Chicago Sun-Times: No sleep for the weary on game show 'Cram'

Erika Bolin had been up all night, not allowed to sleep as tourists from the nearHollywood Walk of Fame stared at her. She and her team partner, Drew Droege, were confined to a glass cage, a small storefront room at the Hollywood and Highland shopping center.

There, she and her partner had to study books and magazines like crazy for 24 hours to succeed on the new game show "Cram." All the answers were buried somewhere in a ton of study materials.

"I loved it, I absolutely loved it," Bolin said.

"I had tried out for [the game show] 'Russian Roulette,' but on 'Russian Roulette,' you fall out [through a trap door] through the stage. I didn't like it." No, Bolin found out she preferred staying up 24 hours and then--sleep-deprived--being taken to a nearby Hollywood studio where she had to walk in a giant hamster wheel while telling everything she had read in a magazine article -- without digressing, pausing or any "ers" or "ums." Then came the tough part.

"Cram," airing at 7 weeknights on the Game Show Network, required Bolin and other contestants to do one physical task while answering questions on something completely unrelated.

The series airs every weeknight, and contestants compete in teams consisting of a man and a woman on each.

"Cram" is worth watching for being different from traditional game shows.

"The presidents with the hairstyles is pretty funny," host Graham Elwood said in a phone interview, referring to when the contestants had to pin the correct hair to the right president while answering questions. It's definitely the age of multitasking.

Later in each episode, a contestant has to pedal a stationary bicycle at 10 mph while his or her partner provides the punchlines to a bunch of jokes. If the contestant gets one wrong, the partner must pedal an additional 3 mph. A few wrong answers can literally leave a contestant breathless; preview tapes show people having to pedal at 19 mph.

And they still haven't slept.

After all that, the winning team get $1,000 and the chance to win another $10,000.

They go to bed and rest as the kind Miss Pickwick (Andrea Hutchman) reads them a bunch of random facts in a soothing voice. She even says, "You're getting sleepy." ... You know, Miss Pickwick is not so kind; this is no time to sleep.

When naptime is over, the contestants must get up and balance on a beam a few inches off the floor while answering questions about what Miss Pickwick just told them.

If they do well, they win $10,000, but Elwood starts over on each question if they touch the floor. And the clock is ticking.

Finally, after all that, they can sleep.

Scripps Howard News Service