$ale of the Century was a television game show format that has screened in several countries in various incarnations since 1969.

It was originally screened on the NBC network from 1969 to 1973, and a UK version produced by Anglia Television was shown on ITV from 1971 to 1983.

Probably its most prominent incarnation occurred after the Australian Grundy Television organization (known in the United States as Reg Grundy Productions) bought the rights to the concept for a version that screened in Australia from 1980 to 2001. At its close it was Australia's longest-running game show, though the local edition of Wheel of Fortune, which has been on since 1981, has now exceeded that.

Grundy's later licensed the format to a number of other countries, including the United States, where it had a second run on NBC from 1983 to 1989, in New Zealand on TV One and TV3 from 1987 to 1993, and the UK, where it also appeared again on Sky television in 1989 and then on Challenge from 1998. It also appeared as a one-off as part of Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon on 8 October 2005.

In mid-2005 a revamped version of $ale of the Century returned to Australian screens under the name of Temptation: The New $ale of the Century (commonly referred to as just "Temptation"). After a few weeks, the 'new Sale of the Century' tag was not mentioned.

Game format
The game format varied in its details over the years and in various nations, however the core remained unchanged. The format of the Australian version is presented below.

All contestants were spotted with $20 to start. The host read a trivia question to the three contestants (one of which was usually the winner of the previous show) who had to press a buzzer to answer the question. Correct answers were worth $5, while incorrect answers were minus the same amount. If a player answered incorrectly, the answer was revealed and the game went on to the next question - only one person can answer the question.

Once per round, the highest-scored player was offered the chance to sacrifice some part of their score to "purchase" a prize. The prizes, and the cost, increased in each round. Contestants were allowed to haggle with the host, who, depending on the game situation, could reduce the cost and offer inducements including actual cash to make the purchase. If two or more players had the same score at this point, a Dutch auction was conducted for the prize. In later series of the Australian version, the final prize sale was replaced with "cashcard" where the player instead had the opportunity to spin the "cashcard", where they had the opportunity to either win a cash prize of several thousand Australian dollars (equivalent to perhaps a month's average wages for a middle-class Australian at the time), earn the opportunity to win a car later in the game (see section on major prizes), receive the score they sacrificed back, or reduce the score of a competitor slightly.

Once in each of the three standard rounds, a longer-format question known as the "Who Am I" question (known in the U.S. as "The Fame Game"), was asked, where a succession of increasingly larger clues were given to the identity of a famous person, place, or event. In this round, players could buzz-in and answer at any time, without penalty for an incorrect answer. However, they only had one chance to answer. If one of the players buzzed-in and answered correctly, they had an opportunity to play the "famous faces" subgame, where players got to choose randomly from a game board with nine squares featuring the faces of celebrities, mostly performers on the network's shows. Once chosen, the face selected would be spun around to reveal either a relatively small prize (typically appliances or furniture valued at around a weekly wage) or a $25 money card, which awarded $25 to the player's score. Later series' added additional $10 and $15 money cards to the gameboard, and in each round another amount was added. Along with the $25 card was a "wildcard" which required the player to choose to select another face or receive a cash prize.

The later series also added a "fast money" section for the final round (known as the "speedround" in the United States), where the host would ask the questions in a particularly rapid-fire manner, attempting to fit in as many questions as possible in a 60 second time limit. Furthermore there was a shorter 30 second fast money section in round two. Most of the more successful players proved themselves particularly adept at this section.

The winner of the game was the person at the end with the most money. If there was a final tie, the tied players answered a tiebreaker "Who am I" question, where a correct answer won the game, an incorrect answer lost.

The highest score achieved on Sale of the Century was $200, winning Australian, David Poltorak, the lot.

The return of Sale of the Century as Temptation in 2005 yielded the same general format, but with several new features. As before, the game is split into four rounds, which take place as follows.


Round One: After the first few questions, there is a 20 second "Fast Money" speed round. Immediately after this, the leading player or players are offered a chance at opening the Temptation Vault, at the price of $10 - this price is never reduced from $10 unless there is more than one player eligible. Whoever opens the vault receives a cash prize of random value between $1 and $5000, on two occasions in the first few months of the show the value was a mere $18, but with frequently falls between $2500 and $3500. There are a few more questions, and then the first Who Am I question.


