Russian Roulette (game show)

Russian Roulette
Genre	Game show
Created by	Gunnar Wetterberg
Directed by	Lenn Goodside
Presented by	Mark L. Walberg
Narrated by	Burton Richardson
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	131
Production
Executive producers	Gunnar Wetterberg Michael Canter
Producer	Howard C. Bauer
Production locations	Tribune Studios Hollywood, California
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Gunnar Wetterberg Productions Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (seasons 1–2) Sony Pictures Television (season 2) Game Show Network Originals
Original release
Network	Game Show Network
Release	June 3, 2002 (2002-06-03) – June 13, 2003 (2003-06-13)

Russian Roulette is an American game show created and executive produced by Gunnar Wetterberg that ran for two seasons on Game Show Network from June 3, 2002, to June 13, 2003. The show was hosted by Mark L. Walberg and announced by Burton Richardson.

Gameplay

The Russian Roulette set consists of a circle with six trapdoors (referred to as "drop zones" by the host), four of which are occupied by the episode's contestants.

First round

The four contestants are each given $150 at the beginning of the episode, and questions for the first round are valued at that same amount.

The number of red lights on the field indicates the number of active drop zones, starting with one drop, and another drop zone is added for each succeeding question (up to five drops starting at question five) and increasing the odds that the contestant will be eliminated after providing an incorrect answer.

One contestant is shown a question and must challenge an opponent to answer it. The challenged contestant is then shown three possible answers and has 10 seconds to choose the right answer. A correct answer awards the contestant $150 and becomes the challenger for the next question; if the contestant answers incorrectly or runs out of time, he/she forfeits all of his/her money to the challenger and must play Russian Roulette by pulling a handle in front of him/her to rotate the drop zones in play around the six trapdoors. If a drop zone lands on that contestant's spot, the trapdoor opens and they drop through the floor and are eliminated from the game. Otherwise, the contestant remains in the game and becomes the challenger for the next question.

The round ends when a contestant drops and is eliminated. If time expires before this happens, one contestant is eliminated at random via one final handle pull at the center of the stage. The contestant with the highest score is granted immunity from the drop by coming to the center of the stage to pull the handle; if there is a tie for the lead, the host pulls the lever, with all four contestants in danger of elimination. The eliminated contestant's money (if any) is distributed evenly among the remaining three contestants.

Second and third rounds

The second round is played similarly to the first, with the three remaining contestants answering questions valued at $200 each, and questions now having four possible answers. In round three, the two remaining contestants face off with questions valued at $300 (season 1) or $250 (season 2). Play is similar to rounds one and two, except that the contestant who first hears the question may elect to answer it themselves or challenge their opponent. After round three, the last contestant standing keeps all their money and goes to the bonus round, while the runner-up drops automatically. If the runner-up had money after dropping in the third round, that money is given to the last contestant standing. If there is a tie at the end of round three, one final random Russian Roulette spin is played to determine the winner.

Bonus round

The winning contestant is moved to the top-left zone and has 60 seconds to answer five "brain-teaser" questions correctly (ten multiple-choice questions of three answers in Season Two). These usually consist of anagrams and jumbled words (unscrambling letters to form the answer based on clues given), math problems and general-knowledge questions. The timer begins ticking while the host asks the first question. After every ten seconds, one drop zone opens on the play field. If time runs out or the contestant at any time gives an incorrect answer, he or she drops, but receives $500 ($300 in season two) for every correct answer. The contestant has the option to pass on a question and return to it if time permits. In Season One, the contestant was required to begin each answer with the phrase "My answer is..." so that thinking aloud would not be mistaken for an answer, but it is no longer required on Season two.

For answering all the questions correctly, the contestant's winnings for this round is augmented to $10,000; the contestant is given an option to exchange the $10,000 for one final game of Russian Roulette for a grand prize of $100,000, with the number of drop zones opening during the previous segment used as the number of drop zones for the final game.

At the end of the show's run, three contestants had survived the final drop and won the $100,000 grand prize.

