109 Fun Facts About Game Shows

Who created Jeopardy!?

Merv Griffin. The show's success helped him sell his production company to Coca-Cola for $250 million in 1986.

What is the format twist that defines Jeopardy!?

Clues are given as answers, a switch the creator's wife suggested as a twist on the question-and-answer quizzes of the 1950s.

Who hosted every version of Jeopardy! between 1964 and 1979?

Art Fleming. After each cancellation he went back to acting, and the 1984 syndicated revival went to Alex Trebek instead.

Ken Jennings' 74-game Jeopardy! streak ended on a clue about which company?

H&R Block. Jennings wrote 'What is FedEx?', and Nancy Zerg, who got it right, ended his run.

On which quiz show was Ken Jennings nicknamed 'The Professor'?

The Chase. In 2025 he and Matt Damon also won $1 million for the charity Water.org on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

What game is Wheel of Fortune based on?

Hangman. Its creator said the idea came from the game he and his sister played in the back seat on family car trips.

Which quiz host was falsely rumoured to have played the saxophone solo on Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street'?

Bob Holness. The story is thought to have begun as a spoof in the NME; the real player was Raphael Ravenscroft.

Which pair hosted the original 1975 daytime Wheel of Fortune?

Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. Woolery was let go in 1981 after asking for a raise from $65,000 to about $500,000 a year, and Pat Sajak replaced him.

Which improv comedy show's American host took over The Price Is Right in 2007?

Drew Carey. He turned the job down at first, but CBS called back a few weeks later and talked him into it.

Who hosted The Price Is Right from 1972 until 2007?

Bob Barker. His cameo beating up Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore even won an MTV Movie Award for best fight.

Where were the original Mastermind episodes recorded?

In universities and churches. It began in a late-night slot, but in 1973 the BBC moved it to prime time to replace a risqué sitcom.

Which announcer called 'Come on down!' on The Price Is Right from 1986 to 2003?

Rod Roddy. Ill with cancer for more than two years, he kept working as long as he could before his death in 2003.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire began in which country?

The United Kingdom. ITV launched it in 1998, yet nobody won the £1 million top prize until November 2000.

Which future TV psychologist won The $64,000 Question by answering questions about boxing?

Joyce Brothers. Producers wanted surprising pairings of expert and subject, like a Marine who was an expert cook.

Which 1956 film supplied Millionaire with its title, via a Cole Porter song?

High Society. The show's working title was Cash Mountain until a TV executive named it after the song.

Who hosted the original British Millionaire from 1998 to 2014?

Jeremy Clarkson took over for the 20th anniversary revival in 2018.

What do two families compete to guess on Family Feud?

The most popular survey answers. The original host kissed so many female contestants that he was nicknamed 'The Kissing Bandit'.

Who hosted the original 1976 run of Family Feud?

Richard Dawson. He later parodied his TV persona as the murderous host of a deadly game show in Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Running Man.

Which BBC quiz was dreamed up as a reverse Family Fortunes?

Pointless. Richard Osman only stood in as co-host when it was pitched to the BBC, but the bosses asked him to do the job for real.

Who stepped down as Jeopardy! host in 2021, just days after being named to the job?

Mike Richards. Offensive remarks from his old podcast resurfaced, and he quit after taping just one day of episodes.

Where were contestants placed while answering on NBC's rigged quiz show Twenty-One?

In separate isolation booths. The air conditioning in Herb Stempel's booth was periodically turned off so viewers would see him sweat.

Which Twenty-One champion lost an NBC contract after confessing to Congress to being fed answers?

Charles Van Doren. He rebuilt his career at Encyclopaedia Britannica, eventually rising to vice-president.

Which Best Picture winner did Herb Stempel deliberately miss on Twenty-One?

Marty. It was one of his favourite films, but he answered On the Waterfront, the previous year's winner, as producer Dan Enright had instructed.

Which quiz host was spoofed in a 1984 episode of The Young Ones?

Bamber Gascoigne. The country house he inherited in 2014, West Horsley Place, later became Button House in the BBC sitcom Ghosts.

In Deal or No Deal, what is the unseen adversary called?

The Banker. In 2015 the Banker on the Channel 4 version was revealed to be one of its own producers, Glenn Hugill.

Which Dutch show gave rise to the Deal or No Deal format?

