MUMBAI: Vh1, the unit of Viacom International Inc has teamed up with Entertainment Weekly challenging America to answer questions on the country's pop culture savvy with the new original series The World Series of Pop Culture. 
From the executive producer of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, The World Series of Pop Culture is the ultimate pop culture competition designed for teams to display their astounding range of knowledge about everything music, television and film.
The World Series of Pop Culture is executive produced by Michael Hirschhorn, Jim Ackerman and Matt Hanna of VH1 and Michael Davies for Embassy Row.
Hosted by NY1 news anchor Pat Kiernan, The World Series of Pop Culture is scheduled to premiere on Vh1 in the summer of 2006.
Through the show The World Series of Pop Culture, the search for the country's best pop culture gurus begins in March with regional qualifying competitions in five cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and New York.
From the audition, only 15 teams of three players each will be chosen to compete for The World Series of Pop Culture championship. The 16th and final team will be cast online at http://www.vh1.com, where budding contestants can attempt to qualify by taking Vh1's very own 'Pop Culture IQ Test'. Three of the top scorers from the online test will join forces and become the final 'wildcard' team in the tournament. 
All 16 teams will face off in New York City and compete in the biggest team trivia challenge.
Game Rules:Once the first category is revealed, the teams will have 30 seconds to deliberate before sending a teammate to the microphone to play for that entire category. The chosen players will each get one question per round, and each category will contain ten rounds of questions of increasing difficulty. Categories will run the gamut, being as broad as "Family TV" or as specific as "1980's Teen Comedy Films." 
Within a round, a player is eliminated if he or she answers the question incorrectly and his opponent answers his correctly. The first team to beat its opponents in three categories, and eliminate all their players, will win and move on to the next round. In the very end, one team will be crowned the champions of The World Series of Pop Culture and receive $100,000 in cash and prizes. 
"This is truly a search for the best pop-culture heads in America," said Vh1 executive VP, original programming and production Michael Hirschorn. "What's really exciting about The World Series of Pop Culture is that it's tailor made for the emerging multiplatform universe. Viewers can do more than just watch. They can participate, and possibly even
win." 
"Entertainment Weekly's Pop Culture Quizzes have long been a favourite with our readers," said Entertainment Weekly VP editorial Development Fred Nelson. "We are delighted to partner with Vh1 and Embassy Row to engage America's passion for entertainment in a dynamic new format."
Will we see the import of The World Series of Pop Culture, in the similar fashion where Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has been customized to Indian environment in Star's KBC -Kaun Banega Crorepati. We need to wait and watch!