Temptation South Africa is a South African incarnation of one of the world's longest-running game show formats.
Temptation South Africa aired on M-Net from Monday 25 September to Friday 3 November, 2006, on weekdays at 18h30. There are 30 half-hour episodes in the series.
Synopsis
Screened under the name Sale Of The Century since 1969, the format was repackaged in 2005 under the name Temptation for Australian television.
The show has broken many ratings records throughout its history and has been produced in seven countries around the world.
To date, the Australian version has delivered 4,605 episodes and more than 13,700 contestants have won over AUS$65-million in cash and prizes on the show.
The game show takes place over five nights of the week for a six-week period. Three contestants are asked general knowledge questions and go through several rounds accumulating money.
Each player is given a small amount of money with which to start the game. Players are asked a series of questions, but have to hit the buzzer first to answer them. A correct answer increases the player's score; an incorrect answer decreases it.
At certain points in the game, they will be offered luxury products - which they can purchase with the money that they would have accumulated. The products will be offered to them at low prices, creating the temptation.
Having the most money at the end of the show means being in the running to win bigger and better prizes the following day. If a player chooses to come back to the following show but does not win that show, they lose everything.
The contestants must decide whether to leave the show with the prize on offer, or be tempted to risk all for a bigger prize the following night.
A player may hit a winning streak, in which case they will play for a maximum of six days and may be declared a grand master and collect all the prizes on offer on all of the six shows.
Added to all the products, a cash prize of R1-million is on offer to one of the top three contestants of the series.
A new feature of Temptation is that once the contestant has agreed to play on the following night, they are also given an opportunity to build an additional cash prize to risk.
The largest jackpot ever won on the Australian version of the show was AUS$508,000.
The 26-part Temptation South Africa series was filmed on location in Johannesburg.
In the first season three contestants (Pamela Kahn, Theunis Strydom and Aidan Castille) won the fifth-night prize of a Mazda RX-8, while Theunis was the only one to go on and become Grand Master by winning on Night 6 as well.
Theunis also won the grand final, beating fellow finalists Brendon Allen and Aidan Castille to win a fully furnished home in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg worth more than R2-million.
Theunis won or 'purchased' the following prizes on the show, worth more than R2.5-million:
Tissot watch
Plasma TV
Kitchen appliances (including oven, microwave and refrigerator)
A luxury holiday
Mazda RX-8
Sony Playstation II
MP3 Hi-Fi
Fully furnished home with gym equipment to the value of R100,000
Cash: R178,000
Temptation South Africa gave away R1.7-million in prizes before the Grand Final. The R2-million home was the most expensive prize M-Net has ever given away.