Miljoenenjacht. It started out as a straight quiz and only added the briefcase game as its finale in December 2002.

On Match Game, what are contestants trying to match?

Celebrity panellists' answers. NBC dropped the show in 1969, but CBS revived it in 1973 with a bigger star panel, and it ran six more years.

Who hosted Match Game on NBC in the 1960s and on CBS in the 1970s?

Gene Rayburn. He later said work dried up once Entertainment Tonight began revealing his age.

Which comedian hosted NBC's Deal or No Deal when it debuted in 2005?

Howie Mandel. Because of his OCD and fear of germs, he often greeted contestants with fist bumps instead of handshakes.

Which producer created The Dating Game?

Chuck Barris. His memoir Confessions of a Dangerous Mind claimed he had also been a CIA assassin, a claim the CIA denied.

Which Canadian city did a Jeopardy!-playing computer give in the category U.S. Cities?

Toronto. Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter both answered Chicago correctly, yet the computer still finished that game far ahead.

Whose voice opened Jeopardy! with 'This is Jeopardy!' from the show's 1984 syndicated relaunch?

Johnny Gilbert. When Alex Trebek died in 2020, he wondered whether it was time to step away, but he chose to stay on.

Who took over as host of the US Family Feud in 2010?

Steve Harvey. The show's ratings rose after the comedian took over.

Which BBC game show did Bruce Forsyth host in the 1970s?

The Generation Game. The BBC based it on a Dutch show, and entertainment chief Bill Cotton wanted Forsyth to front it.

What was the job of Twenty-One's most famous champion during his winning run?

He taught at Columbia, and producers prized his literary family, including a father who had won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

In Deal or No Deal, when is the contestant's own case opened?

At the very end. Economists who studied the show found that contestants whose luck turned bad started taking bigger gambles.

What was Ken Jennings' job before his Jeopardy! streak?

Software engineer. After his streak he became a trivia author, and in 2021 he began hosting the show.

Which computer beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy!?

IBM's Watson. Jennings added 'I for one welcome our new computer overlords' to his losing final response.

Which champion won a record $131,127 in one Jeopardy! game in 2019?

James Holzhauer. By hunting Daily Doubles and betting big, he won $2,464,216 in 33 games, the last a loss to Emma Boettcher.

In which Canadian city was Alex Trebek born?

Sudbury, Ontario. He later went back to make a cameo when The Amazing Race Canada stopped in Sudbury.

What did The Price Is Right's long-time host remind viewers to do as he signed off?

Spay or neuter your pets. He later founded the DJ&T Foundation, which funds low-cost neutering and is named after his wife and mother.

Who was the first announcer to call 'Come on down!' on The Price Is Right?

Johnny Olson. He died in 1985, but shows he had already taped kept his voice on the air for weeks afterwards.

Which show did the future Price Is Right host front from 1956 to 1975?

Truth or Consequences. Its creator, Ralph Edwards, noticed him on the radio and handed him the job.

John Carpenter won the first US Millionaire top prize by knowing which president had appeared on Laugh-In?

Richard Nixon. He made a cameo on the show to say its catchphrase, 'Sock it to me.'

Which president signed a law making it a federal crime to fix a TV quiz show?

Dwight Eisenhower. Rigging had not been a crime, so contestants who lied about it to a grand jury were charged with perjury instead.

How did Michael Larson win a record $110,237 on Press Your Luck in 1984?

He memorised the board's light patterns: it cycled through only five, and producers who hoped not to pay found no rule against it.

What is the name of the animated character that wipes out a Press Your Luck player's winnings?

The Whammy. Producer Bill Carruthers asked for 'a bad creature that stole people's money', and he voiced the little thief himself.

Hollywood Squares is a celebrity version of which game?

Tic-tac-toe. The stars livened up the game with joke replies known as 'zingers'.

Which co-creator of Let's Make a Deal was also its long-time host?

Monty Hall. Traders soon began turning up in outlandish costumes to catch his eye, though he insisted nobody was picked for an outfit.

Which columnist received thousands of letters, many from PhDs, for saying a game-show player should switch doors?

Marilyn vos Savant. She was right: switching wins two times in three, because the host always opens a losing door.

Which show was the very first programme broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in November 1982?

Countdown. The show was only meant to have a short life, but it was still running more than two decades later.

Which Army major's £1 million win on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was ruled cheating aided by coughs?

