High Rollers is an American television game show that involved contestants trying to win prizes by rolling dice. The format was based on the dice game shut the box.
High Rollers debuted on July 1, 1974, as part of NBC's daytime lineup. In September 1975, an accompanying series was launched in syndication and aired once weekly on local stations. Both of these series ended in 1976, with the daytime series ending on June 11, 1976. Alex Trebek was the host for these series. On April 24, 1978, NBC brought High Rollers back with Trebek hosting and aired it until June 20, 1980, when it was one of three series cancelled to make room for The David Letterman Show. The series was produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions.
Gameplay
Basics
Two contestants competed. The object was to remove the digits 1 through 9 from a game board by rolling an oversized pair of dice. To determine who gained control of the dice, the host asked a toss-up question. The answers were usually multiple-choice, true/false, or yes/no. The first contestant to buzz in received the chance to answer, and answering correctly won control. If that contestant did not answer correctly, control went to the opponent.
Once in control, a contestant could either roll the dice or pass them to the opponent. After rolling, the contestant had to remove one or more digits from the board that added up to the total on the dice. For example, if a 10 were rolled, the contestant could remove any available combination that added up to that number: 1-9, 2–8, 3–7, 4–6, 1–2–7, 1–3–6, 1–4–5, 2–3–5, or 1–2–3–4, providing that none of the digits within the combination had already been removed. Contestants banked prizes by removing individual numbers or combinations of them, depending on the rules.
A "bad roll" occurred if the total showing on the dice did not correspond with any combination of the digits still in play. Contestants making a bad roll immediately lost the game unless they had an insurance marker (see below). A contestant clearing the last digit from the board won the game. The winner of each game received any prizes that were banked, or $100 if no prizes had been banked. The first contestant to win two games won the match and advanced to the Big Numbers bonus round.
1974–76
The original series featured a prize or cash amount hidden under every digit on the gameboard, revealed and added to a contestant's bank only when that digit was removed. Two digits each contained one-half of a large prize, usually a new car, boat, or a luxury vacation. To bank this prize, both cards had to be uncovered by the same contestant. If the contestants each revealed one of the two cards, the prize was taken out of play for that game.
During the final seven weeks of the first daytime version (April 26 – June 11, 1976), the main game was known as "Face Lifters". Digits were arranged in a 3×3 grid and concealed a picture of a famous person. A contestant won the game by correctly identifying the person in the picture. A contestant could take a guess after making a good roll. If a contestant made a bad roll, the opponent was allowed one guess for each remaining digit in the picture. A successful guess won the game plus the prizes belonging to the digits still on the board. If neither contestant guessed the identity correctly, Trebek gave clues until one contestant buzzed in with the answer.
A co-hostess (Ruta Lee, daytime and Elaine Stewart, nighttime) rolled the dice for the contestants. The contestants sat along the long side of the dice table opposite from Trebek. No insurance markers were given in the main game; a bad roll meant an automatic loss.
A syndicated version with almost identical rules ran weekly in the 1975–76 season. Each episode featured the same two contestants competing for the entire show. After the first few episodes, the rules were changed so that rather than requiring contestants to win a two-out-of-three match, the winner of each game played the Big Numbers, and the losing contestant returned for another game. The contestants played as many games as possible until time was called. If this happened during a game, the one who had removed more digits won the final game and any prizes accumulated. Under the two-out-of-three game format used in the first few episodes, the contestant also had another chance at the Big Numbers. Like other weekly nighttime game shows at that time, this version had no returning champions.