Long Discontinued Game Show Practices (that Lasted Longer Than You Thought)

[nowhammies10]

I thought the Contestant's Row perfect bid bonus had changed to $500 earlier than it did. That change also occurred, per Steve's timeline, in November of '98.

It should be noted that the Kennedy version upped it to $500 pretty early on.

It should be noted that the Kennedy version lasted all of ten months and it's pretty clear I'm talking about the daytime show.

[Clay Zambo]

Does anybody remember when Jeopardy! changed the rule so that the departing and returning flights for their consolation prize trips could only be from Los Angeles?

Wow, that seems like a recipe for players to decline their prizes. (Which might be exactly what they had in mind.)

[Jumpondees]

Here's one that I've yet to see be mentioned, the act of having a hard cap on winnings where a contestant is "retired" and overages are either donated to charity or kept by the contestant.

[mystery7]

I thought only Barry & Enright did that as their way of complying with CBS's prize limits. Jack Barry took quite a lot of time to explain that when Joe Dunn retired on Joker's Wild. If any other producers did that, they didn't make nearly the big deal of it that Jack did.

[Bryce L.]

I thought only Barry & Enright did that as their way of complying with CBS's prize limits. Jack Barry took quite a lot of time to explain that when Joe Dunn retired on Joker's Wild. If any other producers did that, they didn't make nearly the big deal of it that Jack did.

Could've sworn Jeopardy! did that in the 80s (and it supposedly hit Frank Spangenberg hard when he won $102K in 1990).

[splinkynip]

I thought only Barry & Enright did that as their way of complying with CBS's prize limits. Jack Barry took quite a lot of time to explain that when Joe Dunn retired on Joker's Wild. If any other producers did that, they didn't make nearly the big deal of it that Jack did.

Could've sworn Jeopardy! did that in the 80s (and it supposedly hit Frank Spangenberg hard when he won $102K in 1990).

This did occur, I believe it only affected Frank and Bob Blake? This applied to the few Wheel of Fortune contestants as well who won over $100,000 (later $125,000) over three days.

[TimK2003]

Here's a practice that I did not know existed on the Tomarken PYL:

Until I saw a recently aired rerun on Buzzr, I did not know that in addition to the winnings caps of $25,000 (then later $50,000), there was also a 5-day appearance limit at play as well.

I don't ever remember seeing anyone being "retired" after 5 wins who didn't surpass the $25/$50K mark.

[That Don Guy]

I thought only Barry & Enright did that as their way of complying with CBS's prize limits. Jack Barry took quite a lot