70 Fun Facts About Game Shows
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Take the 70-question quizWho created Jeopardy!?
He also created Wheel of Fortune, which means one man is responsible for two of the longest-running shows on American television.
What is the format twist that defines Jeopardy!?
Players must phrase every response as a question, which is the rule that trips up every parody of the show.
On which date did the original daytime Jeopardy! debut?
The syndicated version modern viewers know did not start until September 1984.
Who hosted every version of Jeopardy! between 1964 and 1979?
Alex Trebek only took over with the syndicated relaunch in 1984, and stayed for more than 36 years.
How many consecutive Jeopardy! games did Ken Jennings win in 2004?
The run netted him over $2.5 million and turned a software engineer into the show's eventual host.
On which quiz show was Ken Jennings nicknamed 'The Professor'?
He has now won money on five different programmes, including a million-dollar charity prize with Matt Damon.
What game is Wheel of Fortune based on?
The wheel is the money; the puzzle underneath is the same letter-guessing game played on paper for a century.
When did Wheel of Fortune first air?
The nightly syndicated version everyone pictures did not premiere until September 1983.
Which pair hosted the original 1975 daytime Wheel of Fortune?
Crossword puzzles were only added to the format in 2016, four decades in.
The 1972 revival of The Price Is Right is based on a show first aired in which year?
Mark Goodson and Bill Todman produced both, and the revival added most of the pricing games.
Who hosted The Price Is Right from 1972 until 2007?
Drew Carey took the job on his retirement, and the show reached the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2022.
How many preliminary contestants appear in a typical episode of The Price Is Right?
They are whittled down to two, who meet in the Showcases at the end.
Who was the original announcer of the 1972 Price Is Right?
He held the microphone until just before his death in 1985, when Rod Roddy took over.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire began in which country?
It debuted on ITV in September 1998 with Chris Tarrant asking the questions.
What was Millionaire tentatively called during development?
The final title came from a Cole Porter song written for the 1956 film High Society.
Which 1956 film supplied Millionaire with its title, via a Cole Porter song?
Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm sang it, decades before anyone thought of using it as a quiz format.
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?
Mark Goodson created it in 1976, and Richard Dawson hosted the original ABC run.
Who hosted the original 1976 run of Family Feud?
Ray Combs took the 1988 revival, Dawson came back for its final year, and three more hosts followed after 1999.
In how many international markets has Family Feud been adapted?
That makes it one of the most widely licensed television formats ever devised.
Which 1950s NBC quiz show was exposed as rigged?
Contestants were coached on what to wear, when to hesitate and which questions to miss.
Where did contestants on that rigged show stand while answering?
The booths made the sweating and hesitating visible, which the producers scripted along with everything else.
Who testified to Congress in 1959 that producers had fed him the answers?
He lost his NBC job and went to work at Encyclopaedia Britannica, where he rose to vice-president.
Which champion was Van Doren recruited to defeat?
The producers wanted a telegenic Columbia teacher to lift ratings that the incumbent had flattened.
Which sponsor backed the rigged NBC quiz show?
The series still finished 21st in the Nielsen ratings for the 1957-58 season before it collapsed.
In Deal or No Deal, what is the unseen adversary called?
His offers are deliberately pitched below the mathematical expected value, especially early on.
Which Dutch show gave rise to the Deal or No Deal format?
Its name translates as hunt for millions, and its studio audience was whittled down by trivia rounds first.
Why is the mystery buyer's offer usually below the true expected value?
The offer moves with the board: it rises when small amounts are eliminated and falls when the big ones go.
On Match Game, what are contestants trying to match?
From the 1973 CBS revival onwards the fill-in-the-blank questions leaned heavily on double entendre.
Who hosted Match Game from 1963 to 1984?
Martin Short fronts the 2025 version, six decades after the show first appeared on NBC.
In which year did Match Game first air?
The format everyone remembers, with the bigger panel and the jokes, came with the 1973 CBS revival.
Which producer created The Dating Game in 1965?
It was the first of a long line of shows he packaged through the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Which future Charlie's Angels star appeared as a Dating Game contestant before she was famous?
Tom Selleck, Steve Martin, Lee Majors and Andy Kaufman also turned up before anyone knew who they were.
How many rounds make up a game of Jeopardy!?
Double Jeopardy doubles the values, and Final Jeopardy lets players wager everything they have earned.
Who announced Jeopardy! from the 1984 syndicated relaunch?
Don Pardo had handled the original run until 1975, before moving on to a rather famous late-night sketch show.
How is a Wheel of Fortune contestant rewarded for calling a correct consonant?
Most puzzles are ordinary figures of speech, which is what makes them solvable from three letters.
Millionaire's format broke game show convention by having how many contestants play at once?
That single-player structure is why the lifelines, and the audience, carry so much dramatic weight.
Who took over as host of the US Family Feud in 2010?
