The World Series of Pop Culture
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The World Series of Pop Culture is a VH1 game show tournament program, based on Entertainment Weekly's Pop Culture Quiz. Sixteen teams, comprised of three people each, compete in a tournament to determine which team, collectively, knows the most about elements of popular culture. Taping took place at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on April 29 - April 30, 2006. A wide range of topics are covered such as movies, music, TV and other miscellaneous pop culture. The top prize is $250,000. The show aired Monday - Friday starting July 10, 2006, but will air on Thursdays exclusively starting July 20. The hosts are Pat Kiernan and Lisa Guerrero.
Gameplay
Each show begins with a declaration of the rules:- "The game is played in a 'best of five rounds' format. After a category is announced, each team will send a representative to the microphone, who must play for the entire round. The player who answers the most questions correctly, out of a possible 6 total questions, in the round, will knock out his or her opponent. The first team to knock out all three members of the opposing team will be declared the winner and move on in the tournament."
The chosen players each get one question per round, and each category contains six questions (three to each player). If a player cannot provide the right answer, his or her opponent gets the opportunity to steal. At the end of each category, the player who gets the fewest questions correct is eliminated from the game. Due to the mathematical impossibility of a victory by the other player, if one player earns four points, they automatically win that category.
In the event of a tie, a tiebreaker question determines who remains in the competition and who gets knocked out. A topic related to the original category is given, containing multiple answers. If a player fails to provide a correct answer, and he was second to answer the tiebreaker question, he is eliminated. Otherwise, his opponent must provide an additional correct answer to win. (That is, the round ends when a player misses, but each player must have an equal number of opportunities to answer.) If both players miss the tiebreaker question on the same turn (and therefore both have provided an equal number of correct answers), another tiebreaker begins and the process is repeated.
The first team to eliminate all three of their opponents wins and moves on to the next round.
Bracket
Below is the progression of the World Series of Pop Culture. The final score represents the number of active team members (out of three) by the end of each competition.
| Sweet 16 | Quarter finals | Semi finals | Final | ||||||||||||
| The Boeghy Bunch | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Highly Effective People | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| The Boeghy Bunch | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| PDX 503 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 3 the Hard Way | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| PDX 503 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| The Boeghy Bunch | |||||||||||||||
| Cheetara | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Team Smarty Pants | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Cheetara | |||||||||||||||
| The Velvet Rope Revolution | |||||||||||||||
| The Velvet Rope Revolution | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Lazer Wolves | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Sexual Chocolate | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Peanut Butter & Ginelli | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Peanut Butter & Ginelli | |||||||||||||||
| El Chupacabra | |||||||||||||||
| We're What Willis Was Talking About | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| El Chupacabra | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Almost Perfect Strangers | |||||||||||||||
| Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky & Mike | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| I ♥ Jake Ryan | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| I ♥ Jake Ryan | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Almost Perfect Strangers | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| The Men of Vision | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Almost Perfect Strangers | 3 | ||||||||||||||
Trivia
- This show is notable as being the first game show to have an entrance exam, called The PC IQ Test (Pop Culture Intelligence Quotient Test) to find a team comprised of players who qualified online instead of via an in-person audition.
- Almost Perfect Strangers had an 'almost perfect' Sweet 16 round, in which they answered every question correctly, with the exception of a steal from the opposing team, Men of Vision. Almost Perfect Strangers was a wild-card team generated by VH1, composed of high on-line scorers of the PC IQ test, who met for the first time on the eve of their first competition.
- Kerry Jackson of Radio From Hell auditioned for the series with a team named "Shatner's Midnight Runners". However, his team was ultimately turned down for the show.
External Links
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