Gamehelpthenetworksprimetime

Reading the interface

Your table

• Market (top): Shows, Stars, Ads and Network cards you can take, with deck counts. With Telly Time, the pass board sits above it.
• Your area: green room (Stars, Ads, Network cards and Moguls you own) on the left, your player board in the middle, your lineup on the right.
• Opponents: use the tabs to view another player's area. Everything in a lineup and in reruns is public.
• Scoreboard: round scores, then endgame scores (Genres, Reruns, Network/Moguls/Executives, Cash). Use the arrow to switch pages.

Tooltips

• Hover over any card (or long-press it on mobile) to read everything printed on it in words.
• Hover or long-press the Actions and Round End areas of your player board for the printed reference.
• With Executives, hover or long-press your board for your Executive's abilities and drawbacks.
• With Telly Time, hover or long-press your genre grid for how it works.
• On mobile, tap anywhere else to close a tooltip.

Forecast

• Above your lineup: Forecast shows the viewers and upkeep you would get if the round ended now (before Quiz purchases and round-end choices).
• Beside each Show: a badge with that Show's viewers and upkeep this round.
• On your player board: a cube on the Round Scoring Track marks the same forecast total (past 50 it laps around and shows +50).

Choices and confirmations

• When you must choose (a genre bonus, a Network card's effect, a Mogul, a grid line...), the choice appears in a strip at the top of the table. The rest of the table stays visible.
• Cards and Shows you can't use for the current action are dimmed; valid targets stay bright.
• Most actions ask you to confirm in the status bar, with a short countdown. Change this in the game preferences under Action confirmation delay (0, 3, 5 or 10 seconds, or Off).
• At round end, the game may wait for a player to make a round-end choice (for example Surpriser) before scoring continues.

How to read the cards

Shows

1. Genre: producing the Show advances you on this genre track.
2. Expenses: paid every round at upkeep.
3. Preferred timeslot: sun = daytime, sunset = primetime, moon = late night.
4. Viewers by season: scored each round. The marker moves down one row per round, and the Show is canceled when it runs off the bottom.
5. The X: outside its preferred timeslot, the Show starts on this row instead.
6. Production cost.
7. Attachment slots: coloured = required, grey = optional. A half Star/half Ad slot takes either.
8. Rerun viewers: scored at game end once the Show has been canceled.

Stars

1. Signing cost.
2. Expenses: paid every round at upkeep (if shown).
3. Viewers by season: when attached upright.
4. Rotated values (upside down): used when the Star is attached rotated.
5. Condition: if met, the Star stays upright; otherwise it is rotated. Some Stars have an effect on a black strip instead.

Ads

1. Signing bonus: gained when you sign the Ad.
2. Income: gained every round at upkeep.
3. Rotated income: when the Ad is attached rotated.
4. Condition: if met, the Ad stays upright; otherwise it is rotated. Promos instead let you pay to keep them upright.

Network cards

1. Timing: ! Immediate (resolves when taken), 1x Use once, ∞ Ongoing, eye = Game end.
2. The effect, in icons.
3. The effect, in words.

Expansion notes

Telly Time: the genre grid

• Producing a Show covers its genre's space on your grid, once per genre. There is no genre track.
• Completing a row, column or diagonal gives the bonus printed at its end: draw cards and keep one, as with a genre bonus.
• With Moguls, your 2nd completed line draws Moguls instead of its printed bonus.
• When you pass: $1M for each empty space. At round end: 1 viewer for each covered space.
• The Show space on the grid is your Weekend timeslot.

Writeoff (Network card)

• Writeoff cancels your lowest-scoring Show and pays $1M per viewer it would have scored this round, counting its attached Stars and effects.
• If one Show is lowest, you just confirm. If several are tied, choose which one to cancel.