Trivia / The Challengers

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• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The Challengers hasn't been seen since its original run, but prominently displaying the airdate in most episodes makes collecting pretty easy.
  • The only episodes that didn't have an airdate shown were the Sneak Preview show^note (aired August 31, 1990; the winner of this show became the returning champ on the September 3 premiere), the weeklong Teachers Tournament^note (uncertain, but no earlier than October 29–November 2, 1990; the graphics and format used indicate that this week taped between the first and second weeks of the series), and both weeklong Invitational Tournaments^note (aired November 12–16, 1990, and March 18–22, 1991).
  • And as for the show's predecessor, The Who, What or Where Game, only one episode is known to survive on video; it was one of the many victims of NBC's wiping practices of the era (other victims included the Peter Marshall version of The Hollywood Squares, the Alex Trebek versions of High Rollers, the original Art Fleming version of Jeopardy!, the original Hugh Downs–Bob Clayton version of Concentration, and the original Jack Kelly–Joe Garagiola version of Sale of the Century).
• No Budget:
  • Under the show's original rules, any champion who won three consecutive games earned the opportunity at an Ultimate Challenge question—minimum value $50,000—upon the start of their fourth show. Shortly thereafter, the stakes for the Ultimate Challenge would be downgraded to a minimum value of $25,000.
  • Nearly three months into the series' run, the Ultimate Challenge saw significant changes: The Ultimate Challenge now took place at the end of each show, and the highest-scoring player during that day's main game would only be awarded a flat $10,000 for answering the bonus question correctly.
  • As The Challengers' single-season run was dawing to a close, the Ultimate Challenge was ultimately removed from the game entirely.
• Screwed by the Network: The show's early demise was threefold: The 1990/91 season saw a glut of syndicated games (revivals of The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough, Trump Card, Quiz Kids Challenge), resulting in overcrowding. Not only that, but the show often got demoted to bad timeslots like overnights in major markets, and some never even saw the show. And even if the show did get a good timeslot, the Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune combo often shot it down decisively in the ratings, or, barring that, it would have to compete with syndicated newsmagazines, such as Entertainment Tonight; syndicated judge shows, such as The People's Court, or syndicated talk shows, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show (which is why many stations demoted The Challengers after a few months).
• Throw It In!: Given the format of the game, unless all three contestants pick one question apiece or all three pick the same question and go on to sweep the board, one question per category will go unasked. Generally, Dick will save the question so it can be reused (at least one episode had a category called "Challenger Leftovers"), but every once in a while he'd ask the Judge for permission to ask the leftover question just for fun if he thought it was particularly clever.

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