Network: ABC
Episodes: 16 (hour)
Seasons: Two
TV show dates: May 20, 2015 — June 1, 2016
Series status: Cancelled
Performers include: Richard Quest (host), Dan Harris (host)
TV show description:
Hosted by Richard Quest, this game show lets some certified geniuses try to correctly answer 500 difficult general knowledge questions without getting three incorrect in a row.
The games is played by two people at a time; one watches and waits while the other answers questions and earns money. A contestant has 10 categories with five questions in each of them. Once a question is asked, the contestant has 10 seconds to answer — and can offer as many answers as they can within that time. Once the correct answer is given, the clock stops and resets.
If the first answer is the right one, the contestant receives $1,000 (each 25th question is worth an additional $5,000). If he/she doesn’t come up with the right answer in time, the contestant receives a strike. If he/she gets two strikes in a row, the challenger gets to pick the next category. If he/she gets three strikes in a row, the contestant is eliminated. If the contestant survives to answer 50 questions, he/she keeps the cash and the challenger is eliminated.
There are also several special questions in the game.
In the “Battle” question, both contestants take turns answering the same question which has multiple answers. The contestant in control decides who goes first. They go back and forth until all correct answers are given or until one contestant gives the wrong answer.
In the “Top 10 Challenge”, a statistical question is asked and there are 10 top answers. The player tries to give five correct answers in 15 seconds.
In the “Triple Threat”, a contestant is asked a question with three answers. If he/she comes up with all three in 10 seconds, the contestant wins $3,000.
Episode #16
It’s the fifth and final night, and the pressure is starting to mount. The current reigning genius hopes to continue his unprecedented run to 500 questions in the face of a challenger who is actively ready to take his place.
First aired: June 1, 2016.
What do you think? Do you like the 500 Questions TV show? Do you think it should have been cancelled or renewed for a third season?
I really enjoy this show and would like to know when it will return. you left us on a cliff-hanger.
I liked this show I would like to know some of the winners of the last few shows I tried to record one & my tv missed up. The guy in the red sweater with the Beard and black glasses the only person making it farther than any one else I would like to know if he made it to 500 question. July 11,2016
bravo on the insight
Really like!! I find it fascinating.
I did not like it. A show like this should be dignified and this was not. Jeopardy has some levity, but it is definitely dignified.
If renewed in this format, I will not be watching.
I liked the show and it should not be cancelled; I wish the challenger had opportunities to win money and to stop the winner in more ways. It seems really stacked for the person who in charge of the board.
I liked the show, and I think it should be renewed. I was really disapointed when I only got to see a few of the episode.
I wish someone would have called and asked me if I liked the show – 500 Questions. I looked forward to watching it every night. Please make some more calls and ask all the people I’ve spoken too in the community in which I live……out of 17,000…….there were more than I could count. Please bring it back. It’s a great show.
Thoroughly disappointed in this show. Everything about it grates, beginning with the overly garish stage décor and silly audio. Rules = overly complicated. Graphics for the questions = hard to read: small white letters on black background, in the distance. Questions = too long in coming because of too much chit-chat/yackety-yak among host and contestants. People watch the show for the fun of getting correct answers themselves at home, not for seeing unknown “geniuses” trying to act cute for the camera, with the host encouraging them along. The show is a complete dud. No one watched after first two nights.
I could only take One showing for the exact same reasons!!!
Agree completely!
I could enjoy watching this show with a different host, but I find Richard Quests’ vocal quality as irritating as listening to fingernails scratching across a chalkboard. After the second night, I put the volume on mute and used the closed captioning, so I could continue to watch the show and learn how it works without suffering his voice. I agree completely with finding the questions on the screen to be entirely too small to view comfortably, let alone read easily, and often, it was difficult to know which of the contestants’ answers were correct when the bell sounded as… Read more »
I felt sorry for those whose backsides were facing the camera – not at all flattering!