Charles Ingram. A jury convicted him, his wife and lecturer Tecwen Whittock of deception in 2003, after the prosecution said coughs had guided his answers.

What inspired Bill Wright to give Mastermind its intimidating black-chair format?

Being questioned as a POW. The name, rank and number Bill Wright gave as a prisoner became the show's name, occupation and specialist subject.

Which Mastermind host's catchphrase was 'I've started so I'll finish'?

Magnus Magnusson. When his original run ended in 1997, the BBC gave him the show's famous black chair.

Which host told contestants 'You are the weakest link. Goodbye!'?

The BBC show launched in August 2000 and became the second most exported quiz format after Millionaire.

Which professional quizzer is nicknamed 'The Beast' on ITV?

Mark Labbett. He earned the nickname for his imposing stature.

Which Today programme presenter hosted Mastermind from 2003 until 2021?

The Radio 4 veteran handed over to newsreader Clive Myrie in August 2021.

The $64,000 Question grew out of which earlier radio quiz, whose top prize was just $64?

Take It or Leave It. Producer Louis Cowan added three zeros to its $64 top prize, but the TV spin-off was cancelled in 1958 amid the rigging scandals.

Who hosted every version of Password that aired between 1961 and 1975?

Allen Ludden. Betty White turned down his proposals before marrying him in 1963, after they met when she played on the show.

Which future Suits actress worked as a 'briefcase girl' on 34 episodes of the American Deal or No Deal?

Meghan Markle held a case on the show between 2006 and 2007, one of several modelling and acting jobs she took years before becoming Duchess of Sussex.

Which future Breaking Bad star overbid on his Showcase by $132 as a Price Is Right contestant in 2000?

Aaron Paul appeared under his birth name soon after driving to Los Angeles from Idaho with $6,000 in savings, and he lost his pricing game too.

Which Hollywood star co-created the drawing game show Win, Lose or Draw, with a set modelled on his living room?

Burt Reynolds built it from the weekly charades parties he hosted at home, where he brought out a chalkboard so a shy Fred Astaire could draw instead of act.

Which NBA superstar shares an executive producer credit on NBC's game show The Wall with host Chris Hardwick?

LeBron James is credited alongside Maverick Carter and Andrew Glassman on the show, which premiered in 2016 and later spawned a Spanish-language version on Telemundo.

Which rapper fronted the 2017 revival of The Joker's Wild, where a slot machine picks the quiz categories?

Snoop Dogg hosted and executive-produced the TBS reboot, billed as Snoop Dogg Presents The Joker's Wild, 45 years after challengers first pulled the lever on the 1972 original.

Which future late-night host was the original co-host of the Comedy Central quiz show Win Ben Stein's Money?

Jimmy Kimmel shared the 1999 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host with Ben Stein, then left in 2000 to concentrate on The Man Show.

Which actor's first film role was quiz show contestant Jamal Malik in the Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire?

Dev Patel was known only for the teen drama Skins when Danny Boyle cast him, and the part earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Which Price Is Right pricing game, first played in 1983, has contestants drop chips down a giant pegboard?

Plinko premiered on January 3, 1983, with a $5,000 centre slot that made $25,000 the top prize. Chips bounce down a board styled after a bean machine before landing in one of nine spaces.

Which talk-show veteran made 'final answer' a catchphrase as first host of the US Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Regis Philbin asked the question to confirm every choice, and his matching dark shirt-and-tie look on the show inspired a short-lived Van Heusen clothing line called Regis.

Which six letters does Wheel of Fortune reveal for free before a bonus round contestant chooses four more?

RSTLNE has been handed over since October 1988; before that, bonus round players chose five consonants and a vowel with no free letters at all.

Which former Los Angeles TV weatherman hosted Wheel of Fortune from 1981 to 2024?

Pat Sajak was forecasting for KNBC when he got the job, and in 2019 Guinness World Records recognised his run as the longest by a game show host on a single show.

Which stand-up comedian was named host when Fox picked up Mark Burnett's Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Jeff Foxworthy made adults who fell short face the camera and declare 'I am not smarter than a 5th grader', and he returned for the syndicated run and a 2015 comeback.

Which Full House star hosted NBC's 1 vs. 100, where a lone contestant battled a hundred-strong 'Mob'?

