Daytime major network game shows 1970s & 80s

[calliaume]

Going off of Thomas's ratings list, interesting that a few shows had fair ratings, and still only ran for a year or two. Case in point, Marble Machine and High Rollers were doing better than Wheel, but were gone in 1976. Jackpot did slightly better, and was gone within a few months.

Thomas pointed out these were season to date ratings through July 13, 1975.  Magnificent Marble Machine premiered July 7 (per http://www.curtalliaume.com/gameshow.html), so only five shows' worth of ratings are included.  (This is one of the reasons why I take the argument that the 1976 version of Break the Bank was inexplicably cancelled despite rating third for the year with a grain of salt - EoTVGS' ratings list ran through late April, which meant only the show's first two weeks' worth of ratings was included.  I'm pretty sure that if the show's rating remained that high throughout its run, ABC would have found a spot for it elsewhere.)

I don't think the 10 AM and 10:30 AM network shows did particularly well.  Celebrity Sweepstakes and Spin-Off are the two-lowest rated shows on the list, and Wheel of Fortune and Gambit (which both aired at 10:30 at the time) are pretty low as well.  (The Price Is Right was still at 3:00 PM at that point.)  Still, the combination of the latter two had 65 percent of the TV viewers at 10:30 whereas the former combination garnered only 52 percent at 10 AM - it's possible there were lots of stations dropping the 10 AM shows for a movie or a 90-minute version of Mike, Merv, or Dinah.

[danderson]

the only reason why Sale Of The Century did well at either 10 or 10:30 was while you had stations opting for talk shows in some markets, there were some that knew that a network game might do better than a syndicated talk show.

[danderson]

Going off of Thomas's ratings list, interesting that a few shows had fair ratings, and still only ran for a year or two. Case in point, Marble Machine and High Rollers were doing better than Wheel, but were gone in 1976. Jackpot did slightly better, and was gone within a few months.

Thomas pointed out these were season to date ratings through July 13, 1975.  Magnificent Marble Machine premiered July 7 (per http://www.curtalliaume.com/gameshow.html), so only five shows' worth of ratings are included.  (This is one of the reasons why I take the argument that the 1976 version of Break the Bank was inexplicably cancelled despite rating third for the year with a grain of salt - EoTVGS' ratings list ran through late April, which meant only the show's first two weeks' worth of ratings was included.  I'm pretty sure that if the show's rating remained that high throughout its run, ABC would have found a spot for it elsewhere.)

I don't think the 10 AM and 10:30 AM network shows did particularly well.  Celebrity Sweepstakes and Spin-Off are the two-lowest rated shows on the list, and Wheel of Fortune and Gambit (which both aired at 10:30 at the time) are pretty low as well.  (The Price Is Right was still at 3:00 PM at that point.)  Still, the combination of the latter two had 65 percent of the TV viewers at 10:30 whereas the former combination garnered only 52 percent at 10 AM - it's possible there were lots of stations dropping the 10 AM shows for a movie or a 90-minute version of Mike, Merv, or Dinah.

that's why TPIR when it started was at 10:30- Goodson didn't want Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin stealing too many stations from TPIR, so he suggested 10:30 instead and TJW went to 10

[PYLdude]

the only reason why Sale Of The Century did well at either 10 or 10:30 was while you had stations opting for talk shows in some markets, there were some that knew that a network game might do better than a syndicated talk show.

Blackout, Your Number's Up, Now You See It, and Time Machine.

[PYLdude]

Going off of Thomas's ratings list, interesting that a few shows had fair ratings, and still only ran for a year or two. Case in point, Marble Machine and High Rollers were doing better than Wheel, but were gone in 1976. Jackpot did slightly better, and was gone within a few months.

Thomas pointed out these were season to date ratings through July 13, 1975.  Magnificent Marble Machine premiered July 7 (per http://www.curtalliaume.com/gameshow.html), so only five shows' worth of ratings are included.  (This is one of the reasons why I take the argument that the 1976 version of Break the Bank was inexplicably cancelled despite rating third for the year with a grain of salt - EoTVGS' ratings list ran through late April, which meant only the show's first two weeks' worth of ratings was included.  I'm pretty sure that if the show's rating remained that high throughout its run, ABC would have found a spot for it elsewhere.)

I don't think the 10 AM and 10:30 AM network shows did particularly well.  Celebrity Sweepstakes and Spin-Off are the two-lowest rated shows on the list, and Wheel of Fortune and Gambit (which both aired at 10:30 at the time) are pretty low as well.  (The Price Is Right was still at 3:00 PM at that point.)  Still, the combination of the latter two had 65 percent of the TV viewers at 10:30 whereas the former combination garnered only 52 percent at 10 AM - it's possible there were lots of stations dropping the 10 AM shows for a movie or a 90-minute version of Mike, Merv, or Dinah.

that's why TPIR when it started was at 10:30- Goodson didn't want Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin stealing too many stations from TPIR, so he suggested 10:30 instead and TJW went to 10

Proof?

