Spit It Out (TV series)

Spit It Out
Genre	Game show
Presented by	Elliot Spencer
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	130
Production
Production location(s)	Melbourne, Victoria
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials)
Release
Original network	Seven Network
Picture format	576i (SDTV)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	4 October 2010 – 3 October 2011

Spit It Out is an Australian children-oriented game show hosted by Elliot Spencer. The series premiered on 4 October 2010, in an afternoon time-slot, replacing It's Academic after its series 12 finale. Spit it out was originally invented by Alan Curtis as a board Game. This game was then further developed by Grant Rule and Alan Curtis into a Television game show.

Format

Two school-based teams compete against each other in numerous word-related games. Each team has a clue leader, whom obtains the word given by the host. The leader tells the four other teammates to find the 'letter blocks' based on a clue. The team members then attempt to guess the word relating to the clue.

The series uses a round-robin format, meaning that each school competing has two chances to battle for the prizes. Elimination stages soon follow when the series finals draw near, which ultimately leads to one of the schools winning the major prize.

Unlike many other children's game shows which included Sydney-based schools and were produced in Sydney, this game show was the first in many years to include Victorian-based schools as well as being produced in Melbourne.

Rounds

Head to Head

Both team leaders are given a mystery word, which along with their team-mates use gigantic foam blocks and place them on the clue bank (similar to Boggle) with only giving a clue to the word, and the team captains must guess the actual word. Teams get one guess per clue and 3 points for each words solved correctly.

Frenzee

In series one, two team members from each school use an electronic touch-screen device with fourteen random letters (nine consonants and all five vowels) and aim to create more as many four to seven letter words in ninety (90) seconds. If there is an 's' in the set of letters no plurals are allowed and names of people and places are not allowed. Teams score one point for each word they create. In the quarterfinals, for every seven letter word the team spells out, two points are scored instead.

In series two, the format was similar with a few alterations. Instead of the option to create words four letters or more, teams must find a four letter word, a five letter word, then a six or seven letter word in that order and then the cycle repeats itself until time. This is done to prevent teams from quickly finding four letter words that rhyme with each other or are homonyms as well as to find more words that are six or seven letters long. One point is scored for every four letter word, two points for every five letter word, three points for every six letter word and five points for every seven letter word.

Every Second Counts

Both clue leaders are again given a mystery word and with their team-mates place blocks on the table. The team captains have an option on which time during the round they want to have a guess, and if they do not guess the right answer, they will be locked out of guessing and the team doesn't have to provide anymore clues. The time limit is two minutes long and the points start at three points and increase by three points for every thirty seconds elapsed (maximum of twelve points). The mystery word is always an adjective.

Head to Head: With A Twist

Follows the format of Head to head with the exception of multiple points, depending on the remaining time. The first mystery word is worth ten points, the second mystery word is worth twenty points, the third thirty, fourth forty and so on. The time limit as in the first round is three minutes. During the final stages of the round, Elliot will allow any team to put down a clue. This allows the trailing team to quickly put in clues as the leading team could purposely run the clock down and win the game.

If the scores are tied after four rounds, a golden word tiebreaker will occur. In this tiebreaker, only one mystery word is given to both team leaders and provide the clues like in Head to head. The first team to correctly solve this word will score one point and win the game. There is no time limit in this tiebreaker.

In one of the quarterfinal rounds on 22 December 2010, after four rounds, Albert Park (green team) and Canterbury (blue team) were tied at 53 points each. In the tiebreaker, after Canterbury provided the clue "MUSIK", Albert Park buzzed in and correctly guessed the mystery word, "SONG". As a result of this, Albert Park won 54-53 and a spot in the Friday final.

Series 1

Summary

When Albert Park versed St Kilda Park in the Friday final, Albert Park lost to St Kilda and the scores were 72-65. The four schools who will be in the Grand Final are Elwood, Port Melbourne, Bundoora and St Kilda.