Bob Saget fronted the NBC run from 2006 to 2008, in a format borrowed from the Dutch show Eén tegen 100 where the One lost everything on a single wrong answer.

Which 30 Rock star hosted and executive-produced ABC's 2016 revival of Match Game?

Alec Baldwin fronted the show in ABC's 'Sunday Fun and Games' line-up, and it ran to five seasons before the network confirmed its cancellation in 2022.

Which comedian hosted You Bet Your Life, where a toy duck dropped down whenever contestants said the secret word?

Groucho Marx's duck wore his trademark glasses and moustache and carried a $100 prize, and in one episode his brother Harpo came down in its place.

Which TV host fronted The $10,000 Pyramid from its 1973 debut, even as the Watergate hearings interrupted episodes?

Dick Clark kept the ratings high despite delays for the Watergate hearings, and stayed with the franchise as its top prize climbed to $100,000 in the 1980s.

Which comedian served as both executive producer and permanent centre square of the 1998 Hollywood Squares revival?

Whoopi Goldberg sat in the middle of the grid while Tom Bergeron hosted, flanked by regulars including Bruce Vilanch, Martin Mull and Caroline Rhea.

Which Nickelodeon game show, the network's first, mixed trivia questions with messy stunts called physical challenges?

Double Dare premiered in 1986 with Marc Summers as host. A team could dare its opponents to answer for twice the money, then be double-dared back for four times as much.

Which vocal group served as house band on the PBS geography quiz Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

Rockapella doubled as the show's comedy troupe from 1991 to 1995, working alongside host Greg Lee and Lynne Thigpen, who played the Chief.

Which actress made her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour, about a serial killer who appeared on The Dating Game?

Anna Kendrick also stars as contestant Sheryl Bradshaw, who meets Rodney Alcala on a 1978 episode before he is exposed as a murderer.

Which British quiz show's catchphrase 'your starter for ten' inspired a 2006 film starring James McAvoy?

University Challenge opens each round with a starter question worth ten points, which one player must answer without conferring. The film grew out of David Nicholls' 2003 novel.

Which comedian presented the BBC panel quiz QI from its 2003 launch, punishing obvious wrong answers with a klaxon?

Stephen Fry stayed until 2016 alongside permanent panellist Alan Davies, on a show that hands out points for interesting answers even when they are wrong.

Which future talent-show judge won just £20 of kitchen utensils as a contestant on the British quiz Sale of the Century?

Simon Cowell was a record producer when he appeared on the 1990 version, and the clip was replayed years later when he collected a Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards.

Which future Cheers star won both her games as a Match Game contestant in 1979, while working as an interior designer?

Kirstie Alley returned to the revived show in 2019, this time as one of the famous faces, and was surprised with a clip of her original appearance.

Which Bollywood superstar made his Indian television debut in 2000 as host of the Hindi quiz Kaun Banega Crorepati?

Amitabh Bachchan launched India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on Star Plus, and when he sat out the third season Shah Rukh Khan stepped in.

Which king, Eleanor of Aquitaine's husband, was the subject of Judith Keppel's million-pound Millionaire question?

Henry II was also her own ancestor, as was Eleanor. Keppel was a garden designer 'struggling for money' when she became the first UK contestant to win the top prize.

Which ITV game show hosted by Jasper Carrott ended with 'Split or Steal', a televised prisoner's dilemma?

Golden Balls gave economists including Richard Thaler a natural experiment in cooperation, and they found finalists chose to split the jackpot 53 percent of the time.

What kind of contest, aired live from London's Alexandra Palace in 1938, is regarded as the first TV game show?

A spelling bee hosted by Freddie Grisewood, it went out at 10pm and pitted contestants against well-known television stars of the era.

Which game show veteran hosted the original daytime and primetime versions of The Price Is Right from 1956 to 1965?

Bill Cullen did the job despite childhood polio that made it difficult for him to walk or stand for long, and he chose to stay in New York rather than front the 1972 revival.

On Let's Make a Deal, what name is given to the booby prizes hidden behind curtains and inside boxes?

Zonks range from live animals to junked cars, and although they are meant as jokes, traders legally win them.

What was the name of the talking stone head that narrated Nickelodeon's Legends of the Hidden Temple?

Olmec, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, told the legend behind each episode's artifact and was said to know the secrets of every treasure in his temple.

Which original host of The Newlywed Game kept saying 'making whoopee' long after censors stopped requiring it?