Round Two: After the first few questions, the first Gift Shop of the night is offered to the leading player or players. The first gift shop item costs $10, and usually has a retail cost between $1500 and $2500 - this $10 price can be reduced at the discretion of producers, usually no lower than $6, or alternatively an additional cash incentive can be included into the prize, which is usually either $200 or $400. More questions are asked, and then the second Who Am I. After the Who Am I, three more questions are asked before another 20 second fast money round. This ends round two.


Round Three: After the first few questions, the second Gift Shop is offered. This item is offered for $15, and usually had a retail value of between $4000 and $7000; this can again be accompanied by a cash incentive, or the $15 price can be lowered, usually to $12, although it can decrease to $10 if two players are eligible for the gift shop. After the second gift shop, there are more standard questions followed by the final Who Am I.


Final Round: The final round consists of a single 60 second fast money speedround.


Famous Faces: Correct Who Am I answers choose one of nine boxes, identified by celebrities' faces. As before, most of the faces conceal small prizes, but there are cash values (also known as Money Cards) which are added directly to the player's score:


$10 - present in all three rounds until chosen

$15 - added only in the second round

$25 - added only in the third round

Wild Card - added only in the third round; gives the contestant either a $1000 cash prize, or allows them to select from the remaining faces in the hope of finding the $25.

The new Temptation series has also added three special selections. It is not clear whether or not all of these selections are present from the beginning of the game, however as the $15, $25 and Wild Cards are added, they displace these from the board; i.e. none of these selections can be present in the third round:


Burglar - the player elects one opponent from whose score $5 is deducted.

Lock Out - the player elects one opponent to lock out; they will then be unable to answer any of the next three questions.

Turbo - the next three questions are automatically worth $10 instead of $5; furthermore, the penalty for an incorrect answer also increases to $10.

In each case, the next three questions are never part of a fast money round. This is also the evident reason why the Lock Out and Turbo items are removed from the board for the final Who Am I.



American Format
The contestants were spotted $20 at the start of the game. The Q&A format of the previous versions were used, like the one above.

There were two special games played after every five questions, both of them are basically the same but under different names and/or rules. And here they are:

Instant Bargain - the leading contestant would have a chance to buy a prize with his/her merchandise. Host Jim Perry would do pretty much anything to get a contestant to buy, even drop the price to as low as $1. Some of the instant bargains contained a "Sale Surprise," which was a cash bonus that was revealed only after the bargain was taken or passed on (usually announced by a series of bells). 
Fame Game - played when a contestant answered a "Who am I?" question correctly. The rules for this were the same, however, the American format underwent changes. Originally, the famous faces were used, with money cards -- $10 in the first round, $15 in the second round, and $25 in the third round hidden behind one of the nine faces on the board (this later was changed). Later on, the faces were replaced by numbers (1-9), and in 1986 the board became randomized. A flashing light would bounce around the board, with the contestant in control using their buzzer to stop the light (ala Press Your Luck, another '80s game show hit). Whatever the contestant picked or hit was theirs to keep, money cards were added to their score. 
Instant Cash - this replaced the third instant bargain in 1986. The player in the lead, as always (auction if there was a tie) would be given the opportunity to play for a cash jackpot, which started at $1,000 and went up by that amount every day until it was won. To play, a contestant would have to give up their lead. Many times, a contestant would have a fairly substantial lead, so they would pass. As a result, many times the pot would grow fairly high. If the contestant opted to play, the player would select one of three boxes and win the cash inside. One box contained the jackpot while each of the other boxes contained $100. The pot reached as high as $16,000 several times. 
This cycle repeated two more times. The prices of the Instant Bargains would go up, and the Fame Game would add more money cards ($10 for first, $15 for second, $25 for third; they were revealed for the player once the show went to a randomized board).

After the last Fame Game, Perry would ask three final questions, worth $5 each like they were throughout the game. In 1984, realizing that most games were decided before this set of questions, the producers reworked the format to incorporate a final speed round, similar to the one used on the Aussie version. Originally 90 seconds, the round was later reduced to 60 seconds. The player in the lead at the end of the game was declared the champion. All other contestants got their scores in cash plus whatever bonus prizes they may have picked up along the way. In the event of a tie, a tie-breaking question is asked. A correct answer won the player another $5 & the game; an incorrect answer cost the player $5 and the game.


Major Prizes
The winner of the episode was then given the opportunity to win one of a selection of much larger prizes, usually including international first-class holidays, expensive jewellery, and the like, the most valuable of which was one or two luxury automobiles.

