Billiard Congress of America: GAME SHOW CHAMPION Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in a Battle of the Sexes to Win Ben Stein’s Money and avoid being The Weakest Link and stay out of Jeopardy?  The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) acts a lifeline to these television game shows who continually call the national office to verify billiard facts in hopes of stumping their contestants. The BCA staff racks their brains to ensure that the information, regardless of how complex or trivial, is accurate and verifiable.   On ABC’s hit show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” the road to winning one million dollars lies in the answer to this question: The white ball in billiards or pool is called the: A) Baseball, B) Handball, C) Cue Ball or D) Policeman’s Ball.   “Battle of the Sexes” hoped to stump a female contestant when asked which of four billiard legend nicknames was not legitimate.  The BCA supplied the game show with three well-known billiard players whose real nicknames are “Minnesota Fats” (Ralph Wanderone), “Boston Shorty” (Larry Johnson) and “The Miz” (Steve Mizerak). Battle of the Sexes created the false nickname: “Jimmy the Tuna”.   The BCA has also faced off with the National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC) sensation “The Weakest Link.” The first question from the game show was “what is the color of the second set of balls in bumper pool if the first set is white?  Answer: red. The initial question sparked an interest in pool, which led to the development of more trivia questions, such as which game of billiards is played in the movie “The Hustler?”  Answer: straight pool, also known as 14.1 Continuous. A second acceptable answer would have been 3-Cushion, as this is the game the characters played when they went into the basement of the pool hall.   Billiard balls were on Ben Stein’s mind when forming questions for his Comedy Central trivia game show, “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” The show wanted to confirm whether billiard balls are rough or smooth. Though some tournament sets can get pretty beat up, the BCA staff was able to confirm that billiard balls are, for the most part, quite smooth.   What are the two most common questions received through the BCA website (www.bca-pool.com)? 1) What is the correct way to rack the balls in 8-Ball? Answer: 8-ball in the center with a solid and a stripe in each back corner; and 2) What are billiard balls made of? Answer: Phenolic Resin Plastic.   Television’s hottest game shows exhibit a strong interest in the game of pool and they look to the BCA as the industry expert in developing questions, providing answers and verifying facts. Though these questions on equipment, players, rules and popular culture are not the most difficult questions one could think up, it goes to show that no question is too simple for the BCA to provide accurate information. Got a tough billiard question for the BCA? Bring it on!