Cash Explosion is a Game Show that debuted in 1987 and takes its contestants from the Ohio Lottery instant game of the same name. A curiosity among game shows, it's a regional broadcast (being only of interest to Ohio residents), and with the 2009 cancellation of the similar The Big Spin (California's lottery show, which came first), it's the only weekly state lottery game show still airing.
It's also been Retooled twice (or three times) in its run. In the original game, players randomly chose cards and advanced themselves up a pyramid of eleven steps, with the prize at the top being $50,000. Players had to reach the top by exact count. Drawing two negative cards in a row or returning to the bottom of the pyramid ejected the player from the game. There were also bonus spaces which allowed a player to choose between continuing to play (risking elimination) or exiting the game with a brand new car. By the end of this format, each player started with $1,000; moves added or subtracted $100, and the winner's total was bumped to $50,000. The other players could keep their winnings or spin a wheel to increase/decrease their money.
The format was seen as a little overcomplicated, and so in 1989 the game was retooled into Cash Explosion Double Play. This was a far more straightforward affair, where players were faced with a Press Your Luck-like board of 28 spaces. Across the top were the letters "DOUBLE" and down the side were the letters "PLAY"; pressing a plunger stopped the lateral selection, and the players then had to choose among the "PLAY" letters to determine their prizes. After three turns for each player, the player with the most money got it doubled and was sent to the final round for a chance at even more money, which escalated for consecutive victories.
In 2006, the Ohio Lottery decided the game had run its course and replaced it with Make Me Famous, Make Me Rich. This...didn't end well, and in less than a year a new version of Cash Explosion was announced. This one took the format from the 1989 version, expanded the spaces in 2009, and in general was far more well-received than its replacement was.
On September 2, 2017, the week after the show's big 30th-Anniversary celebration, the format was overhauled. Now, all of the night's players are seated together and come up one at a time to pick three numbers off of their own 20-space board. The doublers and bonus squares are still present, but the latter now has the player pick from a board of the Lottery's other games, with two containing automatic passes to the Cash Challenge and another containing $50,000. As before, the two highest scores get their money doubled and play the Cash Challenge (now back to the old nine-space style, removing the bonuses, but otherwise unchanged) against the current champ...unless someone finds the automatic berth, in which case the board is expanded to 12 or 15 spaces.
Game Show Tropes in use:
- Bonus Round: The Cash Challenge.
- Bonus Space: The spaces that offer cars in exchange for an immediate exit from the game. (Originally; now bonus spaces are given to the contestant, but don't count towards their score. This was likely changed because of the controversy surrounding the first declining of a car; see The Fettered below.)
- Others included trips, four years of prepaid tuition, and cash bonuses of $10,000 and $25,000.
- Merchandise prizes were added to the front game from 2016-17.
- Consolation Prize: Near the end of the original version, players were guaranteed $1,000 just for showing up. Later formats increased it to $3,200, and then $5,000. After the retool, the minimum a contestant can win is $6,100.
- Double the Dollars: The "double" cards on the board give a player an extra spin/pick, and double the next square chosen (except for any Bonus Space prizes). In the era of two Double cards, getting both meant the next spin was quadrupled.
- Game Show Winnings Cap: From 1989-2009, the Double Play championship game capped a champion's return appearances at 3 (first win bumped the money to $50,000, second doubled to $100,000, third to $200,000). The current version (debuting in 2009) eliminates the cap and gives champions $100,000 for every win past the 3rd (plus additional bonus money that was added to the championship game at that time, 1st win still bumps non-bonus money to $50K, 2nd still adds $50K more). The current record is $520,000 over six weeks.
- Golden Snitch: The Instant Cash Challenge spaces in the front game of the current format.
- Personnel:
- Game Show Host: Bob Grossi from 1987-89, Paul Tapie from 1989-2000 and 2000-04, Mike Armstrong for a cup of coffee in 2000, Lelani Barrett from 2004-06, and David McCreary since 2007.
- Lovely Assistant: Sharon Bicknell was there for nearly all of the original run, with Michelle Duda replacing her from 2004-06. Sharon returned when the current version began in 2007, along with Cherie McClain, but both were replaced by Alissa Henry upon the format overhaul in 2017.
- Studio Audience
- Product Placement: In addition to highlighting new Ohio Lottery games, most of the cars given away on the show were assembled in Ohio plants. This came back to bite them in the ass once, though (see below).
- Tiebreaker Round: Originally, in the semifinal games and the championship game, ties were broken with a random drawing of cards, with the higher value winning. With the switch to the Championship Match 3/Cash Challenge in 1993, if all the finalists’ names are found twice, then the defending champion decides who becomes the champion on the last pick of the game.
This show provides examples of:
- The Fettered: In 1990, a contestant who got a bonus space took the then-unprecedented step of declining the car because, being a union member, she couldn't accept it (it was a Honda made in Marysville at a non-union plant). Bear in mind, this was a $17,000 car on a show where the general one-round winnings were markedly less than that (and considering that the car's value is closer to $28,000 in 2010 dollars...it was a really nice car).
- Luck-Based Mission: Being a lottery show, skill can't play too much into it aside from the "car/keep playing" choices. However, special mention goes to the Championship Game, where it was completely random owing to random placement of names on the board and random selection of spaces by the players.
- Retool: In honor of the 30th Anniversary, the show spent three months (June 3-August 19, 2017) playing a team version of the standard format, abstractly echoing Make Me Famous, Make Me Rich. Four teams of three now played; while the front game itself stayed the same, each team member had a turn at the board. Each team member won the total earned (bonuses were won individually), and the winning team then picked a letter in "CHALLENGE"; each letter had a number, high number wins. That person gets their front-game score doubled and heads to the Cash Challenge, which is played the same.
- Shout-Out: At least one contestant has shouted out "No Whammies!" during their turn.