Bob Eubanks was just 28 when the show debuted in 1966, and the phrase began as the producers' way around network censorship of any mention of sex.

On the long-running game show Concentration, what kind of puzzle did contestants uncover by matching pairs of prizes?

A rebus spelled out a phrase in pictures and letters, so 'French dressing' might appear as an F, a wrench, a dress and a person singing.

Which parlour game became a 1940s radio quiz where listeners most often sent in Winston Churchill's cigar?

Twenty Questions first aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1946, and on the early shows a listener who stumped the panel won a lifetime magazine subscription.

Which MTV quiz show hosted by Ken Ober gave walk-on roles to Adam Sandler and Denis Leary in its later seasons?

Remote Control was MTV's first game show and its first original programme that was not about music, running for five seasons from 1987 with Colin Quinn as sidekick.

Which Succession star played the army major accused of cheating on Millionaire in the three-part ITV drama Quiz?

Matthew Macfadyen led a serial that writer James Graham pitched as Ocean's 11 'with really middle-class English people using encyclopedias instead of guns'.

Which E. M. Forster novel supplied the title of Only Connect, the quiz hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell?

Howards End urges readers to 'only connect the prose and the passion', a fitting motto for a quiz where teams hunt for the hidden link between seemingly unrelated things.

What was the working title of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire before ITV settled on the final name?

Cash Mountain was the label used during the design phase, until ITV's director of programmes David Liddiment picked the title that the show made famous.

Which Canadian high school quiz show did Alex Trebek begin hosting in 1966, before his move to American television?

Reach for the Top kept Trebek as a quizmaster until 1973, the year he left for America to host NBC's The Wizard of Odds.

Which high school quiz, launched in Washington in 1961, does Guinness recognise as TV's longest-running quiz show?

It's Academic was created by Sophie Altman, who stayed on as executive producer until her death in 2008, nearly half a century after the first broadcast.

Which famously modest consolation prize did losing contestants take home from the BBC's Blankety Blank?

A chequebook and pen were mocked even by the hosts: one called the show's prizes 'fire salvaged' and renamed the trophy the 'chequepen and book'.

Which duo's production company made The Price Is Right, Family Feud, Match Game and Card Sharks?

Goodson and Todman met in 1941 while working on a local radio quiz, and their first television show, Winner Take All, debuted on CBS in 1948.

Which future talk-show legend revived a stalled career in 1957 as host of ABC's daytime quiz Who Do You Trust?

Johnny Carson took the job after CBS cancelled his primetime variety show, and a year into the run he gained announcer Ed McMahon, his sidekick for the next three decades.

Wink Martindale, host of Gambit and Debt, reached the US top ten in 1959 with which spoken-word single?

Deck of Cards reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million copies, thirteen years before Martindale found his first big television success with Gambit.

Which sitcom star, dubbed the 'first lady of game shows', was the first woman to win an Emmy for hosting one?

Betty White won the Daytime Emmy in 1983 for NBC's Just Men!, after years as a staple of shows such as Password, Match Game and The $25,000 Pyramid.

Which former NFL star became host when ABC revived The $100,000 Pyramid as an hour-long Sunday night show?

Michael Strahan's first season ran to ten episodes in ABC's Sunday Fun & Games line-up, and the revival brought production back to New York City, the show's 1970s home.

Which future Oscar-winning film composer wrote the theme tune for the BBC's pan-European quiz Going for Gold?

Hans Zimmer wrote it early in his career, for a quiz that set contestants from different European countries against each other, all answering in English.

On I've Got a Secret in 1956, a 95-year-old guest revealed he had witnessed whose assassination as a five-year-old?

Abraham Lincoln's last surviving eyewitness, Samuel Seymour, took home $80 and, because he did not smoke cigarettes, pipe tobacco in place of the sponsor's carton of Winstons.

Which Hunger Games actress became host when ABC revived Press Your Luck as a weekly primetime show in 2019?

Elizabeth Banks followed Todd Newton, who had fronted a cable revival from 2002 to 2003, and her version went back to the title used by the 1980s original.

Which comedian became the regular centre square on the original Hollywood Squares in 1968, two years into its run?

Paul Lynde met each question with a 'zinger', a joke answer usually supplied by the show's writers, and earned three consecutive Daytime Emmy nominations for it.