"From Los Angeles, it's the biggest game show in television history, where one person, in one night, could walk away with over $2,000,000. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to..."

"And now..."

CHUCK WOOLERY!

HOST: Chuck Woolery
ANNOUNCER: Mark Thompson
CHANNEL: FOX
AIRDATES: November 4th, 1999 - July 14th, 2000
PACKAGERS: Dick Clark Productions
ORIGINATIO: CBS Television City

Greed was FOX's answer to ABC's Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The show had doubled stakes with a team as well as a shorter amount of questions to reach the allotted jackpot.

QUALIFYING ROUND

6 players compete. Host Woolery asks a numeric question to the players (ex. How many spaces are there on a standard Scrabble board? 225). Players lock-in their responses with a keypad infront of them. After Woolery reveals the right answer, the player closest to the correct answer becomes the team captain, as players who are further away from the right answer go to their respective seats. If players lock-in with the same number or have the same distance from the right answer, whoever locked in with their answer first got the higher seat. The sixth player goes back into the contestant pool for a later chance to play again.

TOWER OF GREED

Every team has a common foe, according to Woolery. It's the Tower of Greed. The first 4 levels are in $25,000 increments, starting at $25,000, going to $100,000. 5th level is $200,000, 6th level is worth $500,000, 7th for $1,000,000, and the 8th level, the top of the tower, for $2,000,000.

MAIN GAME

For the bottom 4 levels of $25,000 increments, the players aside from the captain answer their respective questions. The player who was furthest from the right answer will answer the $25,000 question, while the player who was one higher from the furthest player will answer the $50,000 question, with each question having 4 possible answers. The player in middle of answering the qualifying question will answer the $75,000 question, while the player underneath the captain answers the $100,000 question. Everything gets tougher, however. The $75,000 and $100,000 questions have 5 possible answers. The players who respectively lock-in their answers, control then goes over to the captain, who can accept or reject the answer and replace it with one of their own. If they're right, the team wins the amount (split evenly amongst the players). The captain can choose to stop at anytime and keep the cash, or continue on. One wrong answer, the game ends immediately and the team leaves with nothing.

THE TERMINATOR

Should the captain continue after the $100,000, The Terminator is activated. With the press of Woolery's button, a light bounces around the podiums, randomly choosing a player as "The Terminator." That player then has a chance to keep the team it is, or challenge a teammate to a one-question showdown. Woolery gives the challenger $10,000 to take the showdown, win or lose. The players can buzz-in with their response at anytime. A right answer keeps them in the game, whereas a wrong answer means their opponent wins by default. The winner of the showdown takes the loser's position and play for their share of the pot.

$200,000 QUESTION

Woolery gives the captain a category to help decide on whether or not they want to continue. Should they continue, the Terminator is played and then the (remaining) players play the $200,000 question. Woolery gives the captain a Freebie, which will eliminate any one wrong answer towards the jackpot question. The $200,000 question has 6 possible answers, though 4 of them are correct. Starting with the lower-ranking player, they give their answer, all the way up to the higher ranking player, or the captain, depending on whether or not the Terminator was played. When 4 answers are in, the captain can choose to reject any answer and replace it with one of their own. After locking them in, if they come across 3 correct answers, Woolery gives the captain a chance to walk away if they are unsure if the last right answer is correct, giving him/her a $20,000to split amongst the entire team. But if they refuse, they take a chance on it. If wrong, the team walks away with nothing (only the winner of $10,000 goes home if there was a Terminator). If right, the team is 3 steps away from $2,000,000.

$500,000 QUESTION

Woolery gives the captain another category, this time for the $500,000 question. If they go on, another Terminator is played. For the $500,000 question, it has 4 correct answers, this time out of a possible 7. Same rules as before, only if 3 correct answers are revealed, Woolery offers a bribe of $50,000to split amongst him/her and the teammates. Should they not take the bribe, the same chance is taken. If right, they are now 2 steps from the grand jackpot.

$1,000,000 QUESTION

Woolery again gives the captain another category, this time for the $1,000,000 question. Should the captain decide to risk the winnings, another Terminator is played. For the $1,000,000 question, the 4 correct answers were now scattered among 8 possible answers. The same rule goes as before, that if 3 correct answers are revealed, Chuck offers another bribe, only a little different. This time, he bribes each team member carkeys...keys to a 2000 Jaguar XK-8 Convertible, which was in the parking lot. Included in the trunk was $25,000 in cash. Woolery gives the players the option, and each player makes their decision by locking in with a button pad on their podium. The green button signifies that they go for the money, whereas the yellow button signifies that they forfeit the game and take the car. For those who go on, if the last answer is indeed correct, they have made it 7 levels up the Tower of Greed.

$2,000,000 QUESTION

For the 8th and final level of the Tower of Greed, Chuck again gives the players the category, but the captain doesn't decide it this time. This time, each player makes their own individual decision on whether or not they want to go for it, depending on how they feel of the category. Again using their buttons on their podium, if they press the red button, they stop and take home their current winnings. If they press the green button, they elect to go for the jackpot question. The jackpot question has 4 correct answers, only with 9 possible choices. If all 4 are correct, the remaining players take their share. This level was only played for once in the entire history of Greed.

