) I guess the next on will be Poland then...
Post by debit13 on May 14, 2012 19:43:35 GMT -5
I was actually a little bit surprised to not see a thread for this show here. Then again, it wasn't exactly a hot commodity, and it also didn't last very long, either.
For those of you that don't know, The Chair was also a trivia game in question form, with the host reading the question and you providing correct answers. In this game show, you were given questions with multiple choices and one correct answer, or questions with no listed choices and multiple correct answers (similar to Greed, where you chose four out of six/seven/eight/nine). Each question had a set value, increasing up to $100,000 for the 7th and final question, and a total of $250,000 overall. Every player starts off with $5,000 (essentially, as a red-line timer for those who can't even contain themselves on the first question).
The awesome twist: all of this is (presumably) done with an ECG attached to your body, to read your heart rate, which adds a new challenge - keeping your heart rate below a certain point. Before each show, contestants were measured in calm areas for their resting heart rate, and those heart rates would be used as a proportion for what your "red-line" heart rate was. The definition of a red-line is simply when your heart rate exceeds the maximum that it can for a round. Every round has a red-line penalty, with the penalties increasing every round. Red-lines happen on a per-second basis; that is, if you red-line at a certain point, you lose money per second, based on the given round's penalty. There is also an option to "stabilize" your winnings after the third question, which takes your current winnings and sets them aside for when you get a single question wrong. You are only allowed to do this one time in the game. If you do not stabilize your winnings and answer a question incorrectly, you lose all of your winnings.
At the beginning of every game, they would take 60% of a person's heart rate and add it on top of their resting heart-rate for the first question, decreasing it by 5% of the resting heart-rate for each additional question. It was later raised to 70% of the resting heart rate. At two points in the game, a host-triggered event known as a "heartstopper" would come into play, in attempt to make the contestant's heart race. Normally, these only last fifteen seconds -- however, if a contestant begins to red-line, then the heart-stopper round will continue until the heart rate falls below the maximum allowed heart rate (essentially, the event lasts for a short period, but the round will not end until the player either relaxes their heart rate or red-lines their money earned down to 0).
There are three ways for a game of The Chair to end: complete all questions, get a question incorrect (and walk away with whatever your stabilized amount is, including 0), and red-line all of your money away.
This show only lasted seven episodes, and it's quite a shame, actually. I loved the premise of the show, although I think they could have been slightly more creative with the heart stopper events.
Some notable contestants:
Dean Sheffron - this has two parts.
part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHvylCLQ9tY
Kris Mackerer - this has three parts.
part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFxd0gsCfPE
part 3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=45jjhZndBr0
Steven Benjamin - this has two parts (this guy grand slams the chair, not red-lining once.)
part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjLE_-rK3k
Fun fact: this show was apparently being competed against by a much more extreme show called "The Chamber". Look it up on YouTube whenever you get the chance - it's not pretty, that's for sure.
For those of you that don't know, The Chair was also a trivia game in question form, with the host reading the question and you providing correct answers. In this game show, you were given questions with multiple choices and one correct answer, or questions with no listed choices and multiple correct answers (similar to Greed, where you chose four out of six/seven/eight/nine). Each question had a set value, increasing up to $100,000 for the 7th and final question, and a total of $250,000 overall. Every player starts off with $5,000 (essentially, as a red-line timer for those who can't even contain themselves on the first question).
The awesome twist: all of this is (presumably) done with an ECG attached to your body, to read your heart rate, which adds a new challenge - keeping your heart rate below a certain point. Before each show, contestants were measured in calm areas for their resting heart rate, and those heart rates would be used as a proportion for what your "red-line" heart rate was. The definition of a red-line is simply when your heart rate exceeds the maximum that it can for a round. Every round has a red-line penalty, with the penalties increasing every round. Red-lines happen on a per-second basis; that is, if you red-line at a certain point, you lose money per second, based on the given round's penalty. There is also an option to "stabilize" your winnings after the third question, which takes your current winnings and sets them aside for when you get a single question wrong. You are only allowed to do this one time in the game. If you do not stabilize your winnings and answer a question incorrectly, you lose all of your winnings.
At the beginning of every game, they would take 60% of a person's heart rate and add it on top of their resting heart-rate for the first question, decreasing it by 5% of the resting heart-rate for each additional question. It was later raised to 70% of the resting heart rate. At two points in the game, a host-triggered event known as a "heartstopper" would come into play, in attempt to make the contestant's heart race. Normally, these only last fifteen seconds -- however, if a contestant begins to red-line, then the heart-stopper round will continue until the heart rate falls below the maximum allowed heart rate (essentially, the event lasts for a short period, but the round will not end until the player either relaxes their heart rate or red-lines their money earned down to 0).
There are three ways for a game of The Chair to end: complete all questions, get a question incorrect (and walk away with whatever your stabilized amount is, including 0), and red-line all of your money away.
This show only lasted seven episodes, and it's quite a shame, actually. I loved the premise of the show, although I think they could have been slightly more creative with the heart stopper events.
Some notable contestants:
Dean Sheffron - this has two parts.
part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHvylCLQ9tY
Kris Mackerer - this has three parts.
part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFxd0gsCfPE
part 3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=45jjhZndBr0
Steven Benjamin - this has two parts (this guy grand slams the chair, not red-lining once.)
part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjLE_-rK3k
Fun fact: this show was apparently being competed against by a much more extreme show called "The Chamber". Look it up on YouTube whenever you get the chance - it's not pretty, that's for sure.
