WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 You know when you sit on your couch today watching 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.759 a live stream and the host says tap the poll 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:08.000 on your screen to vote. Right or you know a little 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.580 graphic pops up saying scan this QR code to win. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:15.419 Exactly. It feels entirely seamless. It is just 00:00:15.419 --> 00:00:18.500 the water we swim in now. Interactivity is baked 00:00:18.500 --> 00:00:21.079 into the glass we're staring at, whether that's 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:24.079 a phone or a smart TV. Oh, absolutely. The screen 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:26.100 isn't just a broadcast receiver anymore. I mean, 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:28.079 it's a two -way street. We fully expect to be 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:29.899 an active part of the show we're watching. Yeah. 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:32.740 And media companies, well, they rely on that 00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:35.119 frictionless participation to just keep our attention. 00:00:35.259 --> 00:00:37.640 But I want you to imagine... trying to build 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:41.640 that exact same two -way street, like that same 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.320 interactive play -at -home experience more than 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.320 30 years ago. Oh, wow. Right. No smartphones, 00:00:47.659 --> 00:00:50.460 no internet connection, no QR codes. You are 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:52.960 trying to bridge the gap between the television 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:57.159 studio and the living room using nothing but 00:00:57.159 --> 00:00:59.880 cardboard, scratch -off ink, the United States 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:02.500 Postal Service, and a giant spinning wheel. That 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:06.239 is just wild to think about. It really is. Today, 00:01:06.579 --> 00:01:09.480 our deep dive is taking us into a bizarre and 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:12.959 honestly brilliant piece of 90s television that 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:15.959 tried to invent the modern interactive broadcast. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.680 And it's such a great topic. Yeah, we are pulling 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:21.239 our sources from a comprehensive Wikipedia article 00:01:21.239 --> 00:01:24.019 detailing a show called The Hundred Thousand 00:01:24.019 --> 00:01:27.500 Dollar Fortune Hunt. Which is, honestly, a remarkable 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:30.260 case study in media evolution. Because we tend 00:01:30.260 --> 00:01:32.780 to think of indirect broadcasting as a purely 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:35.000 digital invention. Right. Like a product of the 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:36.939 broadband era. Right, like Twitch or whatever. 00:01:37.180 --> 00:01:40.280 Exactly. But this show provides concrete proof 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:42.879 that the ambition for mass audience participation 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:45.060 was burning bright long before the underlying 00:01:45.060 --> 00:01:47.180 technology had, you know, actually caught up 00:01:47.180 --> 00:01:49.060 to the vision. Okay, let's unpack this. Yeah. 00:01:49.219 --> 00:01:51.359 The basic facts here really set the stage perfectly 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:53.379 for the chaos to come. Buckle up. Seriously. 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:56.579 So... The $100 ,000 Fortune Hunt was an American 00:01:56.579 --> 00:01:59.700 game show, but with a very specific twist. It 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:02.859 ran from 1989 to 1994, originating in Illinois. 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:07.159 and it aired on Saturday evenings on WGN -TV 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:11.099 in Chicago. Plus, because of WGN's massive reach 00:02:11.099 --> 00:02:14.080 as a superstation, the broadcast was also beamed 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:16.900 out on their national satellite feed. So a huge 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:20.379 audience. Huge. And you had a real cast of characters 00:02:20.379 --> 00:02:21.979 holding the production together. I mean, the 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:24.500 first season was hosted by Jeff Koopwood, and 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:26.360 then Mike Jackson took over the reins for the 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:28.740 rest of the run. OK. Linda Kullmeyer served as 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:31.340 the hostess for the entire series, alongside 00:02:31.340 --> 00:02:34.120 announcer Bill Barber. So on the surface, you 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:37.680 know, it sounds like your standard glitzy neon 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:40.979 soaked late 80s TV production. What's fascinating 00:02:40.979 --> 00:02:43.580 here is the underlying engine powering that glitz. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:45.919 Yeah. Because this wasn't just a television network 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:48.219 trying to secure good ratings so they could sell 00:02:48.219 --> 00:02:50.879 ad space to soap and cereal companies. No, not 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:54.020 all. This was a direct literal extension of the 00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:56.099 state of Illinois's revenue generating lottery 00:02:56.099 --> 00:02:58.879 system. Which is crazy. It is. The state was 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:01.120 physically transforming its lottery infrastructure 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.219 into Saturday Night Entertainment. I mean, they 00:03:03.219 --> 00:03:05.180 were gamifying the purchase of a scratch off 00:03:05.180 --> 00:03:08.400 ticket on a massive televised, highly public 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.819 scale. and the sheer logistical lengths they 00:03:10.819 --> 00:03:12.979 went to in order to get regular people involved 00:03:12.979 --> 00:03:15.520 are just staggering. Like, I want to trace the 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:17.439 physical journey you had to take just to end 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:20.189 up standing under those studio lights. It wasn't 00:03:20.189 --> 00:03:22.189 easy. Not even a little. You didn't just call 00:03:22.189 --> 00:03:25.189 a casting director or submit an audition tape 00:03:25.189 --> 00:03:28.449 for this show. The funnel to get on stage was 00:03:28.449 --> 00:03:31.189 a complete logistical nightmare. Oh, the barrier 00:03:31.189 --> 00:03:33.930 to entry completely bypassed traditional Hollywood 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:36.210 casting. It was built entirely on a foundation 00:03:36.210 --> 00:03:39.009 of statistical chance. And postal logistics. 00:03:39.370 --> 00:03:41.310 Exactly. So put yourself in the shoes of someone 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:44.900 playing this game in 1989. Step one, you walk 00:03:44.900 --> 00:03:47.340 into an Illinois lottery retailer, maybe a local 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:49.939 gas station or a corner bodega, and you buy a 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:53.120 specific $100 ,000 Fortune Hunt scratch -off 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:54.819 ticket. Right. Pretty standard so far. Yeah. 00:03:54.900 --> 00:03:57.020 You get your lucky coin, you brush away the silver 00:03:57.020 --> 00:03:59.580 dust, and you reveal the play area. If you uncover 00:03:59.580 --> 00:04:01.960 three matching prize amounts, you win whatever 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:04.500 that is. Like a free ticket or maybe cash? Right. 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:07.659 Up to $5 ,000 in cash. And that is standard instant 00:04:07.659 --> 00:04:11.219 gratification lottery design. If you rub that 00:04:11.219 --> 00:04:14.580 ticket and you reveal three TV symbols. Oh, that's 00:04:14.580 --> 00:04:17.279 the moment. Yes. You have just entered the gauntlet. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:19.720 That is the crucial trigger point right there. 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:24.000 That specific moment is when the experience aggressively 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:28.139 shifts from a solitary, you know, private gamble 00:04:28.139 --> 00:04:32.019 into the potential for a very public television 00:04:32.019 --> 00:04:35.300 event. But the thing is, you are not on the show 00:04:35.300 --> 00:04:38.800 yet. Revealing those three TV symbols merely 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:41.699 meant you had earned the right to mail that physical 00:04:41.699 --> 00:04:44.060 piece of cardboard into the Lottery Commission 00:04:44.060 --> 00:04:46.319 for a preliminary drawing. You literally had 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:49.199 to find an envelope. Yes, find an envelope, dig 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:51.500 up a postage stamp, write down the address for 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:53.600 Springfield, Illinois, and physically put it 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:56.439 in a mailbox. And now what? Then, every single 00:04:56.439 --> 00:04:59.000 week... State officials held a drawing in Springfield 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.259 from the massive pile of mailed -in tickets they 00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:03.279 received. Just a mountain of mail. A mountain. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.300 And out of that mail, they selected just 18 people. 00:05:07.100 --> 00:05:09.160 Six of those individuals were chosen to actually 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:11.300 travel to Chicago and appear on the TV show. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:13.639 And the other 12? The other 12 were designated 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.360 as at -home viewers, which we will dig into a 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:19.439 little later. The layers of mathematical probability 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:21.920 layered on top of manual labor here are just 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.620 intense. It is like Willy Wonka's golden ticket. 00:05:25.050 --> 00:05:27.689 but wrapped in heavy state bureaucracy. Yeah, 00:05:27.850 --> 00:05:29.430 that's a great way to put it. I have to push 00:05:29.430 --> 00:05:31.389 back on the design of this funnel, though. Yeah. 00:05:31.670 --> 00:05:36.230 I mean, imagine the sheer anxiety of this multi 00:05:36.230 --> 00:05:38.250 -layered waiting game. Oh, for sure. You buy 00:05:38.250 --> 00:05:40.490 the ticket, you scratch it, you beat the astronomical 00:05:40.490 --> 00:05:43.250 odds to find the TV symbols. Your heart is pounding. 00:05:43.629 --> 00:05:46.250 Then you mail it to Springfield, and you just, 00:05:46.449 --> 00:05:49.990 well, you wait. And wait? Days go by, maybe weeks. 00:05:50.569 --> 00:05:52.980 Every time the phone rings, you jump. And even 00:05:52.980 --> 00:05:55.160 after all that waiting, you still have to hope 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:57.579 that out of everyone else in the entire state 00:05:57.579 --> 00:06:00.139 who mailed in a winning ticket, you were one 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:03.399 of the specific six drawn for the studio. That 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:05.800 is an exhausting emotional roller coaster to 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:07.699 ride before the television cameras even start 00:06:07.699 --> 00:06:10.379 rolling. The friction is incredibly high, but 00:06:10.379 --> 00:06:13.819 from a psychological standpoint, it is a brilliant 00:06:13.819 --> 00:06:17.129 filter. High so. Think about the sunk cost fallacy 00:06:17.129 --> 00:06:19.569 and the deep emotional investment this system 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:22.509 creates. By the time a contestant physically 00:06:22.509 --> 00:06:25.870 arrives at the WGN studio in Chicago, they have 00:06:25.870 --> 00:06:28.350 essentially won multiple games of chance already. 00:06:28.449 --> 00:06:31.139 Oh, that's true. They beat the initial odds on 00:06:31.139 --> 00:06:33.500 the scratch -off. They survived the postal system. 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:35.720 They beat the odds in the Springfield drawing. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.980 And they survived the grueling waiting period. 00:06:39.139 --> 00:06:41.779 They're battle tested. Exactly. They are primed. 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:44.779 They feel chosen by fate. The stakes feel astronomically 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.560 high to them. And they are completely emotionally 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:51.360 invested. That specific cocktail of anticipation 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:55.339 translates into highly reactive deeply emotional 00:06:55.339 --> 00:06:57.720 television. Which brings us directly to the psychological 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:00.360 torture device they called a game board. Oh boy. 00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:03.660 So you are one of the lucky six. You are finally 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:06.060 on stage. The game the producers had you play 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:08.240 wasn't exactly a walk in the park. It was an 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:10.920 absolute minefield. A very mathematical minefield 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:13.439 designed to test risked tolerance under pressure. 00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:16.319 Yeah, they face a giant glowing game board featuring 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:19.259 36 numbered panels. Over the course of five rounds, 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:21.300 players would randomly select these panels to 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:23.500 build a cash score. And behind the numbers were 00:07:23.500 --> 00:07:26.240 plus or minus dollar amounts, right? Yep. Now, 00:07:26.339 --> 00:07:28.680 crucially, your score could never drop below 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:31.279 zero. I mean, you couldn't end up owing the state 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:32.800 of Illinois money at the end of the night. Oh, 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:35.560 that's a relief. Right. But hiding behind those 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:38.459 36 numbers were special panels that injected 00:07:38.459 --> 00:07:40.720 pure chaos into the mathematics of the game. 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:43.860 This is where the game theory elevates the broadcast. 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:47.939 It stops being about simple random number generation 00:07:47.939 --> 00:07:51.240 and becomes this complex exercise in risk management 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:54.660 with hidden variables. The mechanics were designed 00:07:54.660 --> 00:07:57.800 to manipulate your momentum. Like, if you needed 00:07:57.800 --> 00:08:01.120 a boost, you hoped to find the double space marked 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:04.120 with a red star. Which is pretty self -explanatory. 