Grand Final Week

On Monday, Port Melbourne lost to Bundoora. On Tuesday,St Kilda came from behind to defeat Elwood. On Wednesday, Elwood defeated Bundoora and were the first team to go to the Friday final. On Thursday, Port Melbourne had the lead after Frenzy, but lost the lead to St Kilda who correctly answered "FLUFFY" in Every Second Counts. However, in Head to head with a twist, St Kilda scored 20 points, but it was Port Melbourne who managed to guess "AVATAR" in the final seconds after the clues "BLUE", "MOVIE" and "PANDORA" for 30 points and managed to score 40 points and won the game and a place in the Friday final.

On Friday, after Head to head, Elwood scored 3 points while Port Melbourne scored 6 points. In the last few seconds of play, Port Melbourne avoided giving clues in order to run the clock down and paid off. In Frenzy, both teams scored 13 points each. In Every Second Counts, Elwood wanted to guess when nine points were on offer. However, Port Melbourne tactically buzzed in few seconds before nine points were on offer and correctly guessed "FIZZY" with the clues "SOFT DRK" and "SPRITE" scoring six points. In Head to head with a twist, despite Elwood made several guesses scored no points. Port Melbourne correctly guessed "PURSE" with the clue "WALLET" for ten points; "FRISBEE" with the clues "DISC", "THROW", "FLY", "SPIN" and "DOG"; and "INTERNET" with the clue "WEB" for thirty points.

After four rounds, Port Melbourne won the game and championship against Elwood 88-16.

Series 2

Summary

The second series started on 11 July 2011 after the conclusion of It's Academic. After a hectic Quarter-Final run-up, the four teams qualified in the Grand Final Week were: St Oliver Plunkett, Albion North, Yarrambat and Apollo Parkways. New Frenzee rules were introduced for the Grand Final Week, that the Frenzieeists must now create a Frenzee stack with 4, 5, 6 AND 7 words, and each worth only one point.

In day one of the grand final week, Yarrambat versed Apollo Parkways, Yarrambat won 53-21.

In day two of the grand final week, St Oliver Plunkett versed Albion North, St Oliver Plunkett won 75-24.

On the first two days all four teams still succeeded because of the round-robin reset.

In day three of the grand final week, Yarrambat was knocked out with a score of 101-27 to Albion North; And St Oliver Plunkett also lost to Apollo Parkways (81-63) in day four of the grand final week.

"64 games ago, we started with 32 schools, but after many mystery words and more clues, we are now down to just two schools. Make no mistake, they are both well deserved to be here this afternoon, where they will both play for the Spit It Out Grand Final Prize Package and of course, the sensationally shining Spit It Out Trophy!" - Elliot Spencer, Spit It Out Host at the start of the Spit It Out Grand Final Afternoon. These two teams were the Hard-Rock Albion North and the Book-won-do Apollo Parkways (who later fought back and won to a score of 84-17).

Grand Final Breakdown:

Round 1 Head To Head: Albion North solved three mystery words and earned 9 points to a total of 9 points. Apollo Parkways solved one mystery word and earned 3 points to total of 3 points.

Round 2 Frenzee: Albion North spelt 11 words but no reference was found for 3 of them so they earned 8 points to a total of 17 points. Apollo Parkways spelt 12 words so earned 12 points to a total of 15 points.

Round 3 Every Second Counts: With clues including 'too many' and 'busy', Apollo Parkways correctly solved the mystery word "crowded" earning themselves 9 points to a total of 24 points.

Round 4 Head to Head With a Twist: The hard-rock Albion North rocked their guesses into the game but didn't solve any mystery words so they ended with a total of 17 points, but the book-won-do Apollo Parkways had read their guessing books right and solved three mystery words, 'chain', 'artist', and 'spine' earning themselves 60 points and boosted to win with a total of 84 points.

Spencer, the schools and the crew waved goodbye as usual - and so did the clue cube stacks - like Spencer's everyday saying, "Bye for now, not for ever!" saying "BYE FOR NOW" on one and "NOT FOR EVA" on the other.

External links

• Website