In early seasons, the cumulative scores over several nights of the contestant were kept, and they would add prizes to their collection as their cumulative score exceeded the required amount. Later seasons changed this, instead the prize to be won on any particular night was determined by randomly choosing boxes off a game board until a pair of matching prizes was revealed. The cars were only placed on the game board if the player had won the opportunity on the "cashcard" game, or had a final score of $100 or more (which only the best players achieved).

Once the player's major prizes had been determined, the player had an opportunity to decide whether they would like to stop playing, and leave with the major prizes they had won, or continue playing on subsequent nights, risking the major prizes they had won thus far but offering the opportunity to win more.

Ultimately, once the player had won all the major prizes on offer, they had the opportunity to play for one more night to win a large cash jackpot. This started at 50,000 AUD and increased by $2,000 per night until somebody won it. The largest jackpot ever won on the Australian version of the show was 508,000 AUD, by contestant Robert Kusmierski, whose total winnings were 676,919 AUD. Another big winner was Simon Fallon, who won 434,065 AUD, and later collected 250,000 AUD more on Seven's QuizMaster, hosted by another Simon, Simon Reeve.


Current Australian Format
Carry-over champions ultimately aim to win seven consecutive episodes. When a contestant wins his first night, he wins a prize valued at around about $10,000. If he leaves, he takes that prize. If he returns, he plays only for the second prize, which is worth about $15,000. If he leaves after the second night, he takes the Level 2 prize, but not the Level 1 prize. This pattern continues through the Level 3 prize - worth about $20,000 - the Level 4 prize - worth about $30,000 - and the Level 5 prize - a car worth about $70,000. When a player wins his sixth night, he wins all five prizes from Level 1 to 5. On the seventh and final night, the player wins $500,000 of gold bullion in addition to the five prizes. Any loss along the way, however, and the contestant does not take any major prize away.
Once a contestant has indicated that they will return the following night, they have sixty seconds to answer questions in Ten in a Row to try to put money into their cash account, which they take away when they decide to leave, or after the seventh night. In Ten in a Row, players attempt to answer strings of questions consecutively. The amount of cash won increases through a non-linear scale:

$100,000
$60,000
$30,000
$20,000
$15,000
$10,000
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
$1,000


Any incorrect or passed answer resets the value at zero, and the contestant wins whatever value they have when time expires (or $100,000 if they attain it.) It should be noted that the money scale is similar to that of The Weakest Link, but that there is no provision to 'bank.' About thirteen to fifteen questions are asked, and so a player who answers the first nine correctly but the tenth incorrectly may end up with only a few thousand dollars. Players must win the following night to be able to claim any money won in Ten in a Row.

So far, there have been three grand champions: Brigid O'Connor (Episode 18, 22 June 2005, $663,738); Stephen Hall (Episode 63, 24 August 2005, $672,357); Rob O'Neill (Episode 75, 9 September 2005, $701,241).


American Format
The show went through three bonus games during it's six year run.

The Traditional Shopping Format - this was used for the first two seasons of the American NBC version (plus the first half-season of a 1985-86 syndicated version). Several prizes were offered, ranging from dining rooms, computers and furniture, to month-long exotic holidays, and finishing with a luxury automobile. A contestant could take their cumulative winnings, buy a prize, and retire at any point as long as they continued to win.

The goal for this was to get to the big prizes of a car, every prize on stage, and a growing cash jackpot. How to get there differed from show to show. On the NBC version, after reaching the car, the next prize level is the cash jackpot (which began at $50,000 and increased by $1,000 each day until won), and then every prize on the stage including the cash jackpot. On the syndicated version, the prize structure was as follows:

$ 85 - 1st level prize ($3,000)
170 - 2nd level prize ($6,000)
265 - 3rd level prize ($8,500)
330 - 4th level prize ($12,000)
445 - 5th level prize ($15,000)
530 - luxury car
640 - all prizes
750 - all prizes + cash jackpot
The values for the 1st through 5th level prizes fluctuated by $10 either way throughout the run, however the price for the car, all the prizes or all the prizes + cash jackpot did not change.

