The program was one of five syndicated game shows to premiere in the fall of 1990 and had the longest run of the five due to its production schedule, but like the others it was not renewed for a second season.

If time ran out while Clark was reading a question, he would finish it and allow the contestants a chance to respond.

One final category was presented, with three question choices, each of which offered different payout odds of 1:1, 2:1, or 3:1 ranked by increasing difficulty.

The player in the lead after this round won the game and returned as champion the next day, although all contestants kept what they had earned.

Contestants could choose to receive their winnings in cash or have them deposited into a Citibank Visa account that would be opened in their name.

If only one contestant finished the second round with a positive total, he/she had the option to skip the Final Challenge.

Answering correctly, as before, won the value of the wager times the odds attached, and the contestant was given the choice to stop or continue playing.

The round was referred to as the Ultimate Challenge, and offered a prize of five figures to any champion who managed to beat it.

The series began with the jackpot at $55,000, since the round had been played on a special preview episode prior to its actual premiere and was not won.

Between then and November 20, when the original format was retired, the round was played a total of five times and won on four occasions.

Beginning on November 21, 1990, the Ultimate Challenge was reconfigured as a daily bonus round with $10,000 cash at stake.

The Ultimate Challenge was eventually done away with; while an exact date has yet to be determined, the round was retired sometime after the February 15, 1991, episode.

[3] For the first two months that The Challengers was on the air, contestants were not only competing to win money but were also trying to earn spots in the show's Tournament of Champions.

The Challengers invited nine more champions back for a tournament, which was held the week of March 18, 1991 and followed the same structure as the two previous ones.

Most of the current event questions and answers were taken from, or verified by, Newsweek; this was announced on-air at the midpoint of each episode.