Hello, all. Since this is the general TV section of the forums, I thought I'd put up one of my many game show proposals for you all to pass your judgement on. Also, this proposal is for a North American verison of one of thew UK's most beloved and long-lasting game shows - Countdown! Here it is.

Title: Countdown Plus
Host: To be determined. Preferably someone male.
Co-Host / Dictionary Corner: To be determined. Preferably someone female. And yes, it's being combined into one role here. Instead of having one person place letters on a board, and the other find words in the dictionary, one person handles both of these duties. The letters are placed on a giant screen - sorry, no more letter / number board with letter / number cards - by a computer operated by the co-host, and the same applies to calculating the target number for the numbers game. Said computer would also feature built in, state-of-the art dictionary software, although a paper copy would be kept on hand anyway.
Announcer: Randy West.

Gameplay: Thankfully, it's basically the same as the current version, except there are a maximum of 3 letters games and 3 numbers games played per show, just to keep things even. The only major difference here is the scoring. Gone are points for correct answers, . Instead, all answers are worth money. However, the 30-second time limit for thinking remains intact, and it could definetely be counted down by a large, single-handed clock like on the UK version. Below are the payouts for the letters and numbers games.

Letters Game: In the first letters game, the players score $100 for each letter in the words that they submit, plus a $500 bonus if they manage to form an acceptable 9-letter word. The next 2 letters games are worth double and triple those values, respectively.

Numbers Game: In the first numbers game, players score $100 if they are within 5 of the target number, high or low,; $200 if they are within 4; $300 if they are within 3; $400 if they are within 2, $500 if they are within 1, and $1,000 if they hit the target number on the nose. These values double and triple in the 2 subsequent numbers games. The player with the most money at the end of the game moves on to the Conumdrum Round. Either way, both players keep whatever they've won from the main game.

Conundrum Round: This is one of the many noticable changes to the classic Countdown format. In the UK, both players play the conundrum at the end of the show for 10 points, but here, only the contestant who wins the main game plays it. The player is shown 5 - yes, that's right, 5 - scrambled words of increasing length. These words have 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 letters in them, respectively. 60 seconds are put on the clock - yes, they actually use the full clock here - and the player must solve each of the words one at a time. The letters in each word rearrange themselves every couple of seconds, but they are given no indication as to which letters are in their correct positions, as that would only make it too easy. When they think they know the answer, they hit a plunger in front of them, a la Scrabble Sprint, and if they're correct, they move onto the next word. If they get hung up on a word, they can pass and come back to it if time permits. Each word is worth $5,000, and if all 5 words are correctly answered within the 60-second time frame, the contestant wins $25,000, as opposed to a teapot in the UK version. If they fail to get all 5 words, they keep the $5,000 for each word guessed correctly, in addition to their main game winnings. Contestants can remain on the show for up to ten days, where they are crowned decachamps and play the Conundrum Round for $25,000 and a new car. Also, the 4 champions with the highest totals return at the end of the season to play for $250,000 in the Tournament of Champions.

Notes: Basically, what I've done here is taken a beloved classic show and given it a fresh, new look, while still keeping the heart of the game more or less intact. I've also inject some generous cask payouts into it as well, as everyone likes to win money on game shows. The cash payouts and retooled conundrum round are why the show would be called Countdown Plus as opposed to Countdown. As far as who the hosts would be, if they weren't doing Lingo in the US on GSN (our version of your Challenge TV), I'd say that Chuck Woolery and Shandi Finnessey would be perfect candidates for this show, as both of them have quite a bit of word game experience under their belts now; Chuck especially, since he has hosted Wheel of Fortune, Scrabble, and now Lingo. So, what do you think? Post your comments and thoughts below.

Sounds alright...how long you been planning this then?

Oh, it didn't take me long. I came up with the ideas you see above in a short amount of time. I also thought it was about time that North America got its owm version of the UK's - and France's - longest-runnign game show. Plus, I didn't think it would be right for contestants to compete for cheap prizes like teapots and dictionaries, so that where the all-cash format came from.