International versions

On all versions of Russian Roulette outside of the U.S., the UK, Argentina, Portugal, and Poland (in season two), there are also displays of the contestants' heart rates on the screen (examples include Russia's, Poland's (season one), and Hong Kong's versions), and most versions even have the contestants themselves asking questions to their opponents. There is also a camera underneath each of the trapdoors to catch footage of the contestant dropping from another angle. Some may also have a maximum time limit of 15 seconds instead of 10 to answer questions. The Polish version has 30 seconds to answer the question in season one and 20 seconds in season two. Most versions of the show (except for the versions in the U.S., Greece, Taiwan and India) run for an hour rather than a half-hour. As of 2013, there are no versions of the show still in production internationally. However, China's regional broadcaster Shandong TV revived the show in the Spring of 2015 as a substitute for the previous edition using the format of The Million Pound Drop. This version uses a slightly different format – the daily prize fund always starts at RMB¥50,000, and each correct answer before the final round adds RMB¥1,000 to the final pot. The Chinese version is broadcast live on weekdays and runs for 65 minutes (including commercials).

Country	Name	Host	Channel	Prize	Air dates
Argentina	Decisión Final	Horacio Cabak	América	AR$100,000	June 6, 2003
Brazil	Roleta Russa	Milton Neves	Rede Record	R$500,000	October 31, 2002 – October 31, 2003
Bulgaria	Руска pулeткa Ruska ruletka	Nikolay Georgiev	BNT 1	100,000лв	April 2003 – March 2004
Chile	Ruleta Rusa	Diana Bolocco	Canal 13	$100,000.000	May 5, 2013
China	让梦想飞·智命一击 Rang Meng Xiang Fei · Zhi Ming Yi Ji	Yang Bo	Shandong TV	No limit for top prize	2015–2016
Egypt	الدائرة El Daera	Ayman Kaisouni	ERTU1	£E250,000	September 2010
Greece Cyprus	Ρωσική Ρουλέτα Rosiki Rouleta	Miltos Makridis	Mega Channel	€100,000	2002–2003
Hong Kong	一觸即發	Dayo Wong	TVB	HK$500,000	2002
India	Bachke Rehnaa Zara Sambhalna	Mohnish Behl	SET	Rs.1,000,000	September 9, 2002
Indonesia	Russian Roulette	Dede Yusuf	Trans TV	Rp100,000,000	September 4, 2002 – December 31, 2003
Poland	Rosyjska ruletka	Henryk Talar Krzysztof Ibisz	Polsat	100,000 zł	September 3, 2002 – April 7, 2004
Portugal	Decisão Final	José Carlos Malato	RTP1	€30,000	May 28, 2012 – January 13, 2013
Romania	Ruleta Rusească	Răzvan Exarhu Florin Mihoc	TVR 2	10,000,000,000 old lei (2003-2004) 1,000,000 new lei (2005-2006)	2003–2006
Russia	Русская рулетка Russkaya ruletka	Valdis Pelsh Maxim Galkin (25 December 2002)	Channel One	₽1,000,000	April 2, 2002 – June 28, 2003
Serbia and Montenegro	Ruski rulet! Руски рулет!	Irfan Mensur	RTV Pink	3,000,000 RSD €2,000	March 27, 2003 – September 23, 2004
	Ruski Rulet Show! Руски рулет шоу! (VIP version)	Milan Kalinić		€2,000	September 15, 2003 – July 16, 2005
Serbia Croatia Bosnia and Herzegovina Montenegro Slovenia North Macedonia	Ruski rulet! Руски рулет!	Dragan Marinković Maca	RTV Pink Pink BH Pink M	€2,000	April 17, 2007 – September 4, 2007
Singapore	灵机一洞	Hsu Nai-lin	MediaCorp TV Channel 8	S$10,000	2003–2004
Spain	Decisíon Fínal	Luis Crespo	Telecinco	€10,000	March 18, 2002
Taiwan	俄羅斯輪盤	Kevin Tsai (Cai Kangyong)	Star Chinese Channel	NT$1,000,000	Unknown
Turkey	Rus Ruleti	Berkun Oya	Star TV	1,000,000YTL	April 12, 2008
United Kingdom	Russian Roulette	Rhona Cameron	ITV	£10,000	October 31, 2002 (Pilot) April 1, 2003 – April 22, 2003

See also

• Who's Still Standing?

External links

• Russian Roulette at IMDb