Big Winners during shopping era

Barbara Phillips: Won $151,689 in cash and prizes on the NBC daytime version in 1983 (doing so in dramatic fashion by answering the final question, needing $5 to win). Became the first contestant to win over $150,000 on a daytime network show. 
Kathy Riley: In 1984, won a $78,000 cash jackpot in a somewhat dramatic fashion. For two of the last three questions were answered by her two opponents (the first answered correctly, the other answered incorrectly). Then the last question came but host Perry said "Oh! The heck with the last question, she did it" thereby ending the game & causing Kathy to win right there (Kathy giggled when he did that). Since it happened on the daytime version, she retired by choosing to take the cash jackpot after that. 
David Rogers: In 1984, won $122,084 in cash and prizes, including a $109,000 cash jackpot, the highest ever won on the show. 
John Goss: In 1985, won $156,339 in cash and prizes, including a $72,000 cash jackpot. 
Helaine Lowey: Another syndicated contestant, who won $142,974 in cash and prizes, including a huge jackpot. 
Alice Conkright: Won $141,406 ($77,000 jackpot) in 1985. Won all the prizes plus jackpot in 6 days, the fastest player to ever do so. 
Tim Holleran: The winningest contestant in American $ale history. Won $166,875 in cash and prizes in 1985 on the syndicated version, including a $90,000 cash jackpot. Two years later, Holleran competed in the International Sale Tournament of Champions, and was the United States representative in the finals. He finished second place to Cary Young of Australia, but ended up winning another $20,000+ in the tournament. 
The Winner's Board - In 1985 on NBC and 1986 in syndication, the shopping format was done away with. Instead, the contestant would face a 20-square board. The Winner's Board contained ten prizes; eight of them had two matching cards (one of which was $3,000 cash), plus two Win cards (if picked, the next number selected resulted in an automatic match) and one $10,000 and Car card. In order to win $10,000 or the car, the player must select a Win card first before selecting a number that has the $10,000 or the Car card. Like the Australian version, once the board was cleared by the champion, they faced a final decision. On the American version, the decision was this: either leave with all the prizes you earned off the board, or risk them and play one final game. A loss cost the player all their prizes from the board, a win netted them an extra $50,000 in cash. Other prizes won during the main game from instant bargains, cash bonuses and fame game prizes were not at risk.

No contestant that accepted the challenge ever lost their final game, although the closest to do so was Mark DeCarlo, who later went on to host the game show Studs. DeCarlo, who had been trailing for most of the game, ended the speed round tied at $50 with the contestant to his right. A tiebreaker question was asked, and the opponent buzzed in and answered incorrectly. DeCarlo won the game, and retired with $115,257 in cash and prizes. Interestingly, DeCarlo won the championship by correctly answering a tie-breaking question.

Other big winners during this version included these:

Jeff Colbern: He won about $123,753 in cash and prizes in 1985.

Linda Credit: In 1987, she won over $140,457 in cash and prizes; including a $14,000 Instant Cash jackpot, and of course the $50,000 bonus. She then played in the 1988 tournament of champions and won another $5,700 for a total over $146,157.

Curtis Warren: He would later go on to win $1.41 million on Greed in 2000. (Curtis' totals are on his page.) 
The Winner's Big Money Game - The format for the final round changed once again in January 1988. The new bonus game had absolutely nothing to do with the shopping theme of the show itself. The winner of the day would receive a bonus prize worth roughly $3,000 (at first selecting one of six numbers from a board), and then would join Jim Perry to play the "Winner's Big Money Game". The contestant would choose a colored packet (red, yellow, or blue) containing the puzzles for the game, and host Perry would read the 6-word puzzles one word at a time (with the words appearing faster than Perry saying them). The contestant's job was to correctly solve four puzzles in 20 seconds (originally 5 puzzles in 25 seconds), which if successful, won the bonus round. The clock started when the first word of each puzzle was revealed, and the player stopped the clock by hitting a red plunger in front of them to give an answer, which he/she must give right away. One incorrect guess was allowed; two misses ended the game. The player could pass at any time without penalty by hitting the plunger and saying "Pass".

The new champion played for $5,000 on the first day; and after every main game win, the champion plays for $6,000, $7,000, $8,000, $9,000 and $10,000; regardless of whether he/she won the bonus round the previous day. On the seventh trip to the winner's circle, the champion played for an automobile. If he/she was successful in winning the car, then the champion can play for $50,000 with a main game victory. The $50,000 bonus was won only once by Rani White in May 1988. White quickly solved the first puzzle involving Superman, but had trouble associating Tommy Lasorda with the Dodgers and people who share the last name Rogers. With about a half a second remaining, White correctly guessed a puzzle associated with Ireland for the win.

