Host:Matt Vasgersian Sports Geniuses is Fox Sports Net's second game show. Host Matt Vasgersian (also known as the TV voice of the Milwaukee Brewers from 1996-2001, and of the San Diego Padres starting in 2002) leads three players in an admittedly Jeopardy! like format in a competition for big prizes.
In Round One, four humorously-titled categories are played, each with
questions ranging from 10 to 50 points, with no penalty for wrong
answers. Buzzing in with the correct answer earns the points and
control of the board. In addition, two questions are "Panasonic
Double Plays", so named because they offer video clues, and the player
who answers correctly can double the points by answering a follow-up
question.
After Round One comes the "thirty-second blitz." In this speed round, photos of athletes are shown along with the team they play for (or, for golfers, et al., their sport). Buzzing in with the correct name earns a player 30 points.
In Round Two, point values are doubled, and the point values are
deducted for wrong answers. There are no Double Plays, but two new
wrinkles are added: first, a sports celebrity stops by to read all
the questions from one category; secondly, the "shaft" is introduced.
The player in third place has control of the "shaft" (represented
as the shaft of a baseball bat) to start the
round, and may use it to force an opponent to answer any question
on the board. The "shaft" may be used until it is returned to a
player who previously used it.
The two highest-scoring players after Round Two move on to the final
face-off. A category with multiple possible answers (such as "Winning
World Series Teams, 1980-1999" or "Losing Coaches, Super Bowls X -
XXV") is read. A pot is started at 100 points and increases by ten
for each correct answer given, alternately, by the two players. An
incorrect answer awards the points to the last player to answer
correctly; if all answers are given, the points roll over to the
next question. Subsequent questions start with pots of 125 points,
150, and so on. Play continues until time runs out.
Geniuses ended its first season with an invitational tournament featuring some of their biggest winners; Daniel Katz was the overall champion, earning a new truck and trips to the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals.
Vasgersian was one of the play-by-play commentators for the fledgling XFL football league. Unfortunately, that stellar league kept him from doing a second season of Geniuses. Guerrero became a regular on Fox SPorts Net's Best Damn Sports Show Period and, in 2003, was named to replace Melissa Stark as sideline reporter for ABC's Monday Night Football.
Fox Sports attempted a new sports game show in 2001 called Million $$ Challenge, in which contestants competed in various sporting stunts, and one of them got to try a hard stunt at the end that could've been worth (with an extremely lucky spin of the wheel) up to a million bucks. It only lasted one episode, and has been their last such attempt as of this writing.