History Main / AllOrNothing

* The complete lack of tiers on FOX's show ''{{Series/Greed}},'' added to the inability to walk away once the question is read and a lack of lifelines, demonstrates the main flaw in this trope, especially for high-stakes game shows: few people will go for a shot at $200,000 with a dangerously high chance of leaving with nothing when they have $100,000 in their pockets. The people with irrational overconfidence acting as captain were, sadly, few and far between.
** A contestant picked and participates in the "terminator" round gets $10,000 regardless of if he/she is terminated or if the team loses the game.
** US ''1 vs. 100'' follows this rule with the contestant's inability to walk away once you continue for the next question. At least the remaining mob gets to win the share if a contestant loses. The original format? Doesn't let contestants leave except for right at the end if the mob have been eliminated, but before if the contestant was correct is revealed.

* In the GameShow ''CashCab'', if they get to their destination without getting three strikes, the winner or winners are given an option, take the money and run, or answer a video question for double what they have. If they lose, they get nothing except the free cab ride).

-->--'''Willy Wonka''', ''[[CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory]]''

-->--'''Music/CheapTrick''', "Mighty Wings" (from ''TopGun'')

'''Willy Wonka''', ''[[CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory]]''

'''CheapTrick''', "Mighty Wings" (from ''TopGun'')

* An episode of the current ''Series/DoctorWho'' series featured the logical extreme of this trope: the losers of the contest didn't just go away with nothing, they were [[spoiler:disintegrated]]. Yikes.
** But no - [[spoiler: the losers' deaths turned out to be far more gruesome. The words "filleted" and "pulped" are used.]]

* In the original Art Fleming version of ''[=~Jeopardy!~=]'', contestants got to keep whatever money they won. But this led to contestants who would stop ringing in when they were satisfied with the amount of money they had, so when the show was [[TheRemake relaunched]] with Alex Trebek, only the winner got to keep their cash to ensure that contestants would go all out to win the game. Trebek-era Jeopardy always had sponsored {{Consolation Prize}}s of variable values; for many years, they were low-end, such as grocery products, but in recent years, the second-place contestant now gets $2000 and the third-place gets $1000.

* "Weird Al" Yankovic's song ''I Lost On {{Jeopardy}}''; although the song is poking fun at the idea of {{Consolation Prize}}s, it does so by invoking ''this'' trope, just as {{Jeopardy}}! itself did.

* ''TheSimpsons'' featured the comedic fictional take, when Marge went on ''{{Jeopardy}}!'' and finished in the red. She ran away from Trebek's thugs demanding that she pay up, though.

* British gameshow [[Pointless]] is like a reverse version of Family Fortunes/Feud, where contestants have to find the answers the least people out of the one hundred asked before the show knew. If nobody said an answer it is a [[TitleDrop pointless]]. To win the jackpot, the team that gets through to the final has three chances to find a pointless answer to the last question. If they can't, the jackpot rolls over to the next show. However, they do get [[ConsolationPrize the Pointless trophy]].

* An episode of the current ''DoctorWho'' series featured the logical extreme of this trope: the losers of the contest didn't just go away with nothing, they were [[spoiler:disintegrated]]. Yikes.

A comedic fictional take on the idea might result in a contestant actually ''owing'' money to the packager, network or syndicator. Or worse...

'''CheapTrick''', "Mighty Wings" (from ''Top Gun'')

** ''1 vs. 100'' follows this rule with the contestant's inability to walk away once you continue for the next question. At least the remaining mob gets to win the share if a contestant loses.

** ''1 vs. 100'' follows this rule with the contestant's inability to walk away once you see the question. The remaining mob gets to win something.

* By far the most painful example for this, almost as much for the viewers as the contestants, was ''Moment of Truth''. The hopefuls were called upon to answer highly embarrassing and potentially damaging questions about themselves (affairs and past crimes were common subjects), with a prize structure similar to that on ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire''. The killer thing is, if the answerer got even ''one'' question wrong, he or she lost EVERYTHING. No safety net, no consolation prize, all that pain and emotional torment for jumping-jack nada. Even better, guess what was used to determine the "correct" answers? A ''{{lie detector}}''. Which means that even if the answer ''was'' correct, it still resulted in absolute failure if the machine said otherwise. (Later it instituted a $25,000 floor, which wasn't much comfort.) This one didn't last too long, something that should have surprised no one.
* And arguably the ''dumbest'' example was ''Unanimous'', in which nine strangers met in a hermetically sealed bunker, and every week voted to see who would win the grand prize, starting at $1.5 million. The hitch was that the vote had to be unanimous for one person for the prize to be awarded. Oh, and the longer the contest dragged on, the smaller the prize got. And if anyone left the bunker, the money would get cut in half. Uh huh. Of course, the whole question of why anyone should want to give the money to anyone else, thus ending the show (and face time, the real reason a lot of these people go on reality TV to begin with) for NO gain is never addressed, nor how hurting the poor saps still in the game was supposed to be a deterrent to walking away. To the surprise of almost nobody, it did not survive past the first season.

