Switcheroo
1976 - Present
Switcheroo is a
unique and very enjoyable car game that is, unfortunately, rarely
played. The contestant is shown a car along with four two-digit
prizes. On the Switcheroo board, the prices of all five items are
shown, each with a digit missing. For the four two-digit prizes,
the first digit is missing; for the car, the next-to-last digit
is missing. The contestant is shown five blocks that represent
the missing digits to the prizes and must fill the blocks in for
the prizes they belong to. To assure that the contestant doesn't
dawdle, the contestant is given just 30 second to fill the gaps,
although Bob has always allowed contestant to go over by a couple
of seconds. After the first attempt to fill the gaps, the
contestant is told how many s/he has right. The contestant is
then allowed an optional second opportunity (and another 30
seconds) to make any changes s/he wants to. After the second
attempt, the contestant is once again shown how many s/he has
right and wins those prizes s/he has correct. The game is
extremely exciting when a contestant only has one prize
right--and it turns out to be the car! The game is extremely
disappointing when the contestant had the price of the car
correct the first time arround and then changed it.
It's a good thing
that the contestant doesn't have to get all five prizes right to
win the car, because the odds against that are 119:1; however, a
few contestants have gotten all five right, even some on the
first try!
 |
 |
| It's
Christmas, 1998, and we're playing Switcheroo. |
This
contestant is taking her time filling in the digit gaps;
she only has five seconds left! |
 |
 |
| Phew!
Just in the nick of time she finished. She has a price of
$15,890 on the car, and how many does she have right? |
Two
right, three wrong. Does she want to make changes? |
 |
 |
| The
audience was yelling at her not to change the car price,
but she's moving the 9 down to the tool set and putting
the four in the car price. |
Now
she's only got one right...uh oh...that's not good
news... |
 |
|
| OH
NO! She had the car right but she changed it! She does
win a $15 Yahtzee game, however. Janice is giving her
best, "You shouldn't have changed it!" look. |
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