The $100,000 Pyramid (2016)


Aired
ABC Primetime, June 26, 2016-present
Number of episodes
91 (As of right now)
Run time
60 minutes
Host
Michael Strahan
Announcer
Brad Abelle
Origination
ABC Studios, New York City (2016-2020) Prospect Studios, Studio City (2022-present)

This is chronicling the 2016 ABC version of The $100,000 Pyramid, produced by Sony Pictures Television along with SMAC Productions.

Game Format[]

Main Game[]

Two teams, each consisting of a celebrity guest and a studio contestant, attempted to guess a series of items relating to different categories within a short time limit based on clues given by their partners.

The game consists of six categories, each one cleverly written in order to give team members a vague idea of what it was about (ex: "Loosen Up" - things that are stiff; "Made Public" - things that are used by the public; "The Woodsman" - things that a carpenter uses). Some categories also involved famous people, which contestants and celebrities both dreaded. Each team played each category in alternating order (their choice), and for each category, one person on the team had 30 seconds to describe seven items relating to that category to their partner. Teams scored 1 point for each correct answer (for a maximum of 7 points); if they passed on a word, they could come back to it. The clue giver could use voice inflections and hand/body movements while describing a word, but they could not say the actual word or any other part of it or else they would lose out on that potential point score (accompanied by a "cuckoo" sound effect). For the first two categories, the celebrities gave the clues, then the contestants gave the clues for the next two, and then for the final two, teams decided amongst themselves who would give or receive clues (the team that was trailing usually got first pick between the last two categories). The team in the lead after the sixth category moved on to the Winner's Circle.

Mystery 7[]

The second game of every show featured a hidden bonus called the Mystery 7. The team that found the Mystery 7 had a chance to win a special prize. The game's title refers to the fact that the category was not told until after it was done - the "mystery". The team had the usual 30 seconds to get all seven words and doing so won the contestant a trip. In situations where a team didn't all earn 7 points to win on the very last category or they won the game automatically, if the very last category concealed the Mystery 7, the team was allowed to play the category all the way out to try and win the trip.

The team with the most points won the game. In case of a tie, the team with the fastest total time wins.

Winner's Circle[]

The Winner's Circle was still played the same way as before: the contestant of the winning team had 60 seconds to describe six categories of increasing difficulty to their celebrity partner by listing items relating to each category. There were strict rules involving the types of clues players could not give in the Winner's Circle (see below):

Contestants could not use their hands (their chair had special straps attached to the arms to prevent them from doing so)
Contestants could not give away any part of the category itself or the essence thereof
Contestants had to use a short and concise list of clues; they could not use clues that were overly descriptive
Contestants could not use synonyms or prepositional phrases
Contestants clues had to relate to the category itself

If the contestants gave an illegal clue at any time, the category in play was thrown out, thus disqualifying them from winning the grand prize. However, if this happened with time left on the clock and with unrevealed categories yet to be played, then the team was allowed to play the remainder of the Winner's Circle until time ran out or until the remaining categories were all correctly guessed. Each category was worth an increasing amount of money, and if the team got all six right before the time expired, then the contestant partner won the grand prize.

Payoffs[]

Here are the amounts for each subject:

1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
$1,000	$1,500	$2,000	$3,000	$4,000	$5,000

The first trip is worth $50,000, and if the same player made it back to the Winner's Circle, the second trip is worth $100,000, a possible grand total of $150,000.

Episodes[]

Trivia[]

This is the second version of Pyramid in history to be aired in Primetime on ABC, the first was the All-Star Junior Pyramid special, hosted by the late Dick Clark in 1979.

This version is paired up with the second season of Celebrity Family Feud (hosted by Steve Harvey) along with the reboot of Match Game (hosted by Alec Baldwin) as part of a summer Primetime block called "Sunday Fun & Games" in 2016.

On June 11, 2017, the show moved to 10/9 central in order to be paired up with the new (short-lived) reality competition series Steve Harvey's Funderdome along with the 3rd season of Celebrity Family Feud (as of which both are hosted by Steve Harvey).

On June 10, 2018, the show moved back to its regular 9:00pm ET timeslot pairing up with the 4th season of Celebrity Family Feud hosted by Steve Harvey, it was also paired up with the 3rd season of To Tell the Truth hosted by Anthony Anderson.

Originally set for June 2020, Season 5 has been indefinitely delayed as a byproduct of the COVID-19 outbreak as production was to have started in April 2020.

On May 26, 2021, the show's 5th season premiered along with the 3rd season of 80s cult classic Press Your Luck hosted by Elizabeth Banks however, both were originally going to air on June 9, 2021. Both were later paired up with the 3rd season of Card Sharks hosted by Joel McHale on June 16 also was originally going to air on June 9 as well.

Merchandise[]

Board Game[]

A board game called "Home Edition with Michael Strahan"^[1] was released by Pressman in 2019.

↑ (The) $100,000 Pyramid Game

Mobile Game[]

A app for iOS and Android devices based on this version was created by Lowekey^[1]in 2019.

↑ The $100,000 Pyramid (Strahan) game app site

Amazon Alexa[]

In 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment released a skill game version of Pyramid^[1] for Amazon Alexa, go solo and guess the items with Alexa giving the clues or play against your friends and family in online challenges.