Hai i am living in India. Here there are many such reality shows.Actually the producers and other workers have requested the contestants to limit their performance to inside 4 minutes.They are doing this because any visual or audible notifications might interrupt contestants performance. SO I SUGGEST IT WOULD BE BETTER TO MAKE THE CONTESTANTS UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF TIMING.
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Hey, definitely a fun idea to get some sort of visually stimulating timer. I think the egg timer is the easiest to do, but obviously a normal one is kind of boring. I found a couple websites that has a few different egg timers that are far more interesting to look at and should definitely grab attention at

http://mookiegifts.com/kieggti.html
and
http://www.1-noveltyphones.com/links14.htm

My favorite one was this one:

http://mookiegifts.com/shshkiti.html

I liked it because it is a gun shell, which I found amusing because the timer is signifying that someone's time is up, and so it is the veritable death of them playing the game (like a gunshot).

Another thought I had was to make what looks like a time bomb with an egg timer on top (can see directions on how to make that here: http://www.indymogul.com/post/9260/wesleys-weekly-how-to-prop-time-bomb). This, of course, also has the same effect as the gun shell timer :-D

Of course, there is always the option to buy a bunch of the different egg timers, and just use a different one each time you come on to the show. This way people will always be looking forward to seeing what you will be coming up with this time.
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Look at Alarm clocks. I know most don't have a "countdown" timer, but they can be set to have alarm at X # of minutes, so they might be able to work for your purposes.

Also, you might be able to modify clock if you have a electronics-savvy person on staff and turn it into a timer.

Also try board games. Many board games these days come with electronic timers. Boggle, for example, is a board game that has a 3-minute timer, and some versions come with electronic timer (and flashing lights, even!)

Ooh, also found this Chess Clock/Timer. Has a nice space age look to it. Very sleek.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DGT-XL-Electronic-Digital-Chess-Clock-Timer-NEW--FREESH_W0QQitemZ360137002607QQcmdZViewItem

http://digitalgametechnology.com/site/images/stories/dgtproducts/clocks/10103-dgt-xl-beige.jpg

Clocky
http://www.amazon.com/Clocky-Alarm-Clock-Wheels-Aqua/dp/B000TAS9XQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1247069954&sr=8-2

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41dT-grRcKL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
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I have a cool apple timer, and chicken timer

check kitchen stores. silly ones abound!
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Depends on just how wacky you want it, Mister!

Super Wacky Ideas:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-I am a little partial to a digital countdown superimposed over a duck who QUACKS when time is up!

-Dogs/cars/whatever "racing" across the screen from left to right. When they reach the right side they start barking/honking/etc.

-Chocolate Easter Bunny melting, making a splat sound at the end

Not so wacky ideas:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-A firecracker with a fuse that fizzles down until it booms

-Microwave digital countdown with microwave beeeep at end

-Think back to the old 1950s gameshows, they used to have a giant round clock with hands that would make a ticking sound. Re-create one of those, and add some sort of old-fashioned gameshow noise as the buzzer
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