue that they answer alone. Regardless of whether or not the response is correct, the player is guaranteed the win- unless they wager everything and get it wrong. ($0 is never a winning score.)
51	** A brief Art Fleming revival in 1978 did have an actual bonus round known as "Super Jeopardy!" (unrelated to ABC's primetime Tournament of Champions of the same name), where the day's winner tried to get 5 in a row by getting correct responses from clues on a 5 by 5 board (essentially a predecessor or sorts to the Gold Run of ''Blockbusters'' and the bonus rounds of ''Series/CatchPhrase'' (which used a similar setup) and ''[[Series/BobsFullHouse Trump Card]]'' (which was pretty much the same thing)). Three wrong responses ended the round.
52	* The "Wonderwall" on ''Series/WinningLines''
53	* ''Tokyo Friend Park 2'' had a variant: If a team successfully wins a game early, they're often allowed to use their remaining tries or time to try and reach an even harder goal (usually double the original goal, or a FlawlessVictory if the goal was more than half the maximum possible). A success doubles their winnings from the game, with no penalty for failure. In some games, it's even possible to win ''that'' early, and earn a chance to go for triple and up (and a triple win has been pulled off at least once).
54	* The bonus board on the original ''Series/YouDontSay'' had three clues to a name for a cash prize. If a contestant won a game by a 3-0 score, the prize for getting the name on the first clue was a new car. On the 1975 revival, there was no board; the contestant gave clues to the celebrities. If a contestant could get the celebrity chosen to get four names in five clues, it was worth $5,000. Getting five names in five clues doubled it.
55	* "The Spoilers" on the Alex Trebek version of ''[[Series/DoubleDare1976 Double Dare]]''
56	* ''Series/{{ChildsPlay\|1982}}'' had two: "Triple Play" featured the contestant guessing a word based on three different definitions from children. Later on, it was replaced by "Turnabout", which was simply ''Series/{{Pyramid}}'' [-[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace WITH KIDS!]]-] (i.e. having to explain words to children to get them to guess it)
57	* ''Series/{{Showoffs}}'' and its reboot ''Series/BodyLanguage'' had contestants trying to guess up to ten words being mimed to them in sixty seconds. Whatever was correctly guessed was worth up to 10 times the amount by getting three additional words in 15 seconds (20 in ''Body Language'').
58	* "Double Definition" on ''Series/{{Wordplay}}''
59	* "Channel Roulette" on ''Series/CouchPotatoes''
60	* The Italian game ''[[Series/NextOne Avanti Un Altro]]'' has a bonus round which is just plain diabolical: you have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to answer 21 questions ''wrong.'' They have two options each, but if you get one right or take too long to answer you have to go right back to the beginning! You do get additional time to play for a smaller prize if you run out of time, but still.
61	* ''Series/{{The Chase\|GameShow}}'' has the AllOrNothing "Final Chase".
62	* "El minuto de oro" ("The Golden Minute") in the weekend edition of ''Saber y Ganar''.
63	* Many Japanese variety shows have an inversion of this trope called the "Batsu game" (罰ゲーム, penalty game), where the loser has to play a game that involves doing or experiencing something unpleasant as "punishment" for losing.
64	** Then there's ''Series/PanelQuizAttack25'', which plays it straight: however many panels the winner captured during the main game were removed from the board, revealing a series of pictures underneath. These are visual clues that led to the name of a person, place, or even a year (where the clues would be events that happened during that year). Identifying the subject of the clues won a trip (these days, it's a Mediterranean cruise).
65	* ''[[Series/{{Boom}} BOOM!]]'' features an optional one in the Mega Money Bomb, which can quadruple a team's winnings; it is optional due to the fact that if a team goes for it and loses, their winnings are cut in half.
66	* ''Series/PressYourLuck'' and its beta version ''Series/SecondChance'' (as well as the revival ''Series/{{Whammy}}'') had no bonus round. The 2019 revival of ''[=PYL=]'', however, did implement one where the main game's winner had a shot to win $1 million through taking spins on the Big Board and avoiding the Whammy.
67	* ''Series/{{Pointless}}'' has a bonus round before the head-to-head round, where the two remaining couples are given a board of six possible answers, two of which are pointless - as in the normal rounds, finding a pointless answer adds £250 to the prize. Unlike the normal rounds, the two teams are allowed to confer, and an incorrect answer carries no penalty.
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69	!!Examples from fictional game shows:
70	* The kids-versus-adults game "What Do Kids Know?" in ''Film/{{Magnolia}}'' had a bonus round. Everyone expects ChildProdigy Stanley to represent the kids in the bonus round but he doesn't want to go because [[spoiler: [[PottyEmergency he has to go to the bathroom.]]]]
71	* In ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', the DreamSequence game show "Name that Fish" had a bonus round in which Garfield (or presumably, any contestant) gets into a booth that starts filling with water, and is challenged to name the fish that come in with it (Never seen played because Garfield realized it was AllJustADream).
72	* In ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'', UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln became a contestant in ''The Lincoln-Douglas Debates'', where he won the bonus round by answering the question "How much is four score plus seven?" This awarded him the Samsonite luggage ''and'' the presidency. UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy wins the same prize in his televised debates with Nixon; the category chosen by Kennedy in the bonus round was "Graceful Handsome Boyish Wittiness."
73	* In ''Theatre/OnceUponAMattress'', the Wizard tells Princess #12 that she's now at "the seventh plateau," and gives her a final question to answer in the EngagementChallenge. Predictably, the princess fails to answer the absurdly convoluted fourth part of the question before the time runs out, and she receives a large dead bird as a ConsolationPrize.

Context Main / BonusRound