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Published on Tuesday, 19 June 2012 10:36
Comcast SportsNet Chicago's new baseball trivia game show, "The Batter's Box" will make its debut on July 1st, one week from Sunday. The show will pit 16 contestants -- eight Cubs fans and eight White Sox fans -- against each other in a trivia contest, where one person will walk away with prize of a "Game Day Experience of a Lifetime."
"The Batter's Box," which was
first mentioned on this website over a month ago, will be hosted by CSN Chicago's own Luke Stuckmeyer. Starting July 1st, new episodes of the game show will air every Sunday for 15 consecutive weeks, until a single winner is left standing, which will occur on Sunday, October 7th.
The 16 contestants have already been selected, taken largely from a two-day "casting call" last month.
The rules of the game show are fairly simple. Contestants will be given multiple choice questions about baseball trivia, mostly about their favorite team. They can select the difficulty of the questions by choosing a "Single" (easy question), a "Double" (more challenging), a "Triple" (a very hard question), or a "Home Run" (an extremely hard question). A correct answer will advance their "runners" around the bases, based on the questions' difficulty. The player with the most "runs" at the end of three innings wins and then advances to the next round.
The final winner will receive a grand prize, which is being described as the ultimate "Game Day Experience of a Lifetime." That prize package includes a luxury suite for the winner & their guests at either U.S. Cellular Field or Wrigley Field for a to-be-determined game in 2013, along with a visit to the broadcast booth to the meet the announcers, a visit to the CSN production truck, the opportunity to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at that game, and much more.
In addition to one of the 16 contestants winning, some at-home viewers will also be winners of prizes by playing along on the
CSNChicago.com website. After the show airs each week, a trivia question will be posted up online. Out of the winning entries to those questions, one winner will be selected at random weekly.
Greg Bowman, Vice President of Programming for Comcast SportsNet Chicago, said in a statement yesterday: "'The Batter's Box' is the first show of its kind in Chicago to pit passionate and knowledgeable White Sox and Cubs fans against each other in a fun, competitive baseball trivia game show. This is truly a unique, local, original programming venture for us that definitely caters to both old and new Chicago baseball fans. Plus, viewers at home will also enjoy playing along to see how much they know about these two historic baseball franchises."
"The Batter's Box" is being produced by Comcast SportsNet, along with StarPilot Productions, a Boston-based multimedia company. StarPilot Productions has already shot two seasons of a Boston version of "The Batter's Box" for the New England Sports Network (NESN) and is working on a third season now. The fun trivia show has worked well out east and is now looking to expand to the Midwest.
"The Batter's Box" will premiere on July 1st at 5:00pm. However, that time could be pushed back, as it is scheduled to follow a Chicago Cubs game broadcast and the "Cubs Post Game Live" programming.
The following is the tentative schedule for the first run episodes of "The Batter's Box." As it is with the debut show, many of these times are approximate, due to the local sports network's airing of White Sox & Cubs game broadcasts. Also shown are the names of the contestants for the contest.
FIRST ROUND:
Sunday, July 1 at 5:00pm (Cubs round) -- Brian Bosley vs. Will Cook
Sunday, July 8 at 3:30pm (White Sox round) -- Mike Medley vs. Ned Mulka
Sunday, July 15 at 4:30pm (Cubs round) -- Kristin Lee vs. Beau Thalheimer
Sunday, July 22 at 3:30pm (White Sox round) -- Milo Berrera vs. Patrick O'Malley
Sunday, July 29 at 9:30pm (Cubs round) -- Monty Childs vs. David Sellars
Sunday, Aug. 5 at 4:30pm (White Sox round) -- Julie Farby vs. Tony Paink
Sunday, Aug. 12 at 4:30pm (Cubs round) -- John Dooley vs. Anthony Hoffman
Sunday, Aug. 19 at 4:30pm (White Sox round) -- Antonio Barrentez vs. Tom Pauly
QUARTERFINALS:
Sunday, Aug. 26 at 4:00pm (Cubs quarterfinals, contestants TBD)
Sunday, Sept. 2 at 4:00pm (White Sox quarterfinals, contestants TBD)
Sunday, Sept. 9 at 6:00pm (Cubs quarterfinals, contestants TBD)
Sunday, Sept. 16 at 4:30pm (White Sox quarterfinals, contestants TBD)
SEMIFINALS:
Sunday, Sept. 23 at 7:30pm (Cubs semifinals, contestants TBD)
Sunday, Sept. 30 at 4:30pm (White Sox semifinals, contestants TBD)
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:
Sunday, Oct. 7 at 7:30pm (White Sox champion vs. Cubs champion, contestants TBD)
Along with the first run episodes on Sunday afternoon/evenings, additional replays of that new "Batter's Box" episode will be shown at various times throughout that week. Visit
TV Listings page on Comcast SportsNet Chicago's website for more information.
