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A game show involves members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. In some shows contestants compete against other players or another team whilst other shows involve contestants striving alone for a good outcome or high score. Game shows often reward players with prizes such as cash, or holidays and goods and services provided by the show's sponsors. Early television game shows descended from similar programs on broadcast radio. Types There are several basic genres of game shows with a great deal of crossover between the different types. History In the US, television game shows fell out of favor in the 1950s after it was revealed that favored contestants on The $64,000 Question, Twenty One and other shows had been given answers and coached by the producers (see: Quiz show scandals). They came back into favor in the 1960s by adopting merchandise prizes of far less value and by emphasizing larger numbers of simple questions, or physical contests without an advantage. In the middle of the 1960s, Chuck Barris conceived a new genre in which the competitor's personal life became part of the show. They were the forerunners of today's reality game show. The prize was typically romantic opportunity (The Dating Game) or fame (The Gong Show) rather than cash. One of his famous shows, The Newlywed Game, actually led to some divorces. This genre virtually disappeared from US screens in the 1990s. Blind Date, the British version of The Dating Game, remained popular in the United Kingdom. The height of the game show era began in the early 1970s, thanks in part to the success of popular game shows like The Price Is Right, Match Game, The Joker's Wild and The $10,000 Pyramid. Many of these game shows provided amazing game show sets filled with flashing chase lights and sometimes flashing neon lights. During this golden era, most hosts' wardrobes were supplied by Botany 500. This era of game shows officially ended in the late 1990s, leaving The Price Is Right as the only daytime network game show remaining on U.S. television. In syndication, however, a handful of game shows continue to be popular, including Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, and to a lesser extent, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Family Feud. (All of those shows were originally network daytime shows except for Millionaire, which was a nighttime summer limited-run series that became an unexpected breakout hit.) One unusual aspect of American game shows was that, except for short-term guest hosting (such as Betty White substituting for her husband Allen Ludden on Password), no game show had ever had a woman as a permanent host until 1983, when White hosted NBC's Just Men!, which lasted less than a year. There was no female game show host on TV until actress/comedienne Elaine Joyce was tapped to host a late '80s revial of The Dating Game. Joyce was replaced not long after by a male host, leaving the landscape of game show hosts male-dominated again until 2001, when the game show The Weakest Link premiered in the United States with Anne Robinson, the original series host when it appeared on British television. Another major element in a game show is score displays. The most famous of these displays is the "eggcrate", which consists of seven rows of five bulbs each per digit. The eggcrate display has been used on more game shows than any other score display in history, and is still used today on The Price Is Right. In recent years, however, video displays have replaced the eggcrate. Sony's shows were the first to switch, as Wheel of Fortune adopted the look in 2002, followed by Jeopardy!. CBS also adopted video screens in 2001 for Hollywood Squares, a show produced by its King World division, and Family Feud adopted the look for its new 30th anniversary "blended" set for 2006-07. In Japan a number of shows emerged that defy classification by most standards. For instance, in one infamous show, failing to answer a question correctly led to one's own mother being buried in tons of rotting fish. In another, those who failed to answer questions correctly were dumped at locations remote from transport or assistance, e.g. in the Arctic, and had to perform such feats as drinking beer while sitting on blocks of ice — first one to run to the outhouse was left behind. In a show colloquially called Strip Questions, a nude woman stands behind a pane of glass with strips of paper embedded in it; every time she misses a question, one strip of paper is pulled away. The reality game shows concept really took off in the 2000s with shows like Survivor, Big Brother and their clones. Planet 24 television (owned by Bob Geldof) devised the concept of Survivor but were unable to sell it to a British or American broadcaster. It was eventually taken up in 1997 by Sweden as Expedition Robinson. The format was an immediate hit in other Scandinavian countries and it soon caught on around the world. These shows combine elements of reality show and older reality game shows with traditional game-show elements of physical competitions by contestants. Some shows (e.g. Weakest Link) exploit a disapproval voting system similar to the reality game show, and play up the realistic confrontation between contestants, but are in fact just conventional game shows, where no bodily torture or emotionally stressful situation is created, other than the failure to answer some question or impress hosts. Dog Eat Dog was even publicised as a reality show despite being basically a revamp of The Krypton Factor with a variant of disapproval voting added. Card games, especially poker and to a lesser extent blackjack, have recently become the basis for a number of popular shows on various U.S. broadcast and cable/satellite networks. Although these shows appear to meet the third definition above ("a game that involves an element of chance or strategy in addition to, or instead of, a test of general knowledge") an interesting controversy has erupted over whether these "casino games" should be considered game shows. A question-and-answer element is present in Card Sharks, Strip Poker, Gambit and Top Card, but not in (Super) Pay Cards!. Argentina Australia Brazil Bulgaria Canada Czech Republic Chile Finland France Ireland Mexico Panama Philippines Puerto Rico Russian quiz, game & dating shows Russian reality shows South Africa Spain Hits Gameshow United Kingdom United States See also | |||||||
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