Game Show

It was not their dream to pick a nose on national television, but four students from Jenkintown Junior High School have done just that. On Feb. 22 and April 26, Super Sloppy Double Dare will feature Jenkintown students Becky Seweryn, Jason Maas, Ryan Totaro and Elise Richards as contestants in the nationally syndicated children's game show that combines a food-fight mentality with an obstacle course and trivia questions. During competition against students from Roosevelt Middle School of Levittown, the Jenkintown students had the, um, pleasure of reaching into a huge fake nose filled with green slime of questionable content.

Madonna is getting her own game show. NBC has shot a pilot for the long-in-development Truth or Dare, based less on her 1991 concert documentary than on the adult parlor game. A risque, Madonna-produced game show doesn't seem much of a stretch for the network that is having the contestants on Fear Factor (Mondays at 8 p.m.) confront their fears of public nudity. NBC also is planning to revive Let's Make a Deal. Expect both game shows to premiere this summer. Royal doings Prince Charles has taken his longtime companion, Camilla Parker Bowles, to his grandmother's favorite church, the first time he is believed to have done so. The visit appeared to be another step forward in the couple's increasingly public relationship.

More than 30 years after it first arrived on TV, Hollywood Squares is making a comeback. The show, which began airing last night on Channel 3, will follow the familiar format of contestants playing tick-tack-toe as they try to figure out whether celebrities are giving them the correct answer to trivia questions, or whether they are lying through their teeth. To celebrate America's facination with game shows (there's even an entire cable TV channel dedicated to game shows!) join us for game trivia and see how much you know about game shows' kooky past.

Unsure if you'd rather try out for a TV game show or a singing competition? You're in luck this weekend. On Saturday, NBC is hosting an open casting call for an upcoming progam tentatively titled, The Winner Is..., with dueling singers. Before hearing the judges' verdict, the contestants will decide whether to bow out in exchange for cash, or risk remaining in the competition for a shot at a $1 million prize. Individuals and groups of all ages who sing any style of music - from country to opera to hip-hop - are welcome to audition at the Trocadero Theatre, 1003 Arch St., from 9 a.m. to 3 p..m.

Fox has raised the stakes in the network TV ratings race, betting on a prime-time game show with a $2 million top prize. They have bought six episodes of the show, called "Greed," but the real question is whether Dick Clark Productions can get it on the air in time for November's sweeps rating period. Fox is offering twice the bounty of ABC's returning prime-time brain-teaser, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which begins its second two-week run on Nov. 7. The Fox move Monday also raises the bar for NBC and CBS, both of which are ironing out plans to revive vintage game shows for prime-time play.

It was not their dream to pick a nose on national television, but four students from Jenkintown Junior High School have done just that. On Feb. 22 and April 26, Super Sloppy Double Dare will feature Jenkintown students Becky Seweryn, Jason Maas, Ryan Totaro and Elise Richards as contestants in the nationally syndicated children's game show that combines a food-fight mentality with an obstacle course and trivia questions. During competition against students from Roosevelt Middle School of Levittown, the Jenkintown students had the, um, pleasure of reaching into a huge fake nose filled with green slime of questionable content.

The phrase "bank vault" will be etched in Willie F. Brown's memory forever. Brown, of the LaMott section of Cheltenham, could not guess that phrase during the final round of a taping of the Wheel of Fortune Thursday, and it cost him $25,000. "That was the toughest puzzle of the night," Brown said after the show, which was taped at the Radio City Music Hall. "I won some of Merv Griffin's money, but it would have been nice to win some more. " Brown, 39, was one of 30 contestants who competed on the popular game show during two days of live taping last week.

It isn't the barbecued rat feast that got to me, although I am grateful to the all-purpose food critic who declared, "It tastes like chicken. " Thanks for the tip. Nor am I hooked by the suspense of finding out who gets booted off the island each Wednesday. It doesn't take a psych major or a video editor to make a good guess about who'll get voted out of the tribe next. For that matter it isn't even the competitive setup, smarmy as it is, that has me hooked on Survivor. I mean, check the rules of this "game show": Each of the 16 participants is supposed to prove devotion to the well-being of the tribe in order to win the entire million bucks for his or herself?

Imagine a junior high school version of "College Bowl" mixed with elements of "Beat the Clock. " Throw in a few wifty Rube Goldberg-ish contraptions and great vats of mud-puddle mess. Now you've kinda got the formula for "Double Dare," the fresh and frisky kid-vid game show debuting today and continuing weekdays at 5 p.m. on Channel 17 (WPHL). While it's brand-new to over-the-air TV, young cable viewers by the droves have been tuning in to "Double Dare" for the past two years on the Nickelodeon channel.

"Do you want my poet's name, my tap-dance name, or my holistic health name?" Next. "I was so afraid of acting that I went into it. I like being noticed. I like talking to people. " Next. "I have a Chips Ahoy commercial running right now. It took me 42 takes to eat that cookie. They kept saying, 'Run!' and 'Cut!' and 'You've got to savor the product!' " "I'm with Look Models. And I'm a Pisces. " Next. Next. Next! The producers of the soon-to-debut game show "Trump Card" - The Donald has lent his name and a casino - began auditioning yesterday for the Trump Card Girl, the feminine ornament destined to be game-show land's next Vanna White.

