1 vs. 100 (American game show)

The game is played with the main contestant acting as "the One" answering questions against 100 other contestants collectively known as "the Mob". The Mob is generally made up of a mix of individual players and groups of players with a common background ("15 cheerleaders"; "10 banjo players"; etc.). The objective of the One is to be the last player standing, having eliminated all 100 members of the Mob from the game by correctly answering a series of general-knowledge questions. Starting with the sixth episode, a third option was added, the three helps were given names, and the One could choose any of the three at any point in the game. The helps were, in order: • Poll The Mob: Originally known as the first help, the One selects one of the three answers to get more information about. The number of Mob members who chose that answer is revealed, and the One chooses one of the revealed Mob members to discuss their response. After reaching a certain point in the game, the One can be given a "Sneak Peek", which allows them to see the next question (but not the three answers) before deciding whether or not to answer the next question. In season one, it was used when 90 or more members of the Mob have been eliminated; Payout structure Originally, the One was awarded a cumulative amount of money after each individual question for each Mob member eliminated; this amount increased with each question as the game went on. For example, if eight members of the Mob were eliminated on the second question, the One would win $500 per member, adding up to $4,000 to the total. and changed once again on the sixth episode in conjunction with introduction of the "Trust the Mob" help. In the second season and on the GSN version, the payout structure was simplified to award the One for every tenth Mob contestant eliminated. Most other rules from season 1 were intact, including the option to leave the game on questions three and five onwards. ==Production==

NBC The show first premiered on NBC as a five-episode series on October 13, 2006. On October 20, 2006, it was reported that NBC ordered ten additional episodes of 1 vs. 100, citing the show's encouraging ratings performance. The series returned to NBC's schedule with these new episodes on December 1, 2006. In July, NBC announced some fall scheduling updates that included 1 vs. 100s season two premiere being temporarily delayed. In late 2007, as a result of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, NBC announced that 1 vs. 100 would return as a winter replacement sometime in January, and the series debuted its second season on January 4, 2008, with a revamped new set and payout structure. • A Christmas special aired on December 25, 2006. Christmas-related questions were answered in this episode, while the Mob were dressed with members in character representing "The 12 Days of Christmas". • A kids edition was played on the February 2, 2007, episode in which the Mob consisted of entirely 100 children. The contestant lost $94,000 on a question ("What was a common feature (motto) relating to the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of the USA" – founder, motto or badge system; the correct answer was Motto; the contestant incorrectly answered badge system) and evenly split $18,800 to the last five (out of 20 remaining) children. • On February 9, 2007, a special entitled "Last Man Standing" was aired, featuring a Mob consisting largely of former top Mob members (Sister Rose and Annie Duke) and game show champions (such as Jeopardy! veterans Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire $1,000,000 winners Nancy Christy and Kevin Olmstead), competing for a $250,000 prize money. Several rules were modified: no helps were given, the questions had no monetary value, and the "1" was not allowed to leave the game at any point; if the contestant was incorrect, they were eliminated from further play and replaced with another Mob member. The "1" was randomly selected from the Mob and the gameplay was thus 1 vs. 99; Duke was chosen to play as the "1." The $250,000 went to entertainment lawyer and former actor Larry Zerner, who was the only Mob member among the five remaining contestants (including Duke and Jennings) to correctly answer the question (The question was "Who has been married the most times? – King Henry VIII, Larry King, or 'King of Pop', Michael Jackson; Zerner correctly answered Larry King, while the rest incorrectly answered King Henry VIII). • The season two premiere on January 4, 2008, was entitled "Battle of the Sexes," featuring a mob entirely of 100 members of the same gender, and the "1" was the opposite gender. This was also the first episode to use the revamped set and new payout ladder system. During this episode, the female contestant Katherine Kazorla played first, but lost $50,000 to the last of the 39 surviving male Mob members; the male contestant, Jason Luna, became the show's first (and only) contestant to beat all 100 female Mob members and won the $1,000,000 top prize (Luna's final question was "According to Hallmark, what is the biggest card-giving holiday of the year?" – Christmas, Valentine's Day or Mother's Day; Luna correctly answered Christmas while the last 15 female Mob members were incorrect). • On January 25, 2008, Chris Langan participated in a special titled "Smartest Man in America". He eliminated 80 Mob members and chose to walk away with $250,000. GSN repeats and revival Game Show Network (GSN) began airing reruns of the show on June 6, 2009. With the ratings success of those shows in reruns, GSN announced a casting call in August 2010, implying that the network would be producing new episodes. On October 13, 2010, GSN announced plans to premiere an original revival series, hosted by Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba. The initial order of 40 half-hour episodes began airing weekdays on November 15, 2010. leading to the show's cancellation. ==Reception==

The series quickly became a ratings success for NBC, with the debut episode earning 12,800,000 viewers and a 4.2/13 rating/share among adults 18–49. Brian Lowry of Variety added: "Endemol and NBC have managed the seemingly impossible — combining on a quiz/trivia show nearly as mentally undemanding as their no-skill-required hit Deal or No Deal the questions are so simple that amassing thousands isn't much harder than guessing which case to open." Ray Richmond argued that while the series' format is "not a terrible game", it was easier than it was promoted to be: "While the idea of having one contestant take on 100 people in a game of trivia skill sounds on paper like a hugely challenging undertaking, in truth it probably is 100 times less challenging than Who Wants to Be a Millionaire because 1) the questions tend to be far less brainy, and 2) the competition ain't all it is cracked up to be." Ed Bark, a former television critic at The Dallas Morning News, gave the series a "C-minus" grade, calling it "another NBC big-money game show that really should be titled Dumb or Super-Dumb. How else to gauge the candle power required to answer the show's opening question: 'The 2003 movie Seabiscuit featured what kind of animal?'" The New York Timess Alessandra Stanley opined, "the point of 1 vs 100 is different: knowledge is beside the point." ==Merchandise==

The success of the series inspired several home versions to be released. These included media home versions in the form of an interactive DVD game, a mobile app, a plug-and-play game, a version for the PC, a version for the Nintendo DS, and an interactive version for Xbox Live. Other home versions were a board game released by Pressman Toy Corporation, a card game published by Cardinal, and a 100-piece puzzle that formed a home version of the game once assembled. In November 2021, it was reported by multiple gaming news outlets that Microsoft and AltSpaceVR, a virtual reality platform owned by Microsoft, were developing a new 1 vs. 100 interactive video game for Xbox. In 2021, journalist Jeff Grubb stated that the game was in active development. As of 2025, no further updates have been released. ==References==