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The Games of Bengalia:
We've Got Your Number

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Hi; it's Quiz King again.  Here's another Bengalian game show, "We've Got Your Number."  All episodes exist, and are available to view on YouTube.  Episodes made with the Game Show Box are given the disclaimers that read "A GAME SHOW BOX PRESENTATION" at the beginning and end of each episode, in order to distinguish it from the original.

This series, "The Games of Bengalia," also covers games not hosted by me (although I was a celebrity guest player on some of these programs).

Although the title "We've Got Your Number" is another game show pilot from the US that did not sell, and yet it became a show on Bengalia, our show is different from the US pilot.  We felt there were quite a few flaws with the US format, but there's a reason you do those pilots to see if they work or not.  This article describes the Bengalian version; a pilot with our format was made for WBC, but did not sell.  However, WBC has a habit of airing their unsold pilots as one-off specials (mainly to find slots to fill), and so, as a result, the people won all their cash and prizes (and paid taxes on it).  NOTE: The US format would have been a straddling format, meaning episodes could stop and start in the middle of a game.  Our show did not do this.

The WBC pilot was an attempt to get me back to hosting a game show, since I haven't done any since the cancellation of the lottery game show "Kansas Mega Giveaway," which I co-hosted with Cripto.

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Number of Contestants: 2
Original Network: SBS (daytime)
Current Network: WBC (unsold pilot; it would have been a primetime show)
Original Host: Grayson Romano (SBS); me, Brock Cunningham (WBC pilot)
Original Announcer: Julian Romano (SBS); Carlton Mason (WBC pilot)
Running Time: 30 minutes (including commercials)
Number of Episodes: 821 (Bengalian version); 1 (unsold US pilot for WBC)

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Rules

Number of Players

2 contestants play against one another in a game of answering questions and rolling dice on a dice table.  The object of the game is to be the first player to fill their gameboard with various numbers on the dice (from 2 to 12) without accumulating three strikes; a strike is accumulated by repeating a number already given.

As with many other game shows on Bengalia, we love to color-code our contestants.  Champions are green; challengers are yellow.  Also, as on many Bengalian game shows, all players keep all cash and prizes they win, regardless of who wins the contest.

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Round 1

To start with, Grayson (or yours truly) asks a toss-up question on the buzzer.  The questions are always 50/50, meaning there are two choices to pick from; picking the right answer earns control of the dice, and giving a wrong answer gives the opponent control of the dice.  Each player has a game board that contains five slots (as opposed to four on the US version).  After a player gets control of the dice, they roll the dice, and whatever number pops up then has to be placed on the game board.  The rule, however, is that the players must put the numbers in numerical order from low to high.  On our show, the game boards are horizontal instead of vertical, so a typical game board would read something along the lines of 3, 5, 7, 8, 12.

Each successful roll also earns $200 for the contestant.

If the player repeats a number, they earn one strike; three strikes and the opponent wins the game by default (and a $1,000 bonus to go with it).  There is no initial penalty if a player rolls a number that doesn't fit (in the above example, if the player has a 3 in the first slot, and a 5 in the second slot, there is no place to put a 2 or a 4).  However, a short double-buzzer will sound to alert them of this, and they must place the matching number in front of them to remind them of this also.  This is because if a player rolls one of these numbers a second time, it earns a strike.  (A different two-note buzzer is used when a player receives a strike.)

Players who control the dice are allowed to pass control to their opponents if they feel that they cannot roll a number without getting the third strike.  They aren't allowed to pass, however, until at least one of the two players has two strikes.

Once the third strike is accumulated, the round ends and the opponent wins.  If a player successfully fills their board first, they win.  The winner gets a $1,000 bonus in either case.  The winner also gets a prize for winning.

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Round 2

Same as Round 1, but the dollar values double to $400 for a correct answer, and $2,000 (and the prize) for winning the game.

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Round 3

Same as Rounds 1 and 2, but the dollar values are now triple: $600 for a correct answer, and $3,000 (and the prize) for winning the game.

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Winning the Game

Although both players keep what they win, it is the player with the biggest cash total that wins the contest.  Prizes do not count towards the overall score.  If the cash totals are tied, Grayson (or, in the pilot, me) will ask the players to roll one die each, and the highest number wins.  If that is a tie, we repeat until we have a winner.  (In the show's history, there was never a single tied match, so many Bengalians weren't aware of this rule unless Grayson happened to mention it.)

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Bonus Round

The winner has a chance at even bigger money; the objective here is to roll 7 different numbers without repeating any single number once.  The player is given $500 to begin with, which automatically doubles to $1,000, since the first roll is a freebie.  A player can stop at any time they wish, as rolling a repeated number will cause them to lose the game (and all their winnings) instantly.

Rolling a 7 is unique in that the first time it is rolled, it acts as a wild card; Grayson (or me in the pilot) will ask the player what number they wish to make it.  The second time a 7 is rolled, however, it becomes one of the regular numbers to be avoided.  If the player rolls a 7 a third time, then it counts as a loss.  A 7 as a wild may be made a 7 if the player desires; however, in most cases, they made it a hard number to roll such as a 2 or 12.  (Grayson typically used the casino terms "snake eyes" for a 2 and "boxcars" for a 12.)

If the player successfully rolls 7 different numbers (including any cases where a 7 is a wild), they double their money every time, up to a maximum of $64,000.

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Notes and Trivia

Whereas the US pilot had flashing dot lights on a display for the main game, and a dice table with regular dice only for the bonus game, our version always used the dice table.

Announcer Julian Romano is Grayson's younger brother (by about a year and a half).  Neither were available at the time of the WBC pilot, so the network hired one of its own staff announcers, Carlton Mason, to introduce me.  However, both would have been involved in the production if it had sold.  

As Grayson himself stated, "The show didn't sell, unfortunately, but what it did prove was this: while it is true that we were competitors back home, as Brock was the face of BTV and I was the face of SBS, working today at WBC has brought us all together as one big happy family.  Brock was doing this pilot; I did the original.  And all of us, believe me, are most grateful to have been gamefully employed all these years, even though we haven't really been hosting as much.  We don't mind.  We have that invention know as the Game Show Box to keep us sharp.  It also lets us act as if our shows never ended, although we have to distinguish which episodes were the original Bengalian shows made the traditional way, and which ones were made with the Box."  (Grayson continues to do episodes with the Box.)

"Being Cripto's neighbor is one of the best things that ever happened to me," I added.  "All my fellow emcees are also lucky to call him their best friend, too."

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That's how you play our version of "We've Got Your Number."  Thanks, folks, and keep on gaming!

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THE END