00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:06.100 Yeah, if you uncovered that, you immediately 00:08:06.100 --> 00:08:08.360 picked another panel. And whatever amount was 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:11.120 there was doubled for your score. Interestingly, 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:13.560 if you hit a minus amount on that second pick, 00:08:13.790 --> 00:08:16.069 You just lost the standard minus amount. The 00:08:16.069 --> 00:08:17.870 penalty wasn't doubled against you. Okay, that's 00:08:17.870 --> 00:08:20.110 fair. They also offered a free turn token you 00:08:20.110 --> 00:08:22.829 could pocket and use strategically later. Right, 00:08:22.970 --> 00:08:24.550 and those are standard acceleration mechanics. 00:08:24.709 --> 00:08:26.230 They speed the game up and give the player a 00:08:26.230 --> 00:08:28.509 sense of agency. But they balanced that acceleration 00:08:28.509 --> 00:08:31.610 with brutal punishment. I mean, you had lose 00:08:31.610 --> 00:08:34.730 a turn, which simply stalled you out, but then 00:08:34.730 --> 00:08:37.399 you had bankrupt. Oh, no. Yeah, a dollar sign 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:40.480 locked inside a no symbol. If you hit that, your 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:43.179 entire accumulated score was wiped out down to 00:08:43.179 --> 00:08:46.840 zero in an instant. Ouch. And then, well, there 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:50.059 was the infamous wipeout space. A mechanic so 00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:52.080 harsh, it actively fought against the show's 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.879 own premise. Literally. It was represented by 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:56.879 a giant sad face on the board. A sad face. A 00:08:56.879 --> 00:08:59.000 sad face. And if you hit wipeout, you weren't 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:01.399 just knocked back to zero. You were eliminated 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:03.519 from the game entirely. Just gone. Gone. Your 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:06.480 podium went dark. You were done. They handed 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:08.899 you $1 ,000 and told you to walk away. That is 00:09:08.899 --> 00:09:11.620 so dark for a game show. It was so punishing, 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:14.220 so deeply anti -climactic for a Saturday night 00:09:14.220 --> 00:09:16.419 entertainment show that the producers panicked 00:09:16.419 --> 00:09:18.539 and removed it after just four episodes. They 00:09:18.539 --> 00:09:21.000 swapped it out for the much safer lose a turn 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.659 space. Well, it is easy to see why they had to 00:09:23.659 --> 00:09:26.139 remove it. It completely disrupts the psychological 00:09:26.139 --> 00:09:28.480 buildup we just analyzed. Right. You take a human 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:31.639 being who has spent weeks. Navigating a complex 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:33.919 funnel, you put them under the studio lights, 00:09:34.279 --> 00:09:37.179 and with one random number pick, they are ejected 00:09:37.179 --> 00:09:39.179 from the narrative. It's just a burst kill. It 00:09:39.179 --> 00:09:42.080 is terrible television, because it kills the 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:45.000 dramatic tension instantly, leaving the audience 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:47.799 feeling cheated. But getting knocked out by a 00:09:47.799 --> 00:09:50.200 sad face wasn't the only psychological torture 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:52.980 they designed. They also wanted to tempt you 00:09:52.980 --> 00:09:55.679 to quit voluntarily. Naturally. They included 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:58.330 spaces called decision. which was a red star 00:09:58.330 --> 00:10:01.289 with a question mark. If you hit it, the host 00:10:01.289 --> 00:10:03.549 would offer you a prize right there on the spot. 00:10:03.730 --> 00:10:05.750 Like what kind of prize? Like a brand new car, 00:10:06.049 --> 00:10:08.549 or maybe a luxury vacation. You could accept 00:10:08.549 --> 00:10:10.710 the prize and resign from the game walking away 00:10:10.710 --> 00:10:13.769 happy, or you could pass on the guaranteed prize, 00:10:14.009 --> 00:10:16.289 throw it back, and keep playing for the chance 00:10:16.289 --> 00:10:19.129 at the $100 ,000. That is a tough choice. It 00:10:19.129 --> 00:10:21.490 gets worse. Later in the run, they made this 00:10:21.490 --> 00:10:23.769 temptation significantly harder by replacing 00:10:23.769 --> 00:10:27.659 decision with the 12 -car space. Ah! The introduction 00:10:27.659 --> 00:10:30.820 of the 12 car space is a masterful use of the 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:33.759 Sunk Cost Fallacy. Because to even get the option 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.639 to take the car and quit, you actually had to 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:39.179 find the front half of the car hiding behind 00:10:39.179 --> 00:10:42.519 one panel, and then miraculously find the back 00:10:42.519 --> 00:10:45.080 half of the car hiding behind another panel. 