At least one (if not two) other contestants played for $50,000 in the Winner's Big Money Game, but failed in their quest to win the big money. The one player known for sure to have done it was Phil Cambry, who won $91,323 in cash and prizes. Cambry failed on the first day of Trick or Treat Week (started on a Friday).

The last big winner during this era was Darrell Garrison. During his run (which ended on the third-to-last episode of the series), he won $79,348 in cash and prizes. He didn't win the car on his final trip to the WBMG.

In total, up to $95,000 in cash can be won as well as the automobile if a player is fortunate enough to win every single bonus round (which was never accomplished).


Game Show References
There have been references to other game shows. On one episode, a contestant screamed for "big bucks and no whammies" when the player was in control of the Fame Game board. This obviously caused Jim Perry (in his usual easy-going style) to tell the player he's no Peter Tomarken. Ironically, Damon Jones, the person who called for "big bucks and no whammies" on the Fame Game board, actually was a big winner on Press Your Luck. Players have also answered questions in the form of a question, a la Jeopardy!. One one 1984 episode, Perry paid tribute to fellow University of Pennsylvania alum Jack Barry, who had passed away. During a NBC promotional giveaway in 1985, Jim mistakenly referred to "Super Password" as "Password Plus".


Hosts
Typically, the game's main host was a middle-aged male, "assisted" by an attractive young woman who introduced the contestants and many of the prizes.

The hosts for the Australian version were Tony Barber and Glenn Ridge. Some of the much more frequently replaced co-hosts were Victoria Nicholls, Alyce Platt, Nicky Buckley, Delvene Delaney, Jo Bailey, and Karina Brown. The Temptation version is hosted by Ed Phillips and co-hosted by Livinia Nixon. Pete Smith was the announcer for most of the run, except for the first ten episodes (announced by Ron Neate), and an episode where he was a contestant, which had Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman behind the mike.

Jim Perry hosted the entire American version of the show in the 1980s; he was assisted for the first few months by Sally Julian, whom was replaced by former Las Vegas Gambit co-hostess Lee Menning. Summer Bartholomew, who auditioned for the co-hostess job on Wheel of Fortune following the departure of Susan Stafford, was named the new co-hostess in late 1984, and remained with $ale of the Century for the remainder of its run. Jay Stewart, former Let's Make A Deal announcer/co-host who worked with Perry on Card Sharks in 1981, was the announcer, who made occasional on-screen appearances and actually co-hosted with Perry for a time when Menning was on maternity leave. Stewart left the series in 1988 and was replaced by Don Morrow. Jim's son Sean Perry worked as a production assistant for most of its run prior to becoming a successful TV producer in the 1990s.

The original 1970s version which aired on NBC was hosted first by Jack Kelly from 1969 to 1971, followed by Joe Garagiola until its cancellation in 1973. This version was produced by Jones-Howard Productions, whom Reg Grundy acquired the rights to produce $ale in Australia.

In the UK, the original Anglia series was presented by Nicholas Parsons from Norwich (perhaps best remembered for the introductory credit voice-over from John Benson: "From Norwich ... it's the quiz of the week!" This caused a good deal of amusement, since Norwich was not considered a very exciting place). The less-well-known 1989 Sky and the Challenge versions were presented by Peter Marshall (not the Hollywood Squares host) and Keith Chegwin respectively.

In New Zealand, the host of the show was ex-radio DJ Steve Parr (assisted first by Judith "Jude" Dobson (née Kirk) and then later by Julie White after the show switched networks). The show ran on TVNZ and later, TV3, from 1987 to 1993. Grant Walker was the announcer.

The hosts for the German version (Hopp Oder Top) included Andreas Similia, Thomy Aigner and Hermann Toelcke, and has run on Tele 5 from 1990 to 1992 and a few months in 1993 on DSF. A selection of the old shows was repeated from 1996 to 1999 on tm3 five times.

As of 2004, India has had a version of Sale called Super Sale, hosted by Sajid Khan, for the Star One channel.


Slot machine
As with many American game shows of past and present, a slot machine based on and named for $ale of the Century has been manufactured for use in American casinos. The image and voice of Joe Garigiola are featured in the machine, which has had modest success — far less than machines based on Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and The Price is Right, perhaps because most fans associate Jim Perry with $ale instead of Garagiola.