Inside the Box

Canadian Game Show that ran from 2006-07, essentially a televised game of 20 Questions surrounding television. One of three contestants (who is henceforth the one inside the box, a giant booth shaped like a television) had two minutes to ask yes/no questions to the two other contestants (who are henceforth the ones who are outside the box) to try and narrow down and correctly guess the mystery subject (which would usually be an actor, character, or series).

If answered correctly, the player's remaining time was converted into points (well, not quite, as scores were expressed in minutes and seconds). If not, the contestant got a 5-second penalty to their score and could try again after asking more questions. Penalties were also given for the answerers giving incorrect responses. A free guess, along with a clue, was awarded after every five "yes" responses.

All three players got two turns inside the box, and high score after two rounds got to play the Bonus Round for $10,000.

The show ran for two seasons on general entertainment/pop culture channel TVtropolis (along with reruns on E!!, then an over-the-air system in Canada), and got offered up by American distributor Program Partners in mid-2008 to replace some game that was inferior by comparison.

Game Show Tropes in use:

 * Bonus Round: 60 seconds to guess another clue, much like the main game, but this time the contestant directs questions to the host and there's a maximum of three guesses. Additionally, the clock doesn't pause for clues. Get it right and win whatever's left in the pot, starting at $10,000 and going down by $500 every few seconds.
 * Consolation Prize: $500 for losing the bonus round.
 * Personnel:
 * Game Show Host: Sam Kalilieh.

This show provides examples of:

 * No Budget: Boasted a $10,000 prize that dwindled all the way down to $500. To be fair, $10,000 is a relatively decent payout for a Canadian cable show and Inside the Box at least had a guaranteed minimum prize, unlike Crosswords (which it replaced in some American markets for the 2008-09 season).