two contestants fought against each other in the main game—the returning champion and a challenging contestant. the returning champion was represented by the color red. the challenger was represented by the color blue. the host, jim perry, then asked a toss-up question, which was asked to 100 people before the show (example: "we surveyed 100 lawyers: have you ever defended a person who you believed was guilty? how many lawyers said they have?"). the contestant he asked it to would provide what they thought the number of people who gave the answer the host gave. the other contestant would then say whether they thought the actual number was higher or lower than the first contestant's guess. whoever is closer to the number got a chance at the cards.