Figure It Out

Nickelodeon Game Show that aired in the late 1990s. Hosted by former Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders, four panelists guessed the contestant's secret talent, ranging from collecting items to performing cool and unique stunts.

The panel was given three one-minute rounds to guess that talent in the form of asking yes-or-no questions; hints were given through props, charades, a giant game board called "Bill the Answer Head" (which listed the player's talent, with words revealed if the panel said them), and a "clue monitor" that would be read off before Rounds 2 and 3. The contestant received a nice prize for each round the panel was stumped, and a grand prize for stumping through Round 3.

But unlike I've Got a Secret and most other panel shows, Figure It Out added the Secret Slime Action, in which any panelists that performed it would be Covered in Gunge in true Nickelodeon fashion...although very rarely, there was no Secret Slime Action.

The show went Family Style in 1998, with families as the contestants. For the final season (1999), the show was altered again to Wild Style, with the abilities being limited to animal themes. Reruns then aired on Nickelodeon GAS until its disestablishment in 2007.

The show was revived in 2012, with Jeff Sutphen as host. The revival ran from June 11, 2012 to July 16, 2013.

Tropes used in Figure It Out include:

• Bonus Space: The Secret Slime Action, which awarded a prize to a member of the audience if at least one panelist was slimed by performing said action. Such actions included...
  • "Looking to your left", which is where some clues appeared (through a tunnel on a set of tracks); invariably, one clue in that round would be given in that method.
  • "Looking behind you", where part of the audience sat (and occasionally gave clues); again, one clue would invariably be presented that way.
  • "Being [name]", who would be slimed at some point during the round.
    • In at least one episode, "Being a panelist".^[1]
  • Having a certain color hair, or clothes.
  • "Thinking about [bizarre thing]", which was of course impossible to validate.
  • Saying certain words would sometimes come up.
  • One episode had the action be "sitting in front of The Dog Pound" (the name for the area behind the panel where the audience sat), ensuring that all the members of the panel were slimed.
• Covered in Gunge: The Nickelodeon staple, used in the Secret Slime Action. Also, some of the clues that were thrown at the panel.
• Home Game: One was released in 1998.
• Personnel:
  • The Announcer: Jeffrey "J" Dumas, who was only known by his initial.
  • Game Show Host: Summer Sanders.
  • Studio Audience
• Show the Folks At Home: The contestant's secret special talent.
• Prize Letdown: Inverted in Season 1, in that prizes for Round 1 involved sets from other Nickelodeon shows. Played straight with the other prizes that weren't the Grand Prize, though.

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This show provides examples of the following:

• Butt Monkey / The Chew Toy: Danny, natch. This explains why. To the point that everytime he felt he was on the verge of being covered in the stuff, he hammed it up or went along with Summer's urging to get slimed.
• Catch Phrase: Danny's over-the-top I DON'T KNOW!!
• A Day in the Limelight: As mentioned above, Summer and Lori Beth swapped roles for part of an episode.
• Follow the Leader: The format borrows elements from several panel games, but most closely resembles Ive Got a Secret.
• Foregone Victory: Some of the Secret Slime Actions, including such trivial things as "Sitting in your chair."
  • In one episode, the Secret Slime Action was "Being a panelist." This led to multiple slimings, including all four panelists being slimed at once.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Panelists were from other Nickelodeon shows. Standouts include Lori Beth Denberg, Amanda Bynes, Danny Tamberelli, Mike O'Malley, Moira "Mo" Quirk, Phil Moore, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Later episodes used guests from other shows, such as Colin Mochrie, Richard Simmons, pro wrestler Chris Jericho, singer Aaron Carter, and even Sherman Hemsley.
  • They would sometimes have Cousin Skeeter or CatDog up there, the latter being a Conspicuous CGI version.
• Oh Crap: An impending sliming was indicated by a loud alarm, which lead to panelists scrambling to put on their slime helmets before the slime came down. Often, the panelists were too late.
• Panel Show
• Shout-Out: Danny's catch phrase was "I don't know!" At one point, it was used as the Secret Slime Action. Danny kept his mouth shut once he started getting baited to say it.
• Spiritual Successor: As explained above, it's I've Got A Secret for kids. So close, it's probably why the Oxygen version didn't begin until after Nickelodeon had canned Figure it Out.
• X Meets Y: I've Got A Secret meets Nickelodeon.

1. ↑ Amusingly, in the second half of said episode, the Secret Slime Action was "Elbows on the table", which caught out all four panelists again.