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''Sports Geniuses'' is an American sports-themed
game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...
that aired for 65 episodes from March 27, 2000, until June 23, 2000, on cable channel
Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
. It was the network's second game show (''
Ultimate Fan League Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *''Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *'' The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilati ...
'' was the first, airing in 1998 and 1999, and only other). The advertising campaign for the show won a Clio Award. Sportscaster
Matt Vasgersian Matt Vasgersian ( '; born 1967) is an American sportscaster and television host. Vasgersian is a play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, as well as a studio host for MLB Network and Major League Baseball on Fox, FOX Sports. In the pa ...
hosted, with
Lisa Guerrero Lisa Guerrero (born April 9, 1964) is an American journalist, actress, former sportscaster, artist, and model. Since 2006, Guerrero has been an investigative correspondent for the nationally syndicated newsmagazine ''Inside Edition''. Early ye ...
as his co-host.


Gameplay

Three contestants played a sports trivia game for big prizes.


Round 1 (1st Period)

The first round was played similar to ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'', with four categories each containing five questions that ranged in value from 10 to 50 points. Two questions in the round were designated "
Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
Double Plays", and were questions that employed video clips and had follow-up questions attached which if answered correctly doubled the value of the question.


30 Second Blitz

After all the questions have been asked or until time was called, a speed round called the 30 Second Blitz was played. In this, the players would be shown a photo of an athlete and had to identify who it was. Each correct answer was worth 30 points; the round ended after seven photos or when the 30 seconds expired, whichever came first.


Round 2 (2nd Period)

The next round of play was almost identical to the first round, with the following exceptions: *Questions were now worth 20-100 points *Wrong answers deducted points *No Panasonic Double Plays In addition, a special guest athlete or other sports personality would appear to read all the questions from one category. A new wrinkle was added for this round, called "The Shaft." The third place player was given The Shaft (which was a silver shaft of a baseball bat, hence the name) to start the round and could use it at any point in the round to force one of their opponents to answer one of the questions on the board (and effectively giving them the next "Shaft" usage). Each player could only be "Shafted" once, and once The Shaft returned to someone who had already used it, it was taken out of play. At the end of this round, when all of the questions had been asked or until time was called, whichever came first, the two highest-scoring players advanced to the final round. The player with the lowest score was eliminated from the game. If the second round ended in a tie for second place, a tie-breaker question was asked and whoever buzzed in with a correct answer would advance to the final round with the first place player. However, if a player who buzzed in gave an incorrect answer or took too long, the other player automatically moved to the final round. If the round ended in a three-way tie, Matt would ask two tiebreaker questions and only the two players that answered correctly moved on the final round.


Final Face-Off

In the final Face-off, the two remaining players were given a category for each question (i.e., Super Bowl winners), and the value would start at 100 points and increase by 10 points for each correct answer given by the contestants, who alternated giving answers. If a player gave an incorrect answer or froze, their opponent would receive the points in the pot and play would continue, otherwise the value of the pot would roll over to the next question. Each subsequent question's starting value would increase by 25 points. Play continued in this fashion until time ran out, at which point the contestant with the highest score was declared the winner and won a prize package.


Tournament

''Sports Geniuses'' ended its run with an invitational tournament featuring the show's biggest winners to compete for a chance at a new Chevy S-10 truck and trips to each of the four major American sports' championships (the World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals). Daniel Katz won the tournament.


Play-Along

Before the final commercial break, co-host Lisa Guerrero would introduce, via webcam, comic "Cousin"
Sal Iacono Sal Iacono (born July 5, 1971), also known as Cousin Sal, is an American comedian, writer, and game show host. He is known for his roles on ''The Man Show'' and the late night television show ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. He is Jimmy Kimmel's cousin, h ...
, and he would ask a question to a home viewer winner of an interactive game on the show's website about his/her favorite sports team. A correct answer to that question won a prize.


References

{{Reflist


External links


Official website
2000 American television series debuts 2000 American television series endings 2000s American game shows American sports television series Fox Sports Networks original programming Jeopardy!