Scrabble (game show) wild card contestants competed in semifinal matches on Monday through Thursday. The four winners advanced to the final matches that Friday, with a grand prize of $100,000 for the winner. With slight adjusting, this tournament format became the new permanent "Scrabble" format on December 29, 1986. As noted above, each episode now featured four contestants and two Crossword games worth $500 each. The champion played in the first Crossword, whose winner set a Sprint time for the second winner to beat, and the Sprint winner received $1,000 and took or retained the championship. With this format change, "Scrabble" became a
Scrabble Showdown and with 30 seconds on the clock the parent yells out a three letter word that can be formed by the five letters in the board. The child must maneuver the letter screens in the track so the three letter word appears at the bottom of the game board. The team scores one point for each word they make and the opponents then try to beat that score. There are a handful of episodes in which "Scrabble Flash" is played first and the minigames are played in rounds 2 and 3 but for most episodes, Round 3 is always "Scrabble