Minute to Win It is an international game show franchise where contestants take part in a series of 60-second challenges that use objects that are commonly available around the house. The first version of Minute to Win It to air was the American primetime game show, which premiered on NBC on March 14, 2010, and ran till 2011 with restaurateur and TV personality Guy Fieri as the host. It was revived in 2013 on GSN with host Apolo Ohno. The second network to air a version of the concept was Brazil's SBT, on April 17, 2010. This series was called Nada Além de um Minuto (Portuguese for Nothing But a Minute) and was played as part of the pre-existing program Programa Silvio Santos, hosted by Silvio Santos. Then on April 30, 2010, Germany's Sat.1 aired Die perfekte Minute (The perfect Minute) and on June 22, 2010, Australia's Seven Network aired Minute to Win It. Currently over fifty countries worldwide have produced a version of Minute to Win It. The first two episodes of the American version played back-to-back at 7:00 pm Eastern and Pacific. On October 6, 2010, Minute to Win It was awarded the C21/Frapa Award for Best studio based game show format at the MIPCOM Television Festival in France. A card game, board game, and video game versions for the Wii, Kinect and Nintendo DS have been made for this show. The U.S. season two finale aired on September 7, 2011. On May 13, 2012, NBC announced that the English version of the show would not be renewed for a third season. Minute to Win It aired new episodes on GSN Tuesday nights at 8/7c. The first season of GSN shows began in June 2013 and ended in October 2013; the second season premiered in February 2014 and ended in April 2014. An American, Spanish language, nightly version of the game show, titled Minuto para Ganar (Minute To Win), debuted on MundoFox on the network's formal launch date of August 13, 2012, hosted by Marco Antonio Regil.
Gameplay
United States format
Rules "10 games, each 60 seconds. Playing using household items could win you one million dollars." The contestant is presented with the blueprint for the first game (level) and must complete the game within 60 seconds to win the first level (was $1,000 in all versions) and advance to the next level. After completing the first, fifth, eighth, and sometimes ninth level games, the contestant is guaranteed to leave with no less than the cash award for those levels. If the contestant can complete the final game, the contestant will earn $1,000,000 ($100,000 in the Spanish version and $250,000 in the GSN version). The contestant is given three "lives" at the beginning of the game. The difficulty of the games progressively increases throughout the show. If time expires or the conditions of the game cannot be fulfilled (such as by the contestant exhausting any allotted attempts or committing a foul such as by dropping certain objects on the floor), the contestant loses a "life". If the contestant loses all three of their "lives", the game ends and the contestant's winnings drop to the previous milestone they passed. Some games require that the contestant let objects stand still for 3 seconds. If there are 3 or fewer seconds on the clock, the clock will stop at 1, the count will continue backstage, and the contestant will have completed the game if the objects stand still for 3 seconds. Sometimes games require a "power cam" replay to make sure the contestant completed the game within the time limit. Sometimes, the rule states that an object has to be released before time expires (Layin' Track, Tuna Roll), other times, the objective must be met first. If the contestant releases an object to stand still as time expires, a replay will check to see if the object was released in time (the 3-second count still happens but is usually not important). After completing a game, the contestant can leave with the amount of money already won before seeing the blueprint for the next game. However, once the contestant elects for the game, the contestant cannot leave the show until that game is complete or they have exhausted all three of their "lives". In the first part of season one in the English version, $50,000 was the only milestone; players who were eliminated from the game before completing the level five game left with nothing. The milestones at $1,000 and $250,000 were added in the second part of that season. Then, partway through season two, a milestone at $500,000 was added. For the MundoFox version, $1,000, $5,000, $50,000 and $75,000 are the milestones. In the GSN edition, the milestones are $1,000, $10,000 and $25,000. In episodes featuring celebrity contestants competing for charities, all levels are milestones, so they get all the money up to their last successful level. In episodes featuring teams of two contestants, some games are played by both players, while others are played solo. A player can only make three consecutive attempts at solo games (including re-attempts following losing a life; an intervening team game does not reset this count). After a player makes three attempts, the other player is forced to attempt the next solo game. In Christmas episodes, two extra games were added for "the 12 games of Minute to Win It": the 11th game is worth $2,000,000 and the 12th is worth $3,000,000. In the Spanish version, the 11th game would be worth $150,000 and the 12th would be worth $250,000. Both are milestones. Also in Christmas episodes, some games contain a "Holiday Bonus," in which a contestant wins a gift if the level is passed. A visual representation of the gift is placed inside of a box, which is opened if and when the level is completed. The gifts include:
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