Want to Win $100K on ‘Supermarket Sweep’? Better Brush Up on the Gameplay
Published Jan. 30 2022, 2:31 p.m. ET
ABC’s Supermarket Sweep is sweeping through its second season, with Episode 13 — titled “280 Pounds of Twisted Steel and Sex Appeal” — airing tonight, Sunday, Jan. 30, at 9 p.m. ET.
That means three more teams of two have the chance to win a $100,000 jackpot — as well as the risk of incurring those pesky Supermarket Sweep penalties!
Hold up — penalties? Yes, we’ve already covered how to apply to be a contestant on the Leslie Jones-hosted game show, but would-be players need to know how to play the game. Never fear, shoppers! We’ve got the rundown below.
The Mini-Sweep kicks off the action.
At the start of each show, the contestants try to solve a riddle and identify a mystery product in exchange for $250 and 10 additional seconds on the clock for the Big Sweep. Unlike prior versions of Supermarket Sweep, however, contestants don’t just ring in with their guesses; they have to hunt down the product in the game show’s grocery-store set. The winning team gets $250 and 10 seconds on the clock.
The Question Round quizzes contestants’ culinary knowledge.
After the Mini-Sweep comes a meet-and-greet with the three teams and then the Question Round, in which the teams put their food knowledge to the test in hopes of getting even more Big Sweep time.
But this Question Round isn’t just a straightforward trivia game: Leslie grills the contestants in a variety of game formats. In “Logo Motion,” contestants try to guess a food product from elements of its logo. In “Stop Faking It,” they have to name which of three food products doesn’t actually exist. In “Leslie-moji,” they have to solve an emoji rebus. And in “Do You Speak Receipts,” they have to identify a food product by its vowel-less name. (And those are just three of the games!)
The Big Sweep has contestants racing for big money—and sometimes getting penalized!
Then comes the real fun! In The Big Sweep, contestants use the time they’ve earned to race around the store, sweeping products off the shelves and into their shopping carts in hopes of accruing the priciest cartload of the three teams. And special bonus items can boost those cart totals by hundreds of dollars.
There are rules, of course. According to Popsugar, teams can only take five of any one product, which prevents contestants from stockpiling big-ticket items like meat and over-the-counter drugs. Plus, only one contestant from each team can run around the store at a time during the Big Sweep.
Then come the penalties: Contestants will be dinged $25 for dropping items and not returning them to their proper place, Popsugar reports. And contestants also lose money for running into store displays or crew members!
The $100,000 Super Sweep is where the big money is.
Whoever wins the Big Sweep advances to the $100,000 Super Sweep. Leslie puts 90 seconds on the clock, and then the winning team tries to find the five products indicated by five clues. If they get only one of the five products, they win $5,000. If they get two, the prize is $10,000. With three, they take home $25,000. With four, they land $50,000. And if they find all five, they get all $100,000.
Good luck to all you Supermarket Sweep shoppers out there!