The current game show is Cash Explosion Double Play and scratch-off players get a chance to get on the show by matching 3 "entry" symbols on their $1 Cash Explosion tickets. Eight "entry" tickets are drawn each week for an up-coming show. The winners are divided into 2 groups of 4 and take turns picking 3 of the 24 boxes that have 21 cash prizes from $1000 to $3200. The board has six columns (D O U B L E) and four rows (P L A Y). A light moves across the 6 columns like an electronic version of musical chairs. The players press a button that decides which column and then chooses one of the four squares and sometimes there are only 3, 2 or 1 square to choose from.
Two of the squares are "doublers" and if a player lands on that square, the game board is reset and the players chooses another square and that amount is doubled. If the second spin is the other doubler, they do it again and the amount is quadrupled. A player can win $12,800 on one turn. One square is an automatic $25,000 winner with a prize amount behind that for game play.
After 3 turns, the player with most cash (excluding the auto $25K) moves on to the next round and the other 3 players win whatever amount they totaled. The winner's amount is doubled and I personally know a guy that holds the record for winning $63,000 in the first round. He quadrupled $3200, landed on the auto $25K with $3000 behind it, and got another $3200 on his third turn. The $19,000 he won was doubled to $38,000 and adding the $25K is probably a record that will never be broken.
The two winners meet the previous week's winner for a chance at raising their winnings to $50,000 and the previous winner is playing for $100.000 or $200,000 if they won two weeks in a row ($200,000 is the top prize); not bad for a $1 ticket and a postage stamp.
The Lottery produces the TV show, stations decide if they want to air it, and there are non-lottery commercials. I've never understood how it could cost any lottery to have live ball drawings when the stations pay them to air it. The people that want to see Ohio's live drawing at 7:29 PM probably see all the commercials at the end of Wheel of Fortune and might stay tuned and watch Jeopardy. It's not prime time so it's win-win for the lottery.