Ultimate Game Show's®
Frequently Asked Questions.
The Ultimate Game Show team understands that you probably have many questions about how your event can benefit from a game show production. Below are some of our Frequently Asked Questions.
Q: "After seeing some of the photos on this web site, it looks as though a game show production from The Ultimate Game Show will cost more than our budget. Do you offer smaller shows too?"
A: Absolutely! Since every one of our productions is customized to fit the needs of each client, we have presented game shows at a wide range of prices. Our smallest productions are comparable with the fees charged by a band or high-end DJ. Of course the fees for our larger shows go up from there. Our prices are based on the size and game format of the production, as well as the location and length of the event.
Q: "How much space do you require for a game show? "
A: That is a difficult thing to answer since our different game formats have different requirements. On the smallest end of the spectrum, our "Head-to-Head" podium has a footprint of only 3' wide by 2' deep.On the other end of the range, our "Tic Tac Whoa!" show features an 18' high by 18' wide squares set. The size we need will be determined once we have established which game format we are presenting. We will do our best to work with the space you have available and can often be flexible. But depending on the scale of the production you have requested, there will likely be minimum stage dimensions that must be met.
Q: "How many of our guests will be able to participate in your game show productions? "
A: All of them! No matter which game format you choose, we have developed all of our productions to be as much fun for the audience as the contestants. The exact number of contestants who will be specifically involved varies greatly based on the game format you choose. Some clients want to use the game show format to disseminate large amounts of information and in those instances we often only have three or four contestants, who's goal is to educate the audience with their answers. On the other hand, we have clients who want to involve everyone. And for them we suggest one of our our audience response based game formats, where we put a wireless keypad in the hands of every guest, allowing them to all compete at the same time. These keypad based games have been our most popular game formats for the past several years.
Q: "How come I don't see on your website where you offer the popular TV game shows?"
A: Because I am not allowed to. Those games are trademarked and copyrighted. We certainly offer game formats that are "inspired by" TV game shows, but offering exact replicas or advertising that you offer a specific TV show is illegal. These TV production companies watch our industry and do send out very nasty letters if you cross the line.
Q: "Then how come other companies make these claims?"
A: This is a difficult question to answer. The biggest reason is that those companies are too small for the TV production companies to bother with or even know about. . This is extremely frustrating to us, as it creates a competitive disadvantage for a larger organization such as ours who is on the radar of these TV companies.
Q: "Can we write our own questions? Can you help us write them? "
A: You Bet! We believe that asking customized, client-specific questions in conjunction with our proven pop culture and general trivia questions is a critical aspect of a successful game show production. It is our "stock questions" that ensure the entertainment value as they are written to be very amusing, often eliciting hilarious answers from contestants. The most effective ratio of custom to pop culture questions varies based on the nature and objective of the event. You will provide us with your custom questions, as you know your material and training goals better than we ever could. Then, capitalizing on our experience we will edit your questions, making them better game show questions.
Q: "Can we provide our own host? "
A: We don't recommend this. No matter how funny the boss or "Bob from accounting" may be, he doesn't have the years of experience running a game and handling extra competitive contestants. Our hosts are the most experienced in the business! In our company's history we have had only a handful of unsuccessful productions, and the only thing those events had in common was that they all had a client-provided host, as opposed to one of ours. The hosts weren't familiar enough with the game format to host it. And our technicians couldn't anticipate what they were going to do next because they hadn't worked together before. Our hosts and technicians have all worked together on hundreds of events, making for cohesive productions. Several years back, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak swapped game shows for an evening, and neither was very good because the crew didn't have a sense of their timing and they just weren't familiar with the game.
Q: "Do you have any celebrity game show hosts? "
A: Absolutely! For even bigger wow! factor from your game show production you can add a celebrity to host the game. Because of our partnerships with several talent agencies we can get just about any current or retired TV game show host you can think of. The possibilities don't stop there though, we can essentially get celebrity you would like. But we do recommend staying with someone who has experience hosting game shows, otherwise we will run into the same problems described in the previous question.
As an alternative, you can have a celebrity such as Ken Jennings, The all-time Jeopardy! champion, (pictured to the right) as a guest contestant appearing as your top performing employees are beginning a final round to determine your company's champion.
The appearance fees of celebrities vary greatly depending on your choice, but typically they add between $3,500 to $15,000 to the cost of the production. Call for rates and availability.
Q: "Are you affiliated with the game shows we see on TV ? "
A: No we are not. We are a totally independent event production company. We also have no apirations of being TV stars, nor are we trying to sell game show ideas to TV production companies. This is not because we aren't ambitious. It is quite the opposite. We are soley focused on providing the most professional game show productions available at corporate and special events. And we believe that to do this to the best of our ability requires 100% of our attention.
Q: "Is game show production your primary business? "
A: Yes, game shows are what we do! And they are pretty much all we do. We are one of only about a half dozen full-time game show production companies in the country. More than 90% of our business is game shows. The remaining 10% is non-game show based team-building programs which are mostly booked by customers that have already had several game formats and are interested in trying something completely different.
Q: "Don't some DJs offer game shows too? "
A: Yes, there are a large number of disc cockey companies who offer game shows (often under the name Game Show Mania) as an add-on to their DJ services. The problem is that these are wedding DJ's who only host a handfull of game shows each year. The majority of them don't even own the game show equipment, but have a buddy who does and will rent it to them on those rare occasions they sell a show. While some of these may be very talented disc jockeys, they simply don't have the experience at hosting game shows.
Worse yet, are the numerous party rental companies who rent out obsolete game show systems along with their inflatable bounce houses and carnival games. Most of these companies don't even provide a host, leaving your group to entertain itself. Ultimate Game Show team believes that your group deserves better than that! You aren't likely to trust your meal to an inexperienced caterer, so why would you take a chance with your entertainer, which leaves a far greater impression in the minds of your guests.