Joyce Brothers, 85, the pop psychologist who pioneered the television advice show in the 1950s and enjoyed a long and prolific career as a syndicated columnist, author, and television and film personality, died Monday of respiratory failure in New York. Dr. Brothers first gained fame on a game show and went on to publish 15 books and make cameo appearances on popular shows including Happy Days and The Simpsons . She visited Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show nearly 100 times.

Dancers swirled to an ever-faster drumbeat. "Condom Man" tumbled into a skit. "Slutty Girl" sat on a guy's lap, while "Snob" turned up her nose. The humor on display Thursday morning at Rowan University, at a "summit" of hundreds of high school students from across Gloucester County had a serious purpose. It was intended to empower them to deal with issues that can vex people their age: bullying, homophobia, HIV, peer pressure. "I want them to realize they're not the only ones dealing with it," said Renee Richardson, 50, an art teacher at West Deptford High School who brought 28 of her students.

Lost at Sea The Jon Ronson Mysteries By Jon Ronson Riverhead Books. 416 pp. $26.95   Jon Ronson is enormously likable. And though likability is not a quality necessary to successful journalism, for the kind of writing he does, it really helps. A practitioner - possibly a pioneer - of a certain "Well, I'll be damned" style of reporting, Ronson investigates oddities amid the everyday and shows us how weird a place the world truly is. In his first major book, the provocative and charming Them: Adventures With Extremists , he investigated the belief held by some that the world is controlled by a small group of people, a "shadowy elite" made up of Christian fundamentalists, or members of the British Parliament, or something.

Unsure if you'd rather try out for a TV game show or a singing competition? You're in luck this weekend. On Saturday, NBC is hosting an open casting call for an upcoming progam tentatively titled, The Winner Is..., with dueling singers. Before hearing the judges' verdict, the contestants will decide whether to bow out in exchange for cash, or risk remaining in the competition for a shot at a $1 million prize. Individuals and groups of all ages who sing any style of music - from country to opera to hip-hop - are welcome to audition at the Trocadero Theatre, 1003 Arch St., from 9 a.m. to 3 p..m.

The TV reality-show machine is again visiting the area in search of talented contestants. America's Top Model will hold a casting call in Wyncote on Friday (women only), and another in Harrisburg on Monday, Dec. 18 (men and women). The Winner Is ... , a new NBC game show, will look for versatile singers in Philadelphia on Saturday, Dec. 15. As for other upcoming TV opportunties, a little traveling will be needed. A new CBS baking show will host tryouts in New York on Dec. 15, while America's Got Talent 's tour won't be closer than Raleigh, N.C., Dec. 15, and Norfolk, Va., Dec. 16, until its New York stop at a date still to be determined.

WE'LL TAKE "CARDIOLOGY" for $800. Longtime "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek had a mild heart attack Saturday and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Paula Askanas, a spokeswoman for Sony Television, which distributes the popular game show, said Sunday that Trebek is expected to make a full recovery and return to "Jeopardy!" when the show resumes production in July. While he was in the hospital on Saturday, "Jeopardy!" won a Daytime Emmy award for best game show.

Sheryl Crow, who's previously suffered from breast cancer, has a brain tumor. The good news is the tumor is benign. In an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, Sheryl, 50, said her memory had gotten so bad, she had an MRI done. She got the news about the tumor, a typically benign meningioma, last November, but has kept quiet about it. According to People magazine, the tumor should not require surgery. World to end during sweeps? We already have "Survivor.

ARLINGTON, Texas - When the scoreboard stopped flashing, when the smoke cleared, when the Texas Rangers' pitchers wobbled into the clubhouse to receive stitches, Albert Pujols finally dropped his bat. Pujols' work was done for the night. He stopped hitting home runs, stopped making history, and graciously walked out of Rangers Ballpark without destroying what was left of the place. In the Cardinals' 16-7 victory in Game 3 on Saturday, Pujols shocked and awed the Rangers with what qualifies as the greatest offensive performance by a hitter in World Series history.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (3 p.m., NBC10) - Actress Julianna Margulies; actor Kevin Nealon. NCIS (8 p.m., CBS3) - A controversial radio shock jock and a naval officer are killed on the air. It's Worth What? (8 p.m., NBC10) - Jevin and LaTasha Smith, a husband and wife from Los Angeles, attempt to win the top prize of $1 million in this new episode of the game show. Pretty Little Liars (8 p.m., FAM) - A surprise visit from her father before a big swim meet is the last straw for Emily (Shay Mitchell)

LAS VEGAS - The Bold and the Beautiful won drama series honors for the third consecutive year at the Daytime Emmys on Sunday night in a bittersweet ceremony that marked the impending daytime departures of two veteran soap operas along with Regis Philbin and talk show queen Oprah Winfrey. Executive producer Bradley Bell accepted the trophy, saying, "It's over the top. We're so grateful. " Bell saluted his late father William Bell, who created The Young and the Restless and gave the younger Bell his start in the business.