The Main Event

Host
Larry Emdur
Announcers
Don Blake Niel Chantler
Broadcast
Seven Network: 1990–1992
Packager
Leisuretime Media

The Main Event was hosted by Larry Emdur from 1990 to 1992. It was produced by the Seven Network.

The show consisted of two teams of three celebrities playing in the studio for a team at home that were also linked into the show by satellite and could answer certain questions.

Gameplay

Two teams (one red and one yellow), each consisting of three celebrities in the studio and up to four family members at home, competed against each other to earn points. The team with the highest point score won the game and a brand new car.

The game was played in six rounds.

The First Four Rounds

These were made up of several different mini-games that were presented in various playing orders. The number of points available in that round was announced at the beginning of it.

What Do You Know?

This round consisted of questions including:

Name That Tune – A song was played in the background of a music video specially made for the show. The contents of the video were also clues to the song’s title. Guessing the title of the song earned 10 points.
Odd One Out – Five items were listed. Four of the items had something in common and one did not. Guessing the one that did not belong earned 10 points.
Who Am I – A video was played featuring progressively older photographs and progressively larger descriptive clues given to the identity of a famous person. Guessing the identity of the person earned 10 points.
Name That Film – A film clip was played featuring progressively larger descriptive clues given to the title of a movie. The team that guessed the title of the film earned 10 points.

Then the home contestants would be asked a question with a multiple choice answer. A film clip and descriptive clue was played. A question and three answer choices about the subject of the clip was asked to the home contestants. The family could confer but only the captain could buzz in and give the answer. The first family to buzz in and answer correctly earned 20 points. An incorrect answer gaves the opposing family a chance to answer from the remaining choices. There was no penalty for an incorrect answer.

Picture This

A board of six numbers would be displayed. Behind each number was a picture relating to an overall theme of the board. Each member of each team, alternating one at a time, would choose a number. The picture containing part of a subject was revealed. A correct identification was worth 10 points. There was no penalty for an incorrect guess. Team members could confer with each other, but only the controlling player could guess.

Celebrity Round

This round was played one team at a time in three parts.

Part 1: Who Lives Here?

A camera would be invited into a celebrity's home and shown footage of inside as well as things they like doing; at the end of the footage they had to guess who it was. Then the home team would be asked if they had a better answer than the celebrities. If the identity was correct, the team earned 20 points. However, if the home team gave a different identity, and it was correct, the team earned 40 points. Again, there was no penalty for a wrong guess.

Part 2: Under the Spotlight

The now revealed celebrity would be asked a bunch of questions but the team would only hear the answers. The celebrities had 30 seconds to remember five of the responses mentioned in the video and try to match them to the questions asked. The questions were asked one at a time, and the team could pass if they couldn't give an answer. If five responses were correctly matched, the team earned 20 points. The team had to match all five responses in order to earn the points.

Part 3: Would You Believe…

The home team would be given a true or false question about the celebrity from himself/herself. A correct response earned the team 20 points, with no penalty for an incorrect response.

Who Is This

This round consisted of celebrities who had been pixelated being guessed by the home teams by hitting their buzzers. As the clues got larger, the picture would be slowly restored. The first member of the first team to buzz in and answer correctly earned 10 points. The first two identities were played by the adults and the third was played by the children. The winner of the third identity also won a special prize related to it.

What Happens Next?

The celebrities were shown a video that was stopped at a specified point. Both teams were then given three choices to predict what happens next in the video. The first team to buzz in made a selection, and then the opposing team made a selection from the remaining two choices. The team with the correct selection earned 20 points. Once again, there was no penalty for an incorrect selection.

Round 5: Observation

This round was played one team at a time. The celebrities on one team were shown a film clip from a movie or television series. A question was asked to one of the celebrity teammates about something that occurred in the clip. The celebrities couldn't confer with each other in this round. After the team member responded, a portion of the clip was repeated revealing the answer. A correct answer earned 20 points. However, an incorrect answer deducted 20 points from the team’s score. Each team member was asked a different question from left to right. Sometimes all questions would be asked by a special guest celebrity related to the film clip appearing in studio, or in a video.

The team with the highest score at the end of this round won a special luxury prize, theirs to keep, regardless of the outcome of the game.

Final Round: Championship Round

Just like the previous round, this round was played one team at a time. The leading home team would be given a choice between two possible topics that they would be quizzed on. Then play went to the other team who would be asked five questions in the other category in 45 seconds. A correct answer earned 20 points and an incorrect answer deducted 20 points. Then the home team that was leading in score played similarly with their chosen category. The leading team would play the round even if the trailing team failed to tie or surpass the leaders score.

The team with the highest score at the end of the round was declared the winner of the game and won the car. The losing team won a cash consolation prize.

Set Design

The in-studio set was designed by set designers Diaann Wajion and Phil McLaren as a theatre in the round in the shape of a two-level football stadium complete with cheerleaders and a jumbotron-style video screen.

Home Teams

Each celebrity team in the studio had a team at home that could play the game live via satellite with a buzzer at each home. During the show Larry would interact with the families showing abilities or quirky things about them. During the show, the car would arrive in their front yard with the winning team rushing out to it at the end of the episode.

UK Version

An equally short-lived British version aired on BBC One hosted by Chris Tarrant from 1 May (May 1) until 24 July (July 24) 1993. This featured several more (often unusual) mini-games.