00:10:45.289 --> 00:10:47.889 somewhere on that 36 panel board. By splitting 00:10:47.889 --> 00:10:50.149 the temptation in half, they mathematically trap 00:10:50.149 --> 00:10:52.649 to the players. If you find the front half of 00:10:52.649 --> 00:10:54.909 the car, you suddenly feel invested in finding 00:10:54.909 --> 00:10:57.169 the other half. You alter your panel choices, 00:10:57.649 --> 00:10:59.870 you become distracted from the primary goal of 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:03.029 accumulating cash. You're chasing the car. Exactly. 00:11:03.450 --> 00:11:05.450 They were constantly tweaking the friction of 00:11:05.450 --> 00:11:07.370 the game, making it harder to walk away early, 00:11:07.690 --> 00:11:09.690 forcing contestants to stay in the danger zone 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:11.730 and push for the big jackpot. Here's where it 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:14.139 gets really interesting, though. Let's talk about 00:11:14.139 --> 00:11:16.019 what happens when the dust settles and you lose. 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:18.980 Okay. At the end of the five rounds, the player 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:22.700 in the lead wins the $100 ,000 grand prize. For 00:11:22.700 --> 00:11:25.200 the first seven months the show aired, the other 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:28.659 five contestants, one by one, were given a fascinating 00:11:28.659 --> 00:11:31.019 choice. What was it? They could keep whatever 00:11:31.019 --> 00:11:33.000 cash total they had managed to accumulate on 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.039 their scoreboard, or they could trade that cash 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:38.840 in for a choice of hidden physical prizes. Like 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:41.960 a consolation showcase. Exactly. There were 12 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:44.159 numbered panels on a separate board hiding things 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:46.700 like cash amounts between one and ten thousand 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:50.379 dollars or massive merchandise packages, entire 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:54.039 rooms of furniture, luxury trips, big screen 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:57.419 televisions, a camcorder combo. Which, to be 00:11:57.419 --> 00:11:59.639 fair, the physical prize showcase is a classic 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:02.559 foundational staple of late 80s and early 90s 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:05.120 gameshifts. Oh, 100%. But here is my pushback 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:07.399 on this entire design element. The producers 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:10.100 scrapped this trade -in rule entirely after just 00:12:10.100 --> 00:12:12.639 seven months. Oh, really? Yeah. After that point, 00:12:13.059 --> 00:12:14.919 losing contestants simply kept whatever cash 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:16.799 they had earned on the board with a guaranteed 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.019 minimum of $1 ,500. Why abandon the physical 00:12:20.019 --> 00:12:22.679 prizes so quickly? That is a fast pivot. Right. 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:25.000 Was the trade -in mechanic just too confusing 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:26.980 for the viewers trying to follow along at home? 00:12:27.179 --> 00:12:29.840 Or did the people standing on that stage simply 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:32.019 refuse to trade thousands of dollars in hard 00:12:32.019 --> 00:12:35.809 cash for a camcorder combo? This raises an important 00:12:35.809 --> 00:12:38.350 question about human behavior, class dynamics, 00:12:38.830 --> 00:12:41.809 and television tropes. No, so? Well, traditional 00:12:41.809 --> 00:12:44.549 television game shows relied heavily on physical 00:12:44.549 --> 00:12:47.149 merchandise because companies donated those items 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:49.710 in exchange for promotional considerations. So 00:12:49.710 --> 00:12:52.259 it was cheap. incredibly cheap for the network 00:12:52.259 --> 00:12:55.299 to produce. Furthermore, it looked phenomenal 00:12:55.299 --> 00:12:58.200 on camera. I mean, a glittering showcase of living 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:01.159 room furniture looks much more visually exciting 00:13:01.159 --> 00:13:03.659 than a piece of paper with a number on it. True. 00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:06.620 But we have to remember the core engine here. 