How did nighttime shows differ from daytime shows back in the day?

[Bryce L.]

Sounds like 70s. I don’t remember any significant differences in Perry’s versions.

Only difference I can recall in Perry's era came with the shopping format, once you got close to the Lot. In daytime, the next step after the car was the cash jackpot, as a standalone prize. In the syndicated series, following the car was all six prizes, minus the jackpot (in both cases, the next step after these was everything on stage plus the cash).

IMHO the nighttime show got it right, since it actually gave you an incentive to go all the way, rather than just pulling the rip cord with $70-odd-grand despite being within spitting distance of the whole shebang.

[TLEberle]

I'm sure the contestants who came away with spendable cash instead of several prizes they may not desire felt differently.

[ActualRetailMike]

Regarding TPiR, first the obvious differences:

Daytime (when it was still 30 minutes):

• Hosted by Bob Barker
• Johnny Olson says "A fortune in fabulous prizes may go to these people today, if they can tell when the price is right!"

Nighttime:

• Hosted by Dennis James
• "A fortune in fabulous prizes may go to these people tonight..."

For the more subtle differences, one involved the showcase.  The daytime version had a commercial between the second showcase bid and the price reveal; the nighttime version, did not.  But that resulted in an odd effect; you know how they put those cards in the showcase podiums that identified who bid on which showcase (e.g., "Sailboat","Living Room", I actually once saw "Elevator" when they did the dept. store theme)?  On the nighttime shows, as soon as they cut back to the contestants, the labels were already there!  This also meant they put the price tags in those little side podium pockets during that time.  I thought it was kind of "sneaky", like, you knew the crew was busy there while you weren't looking!

Another subtle difference was in the Range Game.  I remember noticing that the Range Finder at night covered a $200 field, while on a daytime show that aired shortly thereafter had it cover only $150.  Was this because they wanted more winners on the nighttime shows?  Or was it because the game was still new, and the gameplay was still being fleshed out.

Finally, is it just me, or did the nighttime shows have, on average, more expensive IUFB prizes.  I think it was Dennis James who announced the first 4-digit IUFB that I ever heard: "One THOUSAND, two-hundred and seventy-nine dollars" (or was it 75?).


Who remembers the short-lived nighttime version of (Trebek) Jeopardy!?  They had higher dollar values on the board, and there were 4 contestants instead of 3.  Of course, this show was actually titled "Super J!", but hey...

[TLEberle]

Higher point values but without an appreciable increase in difficulty means there are four accomplished champions fighting over table scraps.

[Sodboy13]

As Travis mentioned, Super J! was played for points, not dollars, and the points had no correlation to cash payouts in the game, so they could have made those point values whatever they wanted.

Also, Double Jeopardy was actually Double-And-A-Half Jeopardy.

[BrandonFG]

Who remembers the short-lived nighttime version of (Trebek) Jeopardy!?  They had higher dollar values on the board, and there were 4 contestants instead of 3.  Of course, this show was actually titled "Super J!", but hey...

I think it's pretty fondly remembered here. I liked the marble finish on parts of the set.

[WarioBarker]

Daytime (when it was still 30 minutes):

• Hosted by Bob Barker
• Johnny Olson says "A fortune in fabulous prizes may go to these people today, if they can tell when the price is right!"

Nighttime:

• Hosted by Dennis James
• "A fortune in fabulous prizes may go to these people tonight..."

For Bob's three seasons in nighttime, the spiel changed to "Right now, an audience is sparkling with excitement, because a fortune in fabulous prizes may be theirs tonight, if they know when The Price Is Right!" (this was later reworked a bit for the first tapings of the Tom Kennedy version), with twinkling scrolling lights superimposed over the audience during the intro.

The daytime version had a commercial between the second showcase bid and the price reveal; the nighttime version, did not.

This was also the case on hour-long daytime shows from 1975-78.

Another subtle difference was in the Range Game. I remember noticing that the Range Finder at night covered a $200 field, while on a daytime show that aired shortly thereafter had it cover only $150. Was this because they wanted more winners on the nighttime shows?  Or was it because the game was still new, and the gameplay was still being fleshed out.

The nighttime show often experimented with the pricing games, so that's likely what happened here. The $200 range was only used once, near the end of Season 1, shrinking to the standard $150 thereafter.

[TLEberle]

I think it's pretty fondly remembered here. I liked the marble finish on parts of the set.

Mileage may vary. Keeping in mind that it was basically put together to get Monopoly off the ground:

Meaningless points. If the tournament brings together the thirty-six best players ever, why not let winners keep their score in dollars, or losers keep their score in the game where they go out, or some combination therein.

Looking through the Jeopardy Archive, it looks like a few also-rans managed to fluke their way through the first round. Perhaps if every round was a three-panel game the best would rise. (That said, Bob Verini stood to curb-stomp the winnings record by eighty grand had things gone different.)

I would judge it to be more awkward than the Ultimate Tournament. 10th Anniversary, $1m Masters and Decades were much better.

[Mr. Armadillo]

Who remembers the short-lived nighttime version of (Trebek) Jeopardy!?  They had higher dollar values on the board, and there were 4 contestants instead of 3.  Of course, this show was actually titled "Super J!", but hey...

It was a 13-episode tournament for one summer, so of course it was short-lived.  The 4 contestants was used for the first round to get more champions involved, but since the first round lasted for 9 of the 13 episodes, it may have seemed like that was the rule throughout.

Meaningless points. If the tournament brings together the thirty-six best players ever, why not let winners keep their score in dollars, or losers keep their score in the game where they go out, or some combination therein.

$5,000 for players eliminated in quarterfinals and $10,000 for players eliminated in semifinals was (and still is) standard for tournaments.  Letting losers keep their score is generally a bad idea in a tournament if it could affect (or be affected by) Final Jeopardy! wagering strategies.  It only happens in tournament finals, and Super Jeopardy! only had a one-day final.

[BrandonFG]

When this thread was first posted, I tried to find this article, but had no luck. Reading through a related thread allowed me to finally find it. From the NY Times, 1979, it discusses the budgets of network vs. daytime shows. Nothing earth-shattering, but worth a share.

The biggest bargain on television, for the networks and the affiliated stations, at any rate, is a game show. Typically, five 30‐minute shows, a week's supply, can be produced for $20,000. The producer sells it to one of the networks at a minimum markup of 25 percent, but it can be double or triple that for such well established shows as “The Price Is Right” and “The Hollywood Squares” or newer successes like “Family Feud” and “The Gong Show.”

From then on, the numbers start to get a lot bigger. If a game show is carried by 175 stations, as the most successful ones are, it will produce a total of something like $100,000 a day in advertising revenue. Better yet, in addition to the five minutes of commercial time built into each 30‐minute episode, the plugs for products that are being given away, which are also paid for, can add up to another three minutes.

It might mean that the producers receive the smallest return, but if a net profit of $250,000 to SI million a year for a single show seems inadequate, much larger sums are available in what is called the syndication market. selling his show to one of the networks, which makes it available to its affiliated stations, the producer sells it directly, to independent, unaffiliated stations. The price he gets can range from $50 for each 30‐minute show in the (Continued on smallest markets to $5,000 or more in New York, Los Angeles Chicago.

[JasonA1]

Very interesting read! Much appreciated. We always sort of knew that nighttime shows gave away more at night to make them seem like spectacles worthy of that hour, and that they generally had bigger budgets. But that article provides a better understanding as to why they'd spend that money - the return on investment was much more significant for the producer(s).

-Jason