Two male contestants on Match Game 77

[BillCullen1]

On Friday, Sept 12, GSN aired a MG ep with two male contestants competing against each other. I don't recall ever seeing that on MG. It was an ep from early '77. Celebs included Joey Bishop and Elizabeth Allen. The two males were on the last show of the week that carried over to the next week that featured Ed Asner. The one guy had won about eight or nine games by this time.

[Ian Wallis]

I remember seeing this at the time (and also in previous GSN reruns) and being surprised.  The champ on that show would go on to win about 14 games - the most in the show's history - but because he kept blowing the SuperMatch, he only won something like $16,000.

I think the show as much as possible was trying not to have two men against each other, but when he won so many games they had no choice.  Interestingly, the woman who finally beat him faced men opponents in three of her first four matches, so they must have had a "backlog" of men waiting.

GT certainly favored women contestants on its shows in the '70s and '80s, but there were a number of times where two men faced each other:  it happened on Password Plus about five or six times, and on Card Sharks (both versions) several times as well.  I'm surprised it only happened once on Match Game.

[Eric Paddon]

I think "Double Dare" is the one Goodson show where two men against each other tended to happen very often.

[BillCullen1]

The guy's streak ended on the first MG aired today (9/16). George ended up with $16.500 and won about a dozen games.