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:08.799 This wasn't just a game show. It was a state 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:12.299 lottery. Ah, so the psychology and the demographics 00:13:12.299 --> 00:13:15.159 of the player are fundamentally different. Exactly 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:17.700 the point. Standard game shows were largely built 00:13:17.700 --> 00:13:20.570 for middle -class entertainment. People who actively 00:13:20.570 --> 00:13:23.129 play the state lottery, however, are typically 00:13:23.129 --> 00:13:25.269 seeking genuine financial transformation. They 00:13:25.269 --> 00:13:28.350 need cash. They're looking for financial liquidity. 00:13:28.490 --> 00:13:30.990 When you put a lottery player on a stage and 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:33.350 they have $4 ,000 in their hand, which by the 00:13:33.350 --> 00:13:36.389 way in 1989 is a highly significant amount of 00:13:36.389 --> 00:13:39.730 liquid cash, and you ask them to gamble it away 00:13:39.730 --> 00:13:42.470 for a mystery box that might contain a velvet 00:13:42.470 --> 00:13:47.399 sofa, Rational economic behavior takes over entirely. 00:13:47.460 --> 00:13:49.080 They're going to take the money. They desperately 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.860 want the cash to pay bills or fix their car or 00:13:51.860 --> 00:13:54.740 save for the future. The producers learned in 00:13:54.740 --> 00:13:57.639 real time that their specific contestants vastly 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:00.740 preferred the security of liquid money over the 00:14:00.740 --> 00:14:03.220 theatricality of television merchandise. That 00:14:03.220 --> 00:14:05.519 makes total sense. So they adjusted the rules. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:07.919 They stripped away the Hollywood tropes to fit 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:10.600 the stark economic reality of their audience. 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:13.960 It is a profound collision of of standard TV 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:16.600 producing meeting the cold reality of what working 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:19.399 class people actually need. It really is. Now, 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.679 as intense and revealing as the studio game was, 00:14:23.259 --> 00:14:25.879 the show's most ambitious experiment, and ultimately 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:28.360 its most spectacular failure, was what they tried 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:30.399 to do with the home audience. Oh, the at -home 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:32.399 players. Yes. This is where they tried to build 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:34.860 that interactive tap your screen bridge we talked 00:14:34.860 --> 00:14:37.309 about at the very beginning. The attempt to physically 00:14:37.309 --> 00:14:40.149 tether the living room couch to the unpredictable 00:14:40.149 --> 00:14:43.210 outcomes of the television studio. Right. So 00:14:43.210 --> 00:14:46.090 remember those 12 at -home viewers drawn in Springfield 00:14:46.090 --> 00:14:48.330 every week who didn't get selected to go to Chicago? 00:14:48.570 --> 00:14:51.549 The ones left behind? Yeah. The producers didn't 00:14:51.549 --> 00:14:54.269 just toss their names aside. They were assigned 00:14:54.269 --> 00:14:57.049 as partners to six people competing on stage. 00:14:57.789 --> 00:15:00.470 Two home viewers were partnered with every one 00:15:00.470 --> 00:15:03.470 studio contestant. It creates a fascinating proxy 00:15:03.470 --> 00:15:06.590 investment for the broadcast. It's wild. If the 00:15:06.590 --> 00:15:08.809 person standing under the hot lights in the studio 00:15:08.809 --> 00:15:13.009 won the $100 ,000 grand prize, their two designated 00:15:13.009 --> 00:15:16.690 at -home partners won $500 each. OK, not bad. 00:15:16.950 --> 00:15:19.809 And if the studio player lost, their home partner 00:15:19.809 --> 00:15:23.019 still received a $100 consolation prize. So imagine 00:15:23.019 --> 00:15:24.740 sitting at home in your living room watching 00:15:24.740 --> 00:15:27.559 WGN on a Saturday night and you are actively 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:29.580 sweating and rooting for a complete stranger 00:15:29.580 --> 00:15:32.360 in Chicago because their random panel choices 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:35.279 on that 36 panel board directly dictate whether 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:37.379 you get a check in the mail. It is essentially 00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:40.500 an early analog form of asynchronous multiplayer 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:42.600 gaming. I mean, the home viewer's fate is tied 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:44.820 to the studio avatar. And the producers double 00:15:44.820 --> 00:15:47.840 down on it. Oh, no, they did. Yes. In April 1990, 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:50.340 they introduced a new mechanic called bonus play. 00:15:50.539 --> 00:15:53.820 Okay. This is where the ambition spirals into 00:15:53.820 --> 00:15:57.159 absolute convoluted madness. They rolled out 00:15:57.159 --> 00:15:59.700 a brand new scratch ticket specifically featuring 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:02.860 a home player rule. Meanwhile in the studio, 00:16:03.299 --> 00:16:05.620 the six contestants were now assigned identifying 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:09.379 letters A through F. Later they expanded it to 00:16:09.379 --> 00:16:12.159 G through L. Okay, keeping track of letters now. