Family Game Night (TV series)

Family Game Night is a television series based on Hasbro's family of board games and EA's video game franchise of the same name. The show is hosted by Todd Newton. Burton Richardson announced for the first two seasons, until he was replaced by Stacey J. Aswad for the third season, and then Andrew Kishino beginning in the fourth season. The 60-minute program debuted on October 10, 2010 on the new channel, Hub Network, formerly Discovery Kids; it was previewed on October 9, 2010 on its sister channel, TLC. Each season will contain 30 episodes. Season two premiered on Friday, September 2, 2011, and new games were added. The games added to the second season included Cranium Brain Breaks (which replaced Guess Who? as the opening toss-up game), Green Scream, Ratuki Go-Round, Simon Flash, Operation Sam Dunk, Trouble Pop Quiz, and Spelling Bee.

On June 19, 2012 Family Game Night was renewed for a third season by The Hub, which premiered on September 23, 2012.

On July 9, 2012, it was announced that Family Game Night was one of four original series from The Hub that won the CINE Golden Eagle Award for high quality production and storytelling.

The show's fifth season premiered on August 3, 2014 and added a new feature in which a celebrity plays to win cash and prizes for the audience members that they team up with, as well as their favorite charities.

Gameplay
For the first two seasons, the TV show featured two families of four competing for cash and prizes. Each family consisted of the mother, the father, and two children, ages 8 to 18. Teams are usually named for the younger of the two kids (i.e. Willie's Family or Suzie's Family).

Teams earned "Monopoly Crazy Cash Cards" by playing the various games, normally five of them in each episode. Whenever a family won a game, the youngest child was allowed to select a Monopoly Crazy Cash Card from a rack located at the "Crazy Cash Corner" on the far left of the stage. The rack initially held 21 different cards, each depicting one of the tokens used in either the original "Monopoly" board game or the "Monopoly: Here And Now Edition" board game. Each card held a different randomized amount of money, which was revealed at the end of the show. Most of the cards were valued between $200–$995 in $5 increments, although at least one card held a four-figure amount (usually between $1,000–$7,000) and one card was the "Top Cash Card" worth between $7,500–$25,000 (announced at the beginning of the game and referred to throughout the episode).

In addition to the Cash Card, a family that won a game also received a special bonus prize which they kept regardless of the final outcome of the show. In the first season of the show, this prize was simply revealed by host Newton, but in the second season, each bonus prize was a "Monopoly Party Prize" revealed by announcer Burton. At the end of the show, both families took their accumulated cards to the "Crazy Cash Machine". Each card was placed into the Machine, revealing its value, at which point the machine would spit out the amount in oversized Monopoly Money bills. Both families kept all the cash and prizes they won during the game, and the family with the most cash at the end also won a family vacation. If the "Top Cash Card" was not found by the players, the host would usually tell the audience near the end of the show what card held it.

In season 3, the format of the show was changed slightly. Instead of two families competing for the whole show, families of varying sizes (two to four members) were chosen from the studio audience to play the games, winning cash or prizes. Instead of earning Monopoly Cash Cards, teams compete for the right to take combination codes from the Mr. Monopoly statue's hand. After four games are played, the families attempt to use these cards to open the Community Chest. If they pick the winning combination, they win money and get a chance to play for more money and a grand prize of a brand-new car.

The final game is the "Crazy Cash Machine" where the child selects from a board of 16 Monopoly Cash Cards starting from the bottom row. Each row above it has one more "Go to Jail" card than the previous one (meaning there are none on the bottom row, one in the second row, two in the third row and three on the top row). The one winning card on the top row has the word "WIN" instead of a cash amount. If a "Go to Jail" card is selected, the game is over; however, the family may keep the money they earned up to that point. If they make it to the top row and select the WIN card, they win a new car in addition to the money accumulated.