''Born Lucky'' is an American television series in which contestants earned mall money and prizes. It was hosted by

Bob Goen Robert Kuehl Goen (born December 1, 1954) is an American game show emcee and television personality, best known for his work on ''Entertainment Tonight'' between 1993 and 2004 and as the fourth and final host of the daytime ''Wheel of Fortune'' fr ...

and announced by Jonathan Coleman. Four contestants competed in a stunt game show taped at various shopping malls for a chance at $2,000 to shop at that mall. The first week's shows of ''Born Lucky'' were taped at the

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California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The show aired on

Lifetime Lifetime may refer to: * Life expectancy, the length of time a person is expected to remain alive Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Lifetime (band), a rock band from New Jersey * ''Life Time'' (Rollins Band album), by Rollins Band * ...

from October 5, 1992, to April 2, 1993. After the last episode aired, the show went into reruns on the same network from July 5 to December 31, 1993. For a brief period in 2000,

PAX TV Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented entert ...

aired reruns of this series. The show was loosely based on a 1989 British game show of the same name hosted by

Jeremy Beadle Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE (12 April 1948 – 30 January 2008) was an English television presenter, radio presenter, writer and producer. During the 1980s he was a regular face on British television, and in two years appeared i ...

Format

Each player had a chance to win up to $100 (in what was referred to as "mall money") in the first round by participating in a stunt, such as trying to follow a sequence of commands, moving an item through a maze using a magnet held in the mouth in 60 seconds, or solving a series of brain teasers. Each stunt had five or ten parts and the contestant earned $10 or $20 for a fraction of success. The top two highest scoring players moved on to Round 2. Regardless of the outcome of the round, all contestants received a prize chosen blindly from a set of cards that were fanned out. If there was a tie (for last place, or if all tied), each person picked an envelope containing "mall money" not counting toward their scores. The player(s) who picked the most cash went on to round two.

Challenge Round

In the second round, the two remaining players bid against each other to see who could accomplish the stunt (à la ''

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s ''Bid-a-Note'' round). All stunts were played in either a 30, 45, or 60-second time limit. If the person accomplished the stunt before time ran out, he or she won. Otherwise, the opponent moved on.

Bonus Round

The winning player then got a chance to win a total of $2,000 (including tiebreaker winnings, if any) by accomplishing a series of 5 additional stunts in 90 seconds. They could pass on only one stunt and if time permitted, they went back to that stunt and he/she had to complete that remaining stunt to win the $2,000 in cash; otherwise, he/she received $100 for each stunt accomplished.

References

{{Lifetime Shows Lifetime (TV network) original programming 1990s American game shows 1992 American television series debuts 1993 American television series endings Television series by Stone Stanley Entertainment English-language television shows