[danderson]

I have seen on some sites that Goodson was worried that Mike or Merv would steal some of TPIR's thunder, so CBS put Price at 10:30 so that they would get as many clearances as possible(and the rest is history)

[TLEberle]

Dan: your say so/some unnamed website isn't really proof. If you can't cite your source like you would using MLA/Chicago style (mmm...Chicago style) then that falls short of the Proof/Not Real hurdle, to say nothing of the fact that TPIR began in the afternoon in the first place. That doesn't mean you actually have to do it as if your post is a college thesis, just that it is helpful to the group to say what source you're using.

(EDIT: I misread/misunderstood the thing about TPIR airing at 3:00 pm and conflated that to being that it began airing at that time.)

[Dbacksfan12]

Dan: your say so/some unnamed website isn't really proof. If you can't cite it in MLA/Chicago style (mmm...Chicago style) then that falls short of the Proof/Not Real hurdle, to say nothing of the fact that TPIR began in the afternoon in the first place.

When the show debuted, it aired at 10:30 AM (Alliaume July).

Works Cited:
Alliaume, Curt. The Price is Right . 18 2002, July. http://www.curtalliaume.com/tpir.html (accessed December 23, 2015).

[calliaume]

When the show debuted, it aired at 10:30 AM (Alliaume July).

Works Cited:
Alliaume, Curt. The Price is Right . 18 2002, July. http://www.curtalliaume.com/tpir.html (accessed December 23, 2015).

The Credible Hulk always cites his sources.

TPIR started at 10:30 in September, 1972, moved to 3:00 PM the following March when The $10,000 Pyramid and Hollywood's Talking were launched, then went back to 10:30 AM in August, 1975, presumably in preparation for the switch to an hour-long show.

And, by the way, my primary source is Wesley Hyatt's The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television, published in 1997.

[WarioBarker]

Going off of Thomas's ratings list, interesting that a few shows had fair ratings, and still only ran for a year or two. Case in point, Marble Machine and High Rollers were doing better than Wheel, but were gone in 1976.

I think the demise of Marble Machine and High Rollers is at least in part due to NBC moving 'em around twice in the span of about six weeks, itself mainly due to Wheel expanding to an hour for that timeframe.

At the start of December '75, when Wheel expanded, High Rollers was moved from 11AM to Noon (against Let's Make A Deal and The Young & The Restless) which in turn pushed Marble from Noon to 12:30 (against All My Children and Search for Tomorrow). Marble also had to cut its runtime to 25 minutes to accommodate NBC's five-minute news bulletin at 12:55, which probably didn't help its pacing.

In mid-January, when Wheel shrunk back to a half-hour and moved to 11, Marble came back to Noon after a two-week absence from the schedule (and now had the all-celeb format) while High Rollers was moved to 10:30 (against the second half of The Price Is Right).

(Source: Curt Alliaume's Game Shows '75)

[DoorNumberFour]

Going off of Thomas's ratings list, interesting that a few shows had fair ratings, and still only ran for a year or two. Case in point, Marble Machine and High Rollers were doing better than Wheel, but were gone in 1976.

I think the demise of Marble Machine and High Rollers is at least in part due to NBC moving 'em around twice in the span of about six weeks, itself mainly due to Wheel expanding to an hour for that timeframe.

At the start of December '75, when Wheel expanded, High Rollers was moved from 11AM to Noon (against Let's Make A Deal and The Young & The Restless) which in turn pushed Marble from Noon to 12:30 (against All My Children and Search for Tomorrow). Marble also had to cut its runtime to 25 minutes to accommodate NBC's five-minute news bulletin at 12:55, which probably didn't help its pacing.

In mid-January, when Wheel shrunk back to a half-hour and moved to 11, Marble came back to Noon after a two-week absence from the schedule (and now had the all-celeb format) while High Rollers was moved to 10:30 (against the second half of The Price Is Right).

(Source: Curt Alliaume's Game Shows '75)

Yes, I do see that you know these things.

[PYLdude]

Isn't that almost verbatim from Curt's site, just reworded?

[aaron sica]

Isn't that almost verbatim from Curt's site, just reworded?

If so, I say he gets an "F" in the course, for plagiarism.

[Thunder]

He gets an "F" from me for other reasons.

[Jimmy Owen]

Regarding the soaps, a good number of them had the backing of Procter & Gamble, which kept them on the air for as long as P&G wanted them on.