Plot Synopsis

Three contestants answer trivia questions in a three-round competition against each other -- and host Ben Stein, a former Nixon speechwriter -- to win $5,000 of Stein's "own money." In the first round, the three contestants answer questions worth varying dollar amounts. The person with the least cash after the first round is eliminated, and Stein takes that person's place for the second round. During this round, they again answer questions of varying dollar amounts as the players try to answer correctly and accumulate cash while Stein tries to beat them to the buzzer and prevent them from winning additional money. At the end of the second round, the contestant with the least cash is sent home, while the person with the largest cash winnings goes head-to-head against Stein. In the final round, the contestant and Stein are placed in isolation booths and given one minute to answer the same 10 questions. If Stein answers more questions correctly, the contestant keeps his or her winnings from the first two rounds. If they tie, the competitor gets a $1,000 bonus in addition to the earlier winnings. But if the contestant can somehow answer more questions correctly than Stein, only then do they win the $5,000 grand prize. In reality, the contestants were trying to win Ben Stein's salary or bonus. At the end of the program, a disclaimer appears with the following text: "Ben Stein's Money is the prize budget furnished by the Producer. Ben Stein keeps the money in the prize budget not won by the contestants at the end of each production period. If during the production period the contestants' winnings exceed the prize budget, Producer pays overage." Stein was not listed among the Executive Producers and Producers, so he didn't have to take any money out of his own bank account when contestants won cash.