Different People, Different Nations, DIFFERENT GAMES!
Duel
(2007, USA, ABC)

We've never quite understood the reasoning behind the current idea du jour that if you're playing a big money gameshow, it's going to pretend to be set amongst some skyscrapers.

Anyway, this is Duel.

Sportscaster host Mike Greenberg and his pen come in over a retractable bridge, with a wall of screens acting as a sort of futuristic portcullis.

There's a drop (a futuristic moat, I suppose) between the auditorium and central stage.

"Know your opponent! Know the answer! And make no mistakes. That is how you dominate the table in Duel, where opponents face off in head to head battles of strategy, knowledge and nerve."

It's the final day of qualifying, and the jackpot currently stands at over a million dollars. That will go to one contestant at the end of the week.

The four people sitting in the middle there are the four people currently on the leaderboard in order of first to fourth (so the danger seat is the one on the right). Beneath them to the left and right is the "player's gallery" - at the beginning of the week there were 24, now there are less than ten.

The show is currently mid-way through a game so it's time to bring on the contestants.

This is a great shot of the set, well done us.

Here is a current shot of the leaderboard from one of the futuristic portcullises. As you can see, it's ranked in order of number of Duels won and then the amount of money in their personal banks. In the event of a tie as you can see for third and fourth, the higher position appears to be taken on a first come first served basis.

Duel is a winner-stay-on game. The players in first and second may have won more duels, but both third and fourth place players were lucky enough to have an opponent crash out on the very first question which explains why they have more money.

Greenberg commands "screen up!" and "screen down!" with his magic pen. The screen is there so the players can read the question, but just as importantly, can't see where their opponent is placing their chips.

The game. Both contestants start the game with 10 chips each worth $5,000. For each question they MUST cover the correct option of the four given, but if they don't know the answer they can hedge their bets by covering more answers. The chip put on the correct answer will be returned to them, all the incorrectly placed chips will be claimed by the house and added to the running jackpot. If your opponent misses, you get to keep the remaining value of any chips you have left to add to your "personal bank", which is yours to keep no matter what.

The graphics reflect the current chip totals - as chips are placed the total goes down. As the answers get covered the computer graphic updates as well.

When they're done they push the green button to lock their answers in. They have a second button which we'll get to in a moment.

Both contestants have covered all bases here so nobody will be going home just yet. Greenberg demands "screen down", then asks both contestants that if they could only put one chip down where they would put it. Both say A.

And the correct answer is A!

We're told that Bill Clinton sent two e-mails, one to astronaut John Glenn and another as a test.

Chip girls Olivia and Jennifer remove the incorrect chips from play...

... and the jackpot is boosted accordingly. Six wrong answers at $5,000 apiece is $30,000 for the jackpot.

The other button is the "pressure" button. If you press it, your opponent has seven seconds maximum to get their answers in - there's a countdown and some exciting music.

After seven seconds, if the player hasn't locked in the computer will lock in for them with whatever they've got down.

Greenberg suggests that there are two times when you should press your opponent - when you think you know the answer, and when you don't.

Ashlee has pressed here (one of her yellow chevrons has turned red, look) after placing all four chips down. The pressure worked, Kimberley was forced to cover all her bases. She'll have only one chip left after this question.

Ashlee's side of the table turns red to indicate she pressed.

The answer's dolphins.

Two questions later and... uh-oh, they've BOTH got the question wrong. That means that nobody wins any money.

But each Duel MUST have a winner, so there's going to be a Shootout.

In a shootout, both players receive four new chips which have no monetary value. A question is posed. The players have two priorities: get the question right, and get it right having used the fewer chips. You can't press your opponent in the Shootout.

The correct answer here is D (ten events in a decathalon - two players in a beach volleyball team), which means Kimberley is going home.

And with two wins, Ashlee claims second spot on the leaderboard...

...knocking off the fourth placed Karla, who must now leave the winner's booth. Unlucky!

As it's the last day of qualifying, the contestants in the players gallery are thrown some help - if they make it onto the stage and they don't have time to have an equal go at making the leaderboard as the person in fourth place (for example, if player four has won two duels and the final contestant has time to only play one), they will come back on Finals Day and duel off against the fourth placed player for the fourth spot for the Jackpot.

As the winner of the Duel, Ashlee gets to select her next opponent from the players in the gallery. The computer selects three at random (you can see them flipping across the screens there).

The neature of the beast means there's no guarantee any player is going to get to play - not only must the computer select them, the player must select them also.

In the end she decides on Ken the alligator wrestler (each contestant is referred to throughout the show by the nature of their employment). He goes up on stage, and the process starts again.