Untitled Show 1

The Hourglass is an unsold quiz/game show pilot produced by BulletTime Entertainment in the early-mid 2000s. Hosted by ??? alum Wesley Morris.

All elements of the program would later be reused similarily in the NBC 2013 series The Million Second Quiz.

Format
The show takes place in a large "titular" hourglass-shaped structure.

Main Game
Two contestants, typically a returning champion and a challenger competing in a series of bouts.

Bouts
The game is played in up to three bouts. There are three bouts: the first bout (3 minutes or 180 seconds), the second bout (4 minutes or 240 seconds), and the third bout (6 minutes or 360 minutes). Questions start at one point each. Every 60 seconds (1 minute), the value of the questions increase by one point. Each bout lasts for a set number of seconds. The players cannot see each other's answers. They have a number of seconds to do so when the question is asked.

At any time, a contestant may choose to "double" instead of answering the question. If the contestant does so, the question's value is doubled, and the opponent has to either answer the question or "double back", which quadruples the point value and forces the person who the question was given to to answer. If a doubled or doubled-back contestant answers incorrectly or does not answer in five seconds, the opponent gets the points. Contestants can choose to double as often as they want during a bout. At the end of the 2 out of 3 bouts, the contestant with the higher score wins the game. Losing challengers received Ð1,000 as a consolation prize.

Bonus round: Big Bad Clock
Correctly answering all eight questions within 2 minutes won the top prize of Ð50,000.