$1,000,000 MOMENT

In February 2000, in an attempt to boost ratings, Greed invited back former players. Two players played a Terminator-esque question to decide who would play for $1,000,000. The winner is then shown the question and 8 choices, with 4 of them correct, as it always is for the $1,000,000 question. They are given 30 seconds to consider their answers, and then 10 additional seconds to give their choices. If they get all 4 right, they add $1,000,000 to their winnings. If not, no additional money is awarded.

SUPER GREED

In May 2000, Greed became Super Greed for one month, doubling the top 3 tiers of the Tower of Greed, therefore giving players a chance to win a combined total of $4,000,000. The qualifying question was eliminated during this run and players determined their positions by lot. During this time, if players made it past the $1,000,000 level, they split $200,000 respectively. And, if they played the $2,000,000 question and got 3 right, the 2000 Jaguar XK-8 Convertible was again offered, this time with $75,000 in cash in the trunk. Later, the bribe was just $150,000 in cash for all players individually. When Super Greed was reverted back to the original Greed series, the players continued to choose their positions by lot.

TOP 5 WINNERS

Curtis Warren
$1,410,000		Curtis Warren appeared on the 3rd episode of Greed, though won his qualifying question the week before. He at the time was an air-traffic controller from Cathedral City, CA. He won $410,000 the first time around, and then won an additional $1,000,000 in the Million Dollar Moment after defeating his teammate, Melissa Skirboll. Curtis was the highest money winner in the history of television, until David Legler surpassed it less than a week later on the short-lived revival of Twenty-One.
Curtis also appeared on Sale of the Century, winning $50,000 after clearing the Winner's Board, and also appeared on Win Ben Stein's Money, but didn't get enough to win $5,000 there
Lauren Griswold
$810,000		Lauren Griswold appeared in the Super Greed format, and her team made it to the $2,000,000 level, winning it. She won a share of $810,000.
David Juliano
$800,000		David Juliano, a casino dealer from Las Vegas, NV won $800,000 in the Super Greed format, part of Lauren's team. Their leader was Phyllis Harris, who would also go on Millionaire, using David Juliano as a lifeline
David also appeared on Jeopardy! winning $8,000 there, and Win Ben Stein's Money, beating out Ben Stein to win the $5,000. Juliano has posted his game show appearances on YouTube under the name, crapsman7
Monique Jones
$610,000		Appearing in the Super Greed format, Monique was part of a team that reached $1,000,000, and she won $610,000
George Elias
$600,000		George Elias was the captain of a team that reached $1,000,000 on Super Greed and won $600,000. George also won $100,000 on Donny Osmond's edition of Pyramid

DANIEL AVILA

Daniel Avila appeared on the 3rd episode, winning the right to be the captain the previous week. He led the team of James Buchanan (Terminated before the $200,000 question), Jackie Brakeman (Terminated before the $1,000,000 question), Melissa Skirboll and Curis Warren up the Tower of Greed, mostly against Curtis's will. During the $1,000,000 question while Curtis was so sure of it, Daniel had thought of his own answer and changed it to the right answer, getting the team to $1,000,000. As Curtis and Melissa stopped with their winnings afterwards, Daniel decided to go for the $2,200,000 jackpot question, as back then, the jackpot grew by $50,000 for each new team before Greed became Greed: The Series. In the jackpot question, Daniel had to pinpoint the 4 most recognizable smells out of the 9 he was given, all confirmed by a UCLA study. He missed out on $2,200,000 by oneanswer. He was later invited back during the final Million Dollar Moment in the Tournament of Losers, defeating Jackie Brakeman to win the chance at it. This time, he had to tell the 4 most visited cities in 1998. Again, he missed out by one. Although he missed out on $3,200,000 on Greed, I look at him as probably the gutsiest player in the history of Greed, as he turned down $20,000, $50,000, and also a Jaguar XK-8 Convertible with $25,000. I respect his wishes, as he was a man who had courage to go all the way to show us what the jackpot question would be like.
His brother, Ernie appeared on Super Greed, captaining a team. Ernie was eliminated from his game, but won $10,000 in a Terminator showdown. Daniel would futurely win $100,000 on Millionaire, and had also appeared on Break the Bank with Tom Kennedy, and a few others to boot.

FACTS:
-Only two players took the Jaguar XK-8 Convertible: Lisa Steigers and John Epperson on the first episode of Super Greed. They made it to the $2,000,000 level and got 3 right answers, and after a while of thinking, took the car and ran, which was the right thing to do because the last answer selected was wrong
-A player lied about his identity on Greed, and a network rival suspended him for going on Greed without their permission. During his time on the show, he won $200,000 and went up for the Million Dollar Moment, missing out on $1,000,000 after a question on Jell-O
-Chuck Woolery had great success hosting Wheel of Fortune and Scrabble prior to his short tenure on Greed. He then went on to host the GSN revival of Lingo, which he did for 6 seasons

MY RATINGS:

OK, I look at a show that had potential here. It started out great, and then it kinda slowed down when it became Super Greed. A classmate of mine got me into this show as I continued to watch Millionaire, and this one was all right too. I was exposed to it after Dan Avila's bad luck, however. Chuck did all right with what he was given. A great show with great potential here

4.5 stars

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