A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a host, who explains the rules of the game as well as commentating and narrating where necessary. The history of the game shows dates back to the late 1930s when both radio and television game shows were broadcast. The genre became popular in the United States in the 1950s, becoming a regular feature of daytime television.
The Weakest Link is a British television quiz show, mainly broadcast on BBC Two and BBC One. It was devised by Fintan Coyle and Cathy Dunning and developed for television by the BBC Entertainment Department. The game begins with a team of nine contestants, who take turns answering general knowledge questions within a time limit to create chains of nine correct answers in a row. At the end of each round, the players then vote one contestant, "the weakest link", out of the game. After two players are left, they play in a head-to-head penalty shootout format, with five questions asked to each contestant in turn, to determine the winner.
Hollywood Squares is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show piloted on NBC in 1965 and the regular series debuted in 1966 on the same network. The board for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants. The stars are asked questions by the host and the contestants judge the truth of their answers to gain squares in the right pattern to win the game.
Match Game is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank questions. Beginning with the CBS run of the 1970s, the questions are often formed as humorous double entendres.
Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. It features two families who compete to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.
The Newlywed Game is an American television game show that puts newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally created by Robert "Nick" Nicholson and E. Roger Muir and produced by Chuck Barris, has appeared in many different versions since its 1966 debut. The show became famous for some of the arguments that couples had over incorrect answers in the form of mistaken predictions, and it even led to some divorces.
Name That Tune is an American television music game show. Originally created and produced by orchestra conductor Harry Salter and his wife Roberta Semple Salter, the series features contestants competing to correctly identify songs being played by an on-stage orchestra or band.
To Tell the Truth is an American television panel show in which four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual occupation or experience has been read aloud by the show's moderator/host. When the panelists question the contestants, the two impostors may lie whereas the "central character" must tell the truth. The setup adds the impostor element to the format of What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret.
Beat the Clock is an American television game show that involves people trying to complete challenges to win prizes while faced with a time limit. The show was a creation of Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions.
Password is an American television game show in which two teams, each composed of a celebrity player and a contestant, attempt to convey mystery words to each other using only single-word clues, in order to win cash prizes.
Win, Lose or Draw is an American television game show that aired from 1987 to 1990 in syndication and on NBC. It was taped at CBS Television City, often in Studios 31, 33, and 43 at various times. It was co-produced by Burt & Bert Productions and Kline & Friends for Disney's Buena Vista Television. It has also had two versions on The Disney Channel: Teen Win, Lose or Draw from 1989 to 1992, and a revived version known as Disney's Win, Lose or Draw which aired in 2014. New York described Win, Lose or Draw as "a knockoff" of the board game Pictionary, however, Burt Reynolds and Ed McMahon referred to playing the game at Burt's home during the August 2, 1978 episode of The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson, three years before Pictionary was created.
Robert Leland Eubanks is an American disc jockey, television personality and game show host, widely known for hosting the game show The Newlywed Game on and off since 1966. He also hosted the successful revamp version of Card Sharks from 1986 to 1989. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his radio DJ work in 2000. It is in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, where he worked during the first years of his broadcasting career. In 2005, he received a lifetime achievement Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Celebrity Squares is a British comedy game show based on the American comedy game show Hollywood Squares. It first ran on ITV from 20 July 1975 to 7 July 1979 and was hosted by Bob Monkhouse, then—also hosted by Monkhouse—from 8 January 1993 to 3 January 1997.
The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour is an American television panel game show that combined two panel games of the 1960s and 1970s – Match Game and Hollywood Squares – into an hour-long format.
Celebrity Sweepstakes is an American television game show that aired on NBC's daytime schedule from April 1, 1974, to October 1, 1976. The show also had two separate weekly syndicated runs from September 9, 1974, to September 1975 and again from September 20, 1976, to May 23, 1977.
The Price Is Right is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, wherein contestants placed successive bids on merchandise prizes with the goal of bidding closest to each prize's actual retail price without surpassing it. The show was a precursor to the current and best-known version of the program, which premiered in 1972 on CBS's daytime schedule. It makes The Price Is Right one of only a few game show franchises to have aired in some form across all three of the Big Three television networks.
Password Plus and Super Password are American TV game shows that aired separately between 1979 and 1989. Both shows were revivals of Password, which originally ran from 1961 to 1975 in various incarnations. With only subtle differences between them, both Password Plus and Super Password retained the format of play as their predecessor, with two teams of two people each—a celebrity and a contestant—attempting to guess a mystery word using only one-word clues. A new feature included a series of five passwords as clues to an overarching puzzle for the teams to solve.
Don't Forget the Lyrics! is an international music game show. The original American show aired on Fox from July 11, 2007, to June 19, 2009, and after a year off the air, a third overall season, and first as a syndicated show, began on June 15, 2010, in daytime syndication and in primetime on VH1 and in primetime on MyNetworkTV on October 5, 2010. On March 24, 2011, the show was canceled. A new primetime version, hosted by Niecy Nash, debuted on FOX on May 23, 2022. The show has spun off to numerous countries outside America using different top prize or game format.
The Chase is an American television quiz show adapted from the British program of the same name. It premiered on August 6, 2013, on the Game Show Network (GSN). It was hosted by Brooke Burns and featured Mark Labbett as the "chaser". A revival of the show premiered on January 7, 2021, on ABC. It is hosted by Sara Haines and initially featured as the chasers Jeopardy! champions James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter. Labbett returned as a chaser in June 2021, before stepping down in 2022 along with Jennings. In their place are Buzzy Cohen, Brandon Blackwell, and Victoria Groce.
Funny You Should Ask is an American television panel game show that aired from 1968 to 1969 on ABC. Hosted by Lloyd Thaxton, it was a comedy game show featuring celebrities, and aired as part of a programming block that also included The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game. The series debuted on October 28, 1968, and was produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions.