He is the fourth host of the version that began in 1999, after Louie Anderson, Richard Karn and John O'Hurley.
Which network first aired the rigged quiz show that ended in congressional hearings?
It had originally been conceived as a weekly half-hour for a rival network's 1956-57 schedule.
What did the disgraced champion do for a living when he became a quiz show star?
His father was a Pulitzer-winning poet and his uncle a Pulitzer-winning biographer, which the producers loved.
In that briefcase format, when is the contestant's own case opened?
Everything else is elimination: each case opened tells you one prize your own case cannot hold.
The Jeopardy! creator originally wrote the Final Jeopardy! Think! music as what?
The thirty-second tune has earned him tens of millions in royalties over the decades.
What was Ken Jennings' job before his Jeopardy! streak?
He worked for a healthcare placement firm in Utah, and won about $2.52 million over the run.
Which computer beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy! in 2011?
Watson finished with $77,147 to Jennings' $24,000; Jennings wrote 'I for one welcome our new computer overlords' on his final answer.
Which professional sports gambler set the single-game Jeopardy! record of $131,127 in 2019?
His aggressive wagering produced a 32-game streak and $2.46 million before Emma Boettcher beat him.
In which Canadian city was Alex Trebek born?
He became a US citizen in 1998 and hosted Jeopardy! for 37 seasons until his death in November 2020.
How many Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show Host did Alex Trebek win?
The last came in 2021, after his death; the syndicated show itself has won a record 45 Emmys.
How much does it cost to buy a vowel on Wheel of Fortune?
In the bonus round the letters R, S, T, L, N and E are given free before the player picks more.
In which year did Vanna White join Wheel of Fortune?
Merv Griffin named her Susan Stafford's successor that December, and she was still there when Ryan Seacrest arrived in 2024.
With what reminder did the long-time Price Is Right host sign off every episode?
The animal-rights advocate also quit hosting Miss USA over fur coats and famously beat up Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore.
Which announcer's 'Come on down!' summoned contestants on The Price Is Right?
Rod Roddy inherited the call after Olson's death in 1985; the four bidders sit in Contestants' Row.
What is the range of values on The Price Is Right's Big Wheel?
Landing on exactly a dollar in one or two spins earns a bonus spin in the Showcase Showdown.
Which show did the future Price Is Right host front from 1956 to 1975?
He won 19 Emmys across his career and died in August 2023 at 99.
Which lifeline did John Carpenter use on the final question to become the first US Millionaire winner?
It was the only lifeline he used all game; Regis Philbin hosted the ABC version.
Which president signed the 1960 law making it illegal to fix a TV quiz show?
The scandal began when a Dotto standby contestant found a notebook of answers backstage and sent an affidavit to the FCC.
How did Michael Larson win a record $110,237 on Press Your Luck in 1984?
The 'random' board used only five patterns; CBS looked for a way not to pay, found no rule broken, and paid.
What is the name of the animated character that wipes out a Press Your Luck player's winnings?
Larson hit none in 45 consecutive spins, which is why the network suspected a fix.
Hollywood Squares is a celebrity version of which game?
Peter Marshall hosted from 1966; Paul Lynde held the centre square, and Whoopi Goldberg did the same in the 1998 revival.
Which co-creator hosted Let's Make a Deal for nearly thirty years?
Audience members dress in costumes to get picked, and a worthless booby prize is called a zonk.
In the Monty Hall problem, what are your odds of winning the car if you switch doors after a goat is revealed?
When Marilyn vos Savant said so in Parade in 1990, about 10,000 readers wrote in to tell her she was wrong, including nearly a thousand with PhDs.
Which show was the very first programme broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in November 1982?
Richard Whiteley hosted until his death in 2005; the format comes from France's Des chiffres et des lettres.
Who has been Countdown's Dictionary Corner lexicographer since the early 1990s?
Rachel Riley has done the numbers since 2009, taking over from Carol Vorderman; the show has passed 8,000 episodes.
What inspired Bill Wright to give Mastermind its intimidating black-chair format?
The black leather chair, the spotlight and the theme Approaching Menace all serve the same idea.
Which Mastermind host's catchphrase was 'I've started so I'll finish'?
He hosted from 1972 to 1997 and used the phrase as the title of his history of the show.
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 Chaser on ITV's The Chase is known as 'The Beast'?
Bradley Walsh has hosted since 2009; Anne Hegerty is The Governess and Jenny Ryan The Vixen.
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?
Creator Louis G. Cowan borrowed the name and multiplied the prize a thousandfold for CBS primetime in 1955.
Who hosted every version of Password that aired between 1961 and 1975?
The show, created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman, has partners trade single-word clues to a mystery word.
The Pyramid franchise has won nine Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show, second only to which show?
Dick Clark is the host most associated with Pyramid, whose board shows six categories stacked in a triangle.
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