* A fictional example: An episode of the current ''DoctorWho'' series featured the logical extreme of this trope: the losers of the contest didn't just go away with nothing, they were [[spoiler:disintegrated]]. Yikes.
** But no - [[spoiler: the losers' deaths turned out to be far more gruesome. The words "filleted" and "pulped" are used.]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]
* Fictional example: the end of the film ''WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory''. Although Charlie has won Wonka's contest by default (since the other children all "dropped out"), Wonka disqualifies him on a technicality, delivering the quote at the top of this page. However, he subverts it a moment later by revealing that it is one last SecretTestOfCharacter, which Charlie passes.
** The other children in this film would be a straight-up example; they leave with nothing other than the AmusingInjuries they'd brought upon themselves. (This is different than the book. Then again, the book didn't have that contract.)
* In the movie ''TheRunningMan'', contestants, who are criminals, on the ShowWithinAShow will either win their freedom, a large sum of money, and a long vacation somewhere tropical, or else die. This Brings new meaning to "all or nothing." [[spoiler: And the people running the game cheat; thus, no one ever wins.]]

[[AC: {{Music}}]]
* "Weird Al" Yankovic's song ''I Lost On {{Jeopardy}}''; although the song is poking fun at the idea of {{Consolation Prize}}s, it does so by invoking ''this'' trope, just as {{Jeopardy}}! itself did.
* Also parodied in ''MontyPython Live at the Hollywood Bowl'': "Well, nobody leaves this show empty-handed... so we're going to cut off his hands."

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* ''TheSimpsons'' featured the comedic fictional take, when Marge went on ''{{Jeopardy}}!'' and finished in the red. She ran away from Trebek's thugs demanding that she pay up, though.
-->'''Thug''': "She ain't gettin' the [[HomeGame home version]]."
* ''ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'': "When [Skipper] said all or nothing, he really meant all."
* ''{{Metalocalypse}}'' featured one of the most extreme takes on this of all time: either your celebrity partner gets the question right, or you get ''killed'' with the cash you would've won.

[[AC: {{Other}}]]

* ''TheMole'' makes a big deal about runners-up leaving empty-handed. This is one reason ''Celebrity Mole'' wasn't played for charity. The other reason would be the hit a celebrity would take if he was deliberately preventing money from going to charity.

* While the AndrewLloydWebber casting talent shows such as HowDoYouSolveAProblemLikeMaria don't have a runner-up prize, several of the runners-up will wind up being cast in various musicals because they were on the show... And, apparently, the BBC's standard policy for that sort of show is to pay the contestants the standard industry rate for their appearance.

* By far the most painful example for this, almost as much for the viewers as the contestants, was ''Moment of Truth''. The hopefuls were called upon to answer highly embarrassing and potentially damaging questions about themselves (affairs and past crimes were common subjects), with a prize structure similar to that on ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire''. The killer thing is, if the answerer got even ''one'' question wrong, he or she lost EVERYTHING. No safety net, no consolation prize, all that pain and emotional torment for jumping-jack nada. Even better, guess what was used to determine the "correct" answers? A ''lie detector''. Which means that even if the answer ''was'' correct, it still resulted in absolute failure if the machine said otherwise. (Later it instituted a $25,000 floor, which wasn't much comfort.) This one didn't last too long, something that should have surprised no one.
* And arguably the ''dumbest'' example was Unanimous, in which about ten hopefuls (I don't remember the exact number) met in a hermetically sealed bunker, and every week voted to see who would win the grand prize, starting at $1.5 million. The hitch was that the vote had to be unanimous for one person for the prize to be awarded. Oh, and the longer the contest dragged on, the smaller the prize got. And if anyone left the bunker, the money would get cut in half. Uh huh. Of course, the whole question of why anyone should want to give the money to anyone else, thus ending the show (and face time, the real reason a lot of these people go on reality TV to begin with) for NO gain is never addressed, nor how hurting the poor saps still in the game was supposed to be a deterrent to walking away (heck, I'm surprised nobody did it for sheer spite!). To the surprise of almost nobody, it did not survive past the first season.
* In Britain, ''The Million Pound Drop'' was probably worse than ''Golden Balls'' about this. After taking most of an hour to go through 7 questions and plenty of padding, players must face a final multiple-choice question with two choices. If they pick the correct answer, they keep their winnings; if they pick the incorrect one, they leave empty-handed and any success they had on previous questions is rendered moot. This led to one team who lost £525,000 on an UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer which may has well have been a coin flip, since it was on ''nearly-30-year-old celebrity gossip''.

** The same system is used in the U.S. show ''Friend or Foe?''.

* In Britain, ''The Million Pound Drop'' was probably worse than ''Golden Balls'' about this. After taking most of an hour to go through 7 questions and plenty of padding, players must face a final multiple-choice question with two choices. If they pick the correct answer, they keep their winnings; if they pick the incorrect one, they leave empty-handed and any success they had on previous questions is rendered moot. This led to one team who lost 525,000 pounds on an UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer which may has well have been a coin flip, since it was on ''nearly-30-year-old celebrity gossip''.

* In Britain, ''The Million Pound Drop'' was probably worse than ''Golden Balls'' about this. After taking most of an hour to go through 7 questions and plenty of padding, players must face a final multiple-choice question with two choices. If they pick the correct answer, they keep their winnings; if they pick the incorrect one, they leave empty-handed and any success they had on previous questions is rendered moot. This led to one team who lost 525,000 pounds on an UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer which may has well have been a coin flip, since it was on '''nearly-30-year-old celebrity gossip'''.

* In the original Art Fleming version of ''[=~Jeopardy!~=]'', contestants got to keep whatever money they won. But when the show was [[ReMake relaunched]] with Alex Trebek, only the winner got to keep their cash to ensure that contestants would go all out to win the game. Trebek-area Jeopardy always had sponsored consolation prizes of variable values, although mostly low-end, such as grocery products.
**This was changed a few years ago, however, with the second-place contestant now getting $2000 and the third-place getting $1000.