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:14.620 So say you're the contestant who wins the hundred 00:16:14.620 --> 00:16:16.620 grand and you're assigned letter for the night 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:19.320 is C. At the end of the broadcast, you step up 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:22.659 to a giant wheel. The wheel has 10 spaces numbered 00:16:22.659 --> 00:16:25.860 0 through 9. You spin that wheel four separate 00:16:25.860 --> 00:16:28.639 times to generate a unique four -digit code on 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:31.159 live television. OK, let's break down the mathematical 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:33.259 variables they just introduced. Please do. We 00:16:33.259 --> 00:16:35.200 have a specific letter assigned to the winner 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:37.879 and a randomly generated four -digit sequence. 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:41.299 Yes. Now, cut back to the home viewer. You're 00:16:41.299 --> 00:16:43.320 sitting on your couch holding this new bonus 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:46.139 play scratch ticket. In order to win the grand 00:16:46.139 --> 00:16:48.779 at -home prize of $100, your physical ticket 00:16:48.779 --> 00:16:50.620 has to match the winning contestant's letter. 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:53.460 And Dia has to match the four digits generated 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:56.379 by the wheel. And those four digits have to appear 00:16:56.379 --> 00:16:58.940 on your ticket in the exact sequence they were 00:16:58.940 --> 00:17:01.580 spun. The statistical probability of matching 00:17:01.580 --> 00:17:04.650 all of those independent variables. I mean, a 00:17:04.650 --> 00:17:07.750 specific letter among up to 12 options, combined 00:17:07.750 --> 00:17:10.549 with a specific four -digit sequence in exact 00:17:10.549 --> 00:17:14.109 chronological order, is remarkably slim. It borders 00:17:14.109 --> 00:17:16.009 on the absurd. All for a hundred bucks. That 00:17:16.009 --> 00:17:18.589 is so much effort for a hundred dollars. It is 00:17:18.589 --> 00:17:20.869 like trying to earn twitch drops by watching 00:17:20.869 --> 00:17:24.170 a modern video game stream or participating in 00:17:24.170 --> 00:17:27.349 a live mobile gaming event, but executed entirely 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:29.910 with analog cardboard and gravity -based spinning 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:32.740 wheels. Just incredibly clunky. Picture a family 00:17:32.740 --> 00:17:36.240 in the Chicago suburbs in 1990, frantically checking 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:38.319 the letter on their ticket, furiously writing 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.319 down the numbers as the wheel spins on the tube 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:42.920 TV. It is so much manual labor for the viewer. 00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:45.099 If we connect this to the bigger picture of media 00:17:45.099 --> 00:17:47.819 history, it becomes blindingly clear why this 00:17:47.819 --> 00:17:50.579 specific interactive mechanic failed. And the 00:17:50.579 --> 00:17:52.480 source material explicitly notes that it did 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:55.440 fail. By the second season, the home player element 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:57.000 was quietly dropped from the show altogether. 00:17:57.309 --> 00:17:59.069 They just threw their hands up and abandoned 00:17:59.069 --> 00:18:00.930 the experiment. They abandoned it because they 00:18:00.930 --> 00:18:03.750 hit the absolute ceiling of analog capability. 00:18:04.549 --> 00:18:07.289 They created an incredibly convoluted barrier 00:18:07.289 --> 00:18:09.890 to entry for the home viewer. Right. Think about 00:18:09.890 --> 00:18:12.630 the friction in the user experience. The effort 00:18:12.630 --> 00:18:15.369 required to understand the rules, track a specific 00:18:15.369 --> 00:18:19.170 letter, track four sequential wheel spins, and 00:18:19.170 --> 00:18:22.529 verify a physical piece of cardboard for a relatively 00:18:22.529 --> 00:18:25.819 low payout. It was simply too high. Too much 00:18:25.819 --> 00:18:29.079 work. The ambition of interactive media was genuinely 00:18:29.079 --> 00:18:31.259 there. They desperately wanted the audience to 00:18:31.259 --> 00:18:33.460 be active, participating players rather than 00:18:33.460 --> 00:18:36.099 passive viewers. But the technology they were 00:18:36.099 --> 00:18:38.640 relying on, you know, paper tickets, the postal 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:41.599 service and manual verification, could not sustain 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:43.859 the immense complexity of the game they had designed. 