The Gong Show is an American amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to 1980 and 1988 to 1989, and was revived in 2017 for broadcast on ABC. The show was created and originally produced by Chuck Barris, who also served as host for the NBC run and from 1977 to 1980 in syndication. Its most recent version was executive-produced by Will Arnett and hosted by Tommy Maitland, a fictional character performed by Mike Myers. The Gong Show is known for its absurdist humor and style, with the actual competition secondary to the often outlandish acts presented; a small cash prize has typically been awarded to each show's winner.
Charles Hirsch Barris was an American game show creator, producer, and host. Barris was known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. He was also a songwriter who wrote "Palisades Park", recorded by Freddy Cannon and also recorded by Ramones. Barris wrote an autobiography titled Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was made into the film of the same title starring Sam Rockwell and directed by George Clooney.
Last Comic Standing is an American reality television talent competition show on NBC that aired from June 1, 2003, to August 9, 2010, then again in 2014 and 2015. The goal of the program was to select a comedian from an initially large group of hopefuls. For the first seven seasons, the winner received a cash prize and a television special; for season eight in 2014, the winner won a cash prize, a talent deal with NBC, and a half-hour scripted project developed by Universal Television.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly news radio panel show produced by WBEZ and National Public Radio (NPR) in Chicago, Illinois. On the program, panelists and contestants are quizzed in humorous ways about that week's news. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member stations. The show averages about six million weekly listeners on air and via podcast.
David Attell is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer best known as the host of Comedy Central's Insomniac with Dave Attell.
Star Search is an American television show that was produced by T.P.E./Rysher Entertainment from 1983 to 1995, hosted by Ed McMahon, and created by Al Masini. A relaunch was produced by 2929 Productions from 2003 to 2004. On both versions of the show, contestants competed in several genres of entertainment. The show was originally filmed at the Earl Carroll Theatre at 6230 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood; it was later filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.
Hey Hey It's Saturday was a long-running variety television program on Australian television. It initially ran for 28 years on the Nine Network from 9 October 1971 to 20 November 1999, with a recess in 1978. Its host throughout its entire run was Daryl Somers, who later also became executive producer of the program. The original producer, Gavan Disney, left the program in the 1980s, and Somers then jointly formed his own production company, Somers Carroll Productions, with comedy writer and on-screen partner Ernie Carroll, the performer of Somers' pink ostrich puppet sidekick Ossie Ostrich.
The $1.98 Beauty Show is an American game show that aired in syndication from September 1978 to September 1980.
Brian Posehn is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, musician, and writer. After numerous appearances as a television guest star, Posehn acquired his first major recurring role in HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1998). He is known for his roles as Jim Kuback on The WB's Mission Hill and Brian Spukowski on Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program. Posehn had a recurring role on The Big Bang Theory as geologist Bert Kibbler.
It Takes Two was an Australian music talent show, which ran for three seasons from May 2006 to April 2008. It was based on the original UK programme Just the Two of Us.
Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known as the "Roastmaster General" for his insult comedy, his multiple appearances at celebrity roasts held by the New York Friars Club, the Comedy Central Roast television series, and the Netflix historical comedy series Historical Roasts. In 2009 the Chicago Tribune called Ross "the new millennium Don Rickles." His directorial debut, the 2006 documentary Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie, won the prize for Best Film at the Comedia film festival held at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.
Make Me Laugh was an American television game show in which contestants watch three stand-up comedians performing their acts, one at a time, earning one dollar for every second that they could make it through without laughing. Each comedian had sixty seconds to try to make the contestant laugh for a maximum of $180.
Little Talent Show is an MTV program that aired weekdays in the fall 2006 season.
Cirque de Celebrité is a celebrity reality television show broadcast on Sky One. The show features celebrities training for and then performing various circus acts. The winner of the series of 2006 was Grace Adams-Short.
Turn It Up! is a musical game show that aired on MTV from June 30 to December 7, 1990. It was the second game show to be produced and broadcast on the network after Remote Control, produced by Albie Hecht, Alan Goodman, and Fred Seibert, of Chauncey Street Productions in New York City.
Chopped is an American reality-based cooking television game show series created by Michael Krupat, Dave Noll and Linda Lea. It is hosted by Ted Allen. The series pits four chefs against each other as they compete for a chance to win $10,000. The series debuted in 2009, and episodes air every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on Food Network.
Talentadong Pinoy, also known as Bangon Talentadong Pinoy is a Philippine reality talent show broadcast by TV5. The show premiere on August 16, 2008. Hosted initially by Ryan Agoncillo in its first five seasons, within exception of seasons 6 and 7, the show is handled formerly by Robin Padilla and Mariel Rodriguez, it displays performances from singers, dancers, actors, musicians and comedians, to contortionists, impressionists, jugglers, ventriloquists and magicians. Contestants are allowed to perform any act they want. One difference to the Got Talent series is that the judges give their opinions on the performance of the performer and grades only 50% of the final score while the jury also grades 50% of the score to determine the winner. Its recent season aired every Saturday at 8 p.m. (PST). The show ended on March 13, 2021, and was replaced by 1000 Heartbeats: Pintig Pinoy.
Strictly Come Dancing is a South African reality dance competition television series produced for SABC2 by Rapid Blue, based on the British show of the same name. It was broadcast live from the Carlton Centre Ballroom, Johannesburg. The show premiered in South Africa on SABC2 on Saturday 4 February 2006, at 20:00hrs.
Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must identify the person, place, thing, or idea that the clue describes, phrasing each response in the form of a question.
Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle is an American roast comedy competition television series that was broadcast on Comedy Central from July 27, 2016 to August 28, 2018.