00:18:44.140 --> 00:18:46.799 It is like trying to run modern complex software 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.680 on a computer built in 1980. the hardware just 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:51.859 catches fire and crashes. Absolutely. To make 00:18:51.859 --> 00:18:54.319 interactivity work on a mass cultural scale, 00:18:54.519 --> 00:18:56.500 it has to be frictionless. It is the fundamental 00:18:56.500 --> 00:18:58.759 lesson that every single app developer and streaming 00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:01.700 platform knows today. The moment you make the 00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:04.119 user work too hard to participate, the moment 00:19:04.119 --> 00:19:06.440 they have to find a pen or mail an envelope, 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.599 you lose them entirely. So what does this all 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.140 mean? When we look back at the Wikipedia page 00:19:12.140 --> 00:19:15.940 for the $100 ,000 Fortune Hunt, We realize it 00:19:15.940 --> 00:19:20.319 wasn't just a brief neon tinted footnote in WGN's 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:22.420 broadcasting history or, you know, just another 00:19:22.420 --> 00:19:24.880 local TV show that came and went. No, it was 00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:27.000 so much more than that. It was a massive state 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.319 -sponsored microcosm of media experimentation. 00:19:29.900 --> 00:19:32.539 You have this incredible blend of lottery mathematics, 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:35.779 intense psychological board mechanics designed 00:19:35.779 --> 00:19:39.720 to exploit sunk cost fallacies, a stark reflection 00:19:39.720 --> 00:19:42.420 of socioeconomic realities regarding physical 00:19:42.420 --> 00:19:45.940 prizes versus liquid and a deeply flawed but 00:19:45.940 --> 00:19:48.319 genuinely brilliant attempt at interactive broadcasting. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:50.059 They were throwing everything they could think 00:19:50.059 --> 00:19:51.740 of at the wall to see how they could shrink the 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:53.900 distance between the television screen and the 00:19:53.900 --> 00:19:56.500 couch. And in doing so, they laid the invisible 00:19:56.500 --> 00:19:58.740 groundwork for the media landscape we live in 00:19:58.740 --> 00:20:01.039 right now. It's true. Whenever you participate 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.319 in a live poll on a modern streaming show, or 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:06.799 you play along with a trivia app during a live 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:09.700 broadcast, or even when a video game ecosystem 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:12.480 syncs up with a live sporting event, you are 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:15.619 participating. in a long lineage of media evolution. 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:18.059 That's a great point. Shows like Fortune Hunt 00:20:18.059 --> 00:20:21.059 helped prototype that innate human desire to 00:20:21.059 --> 00:20:23.859 reach through the glass. They proved beyond a 00:20:23.859 --> 00:20:25.980 shadow of a doubt that audiences wanted to play 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:28.559 along. The producers just had to wait for the 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:30.480 invention of the smartphone to make that desire 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:33.579 effortless. It is wild to think about how far 00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:36.500 we have come from dusting silver ink off our 00:20:36.500 --> 00:20:38.839 fingers and mailing cardboard to Springfield. 00:20:39.140 --> 00:20:42.170 Truly. But I wanna leave you with one final lingering 00:20:42.170 --> 00:20:46.029 thought drawn directly from a very peculiar phrasing 00:20:46.029 --> 00:20:48.230 in the official rules of that doomed home game. 00:20:48.490 --> 00:20:51.369 Oh, what was that? The source article explicitly 00:20:51.369 --> 00:20:53.390 states that those bonus play tickets introduced 00:20:53.390 --> 00:20:57.289 in 1990 were, quote, good to last forever. Forever. 00:20:57.430 --> 00:20:59.289 Forever. You could keep them week after week, 00:20:59.289 --> 00:21:01.289 hoping your random string of letters and numbers 00:21:01.289 --> 00:21:04.390 would eventually hit. Now, the show ended its 00:21:04.390 --> 00:21:08.049 run over 30 years ago, back in 1994. The studio 00:21:08.049 --> 00:21:10.839 was dismantled. The 36 panel board was thrown 00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:13.799 away and the wheel stopped spinning. But because 00:21:13.799 --> 00:21:15.839 of how the state of Illinois legally printed 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:18.480 those rules. Oh my gosh. Right. Is it possible 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:21.160 that somewhere, tucked away in a dusty attic 00:21:21.160 --> 00:21:23.359 or forgotten in an old shoebox in the Chicago 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:25.940 suburbs, someone still has a stack of these forever 00:21:25.940 --> 00:21:28.420 tickets? Just waiting. Just sitting there in 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:30.359 the dark, mathematically frozen out of a game 00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:32.680 that no longer exists, patiently waiting for 00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:33.980 a wheel that will never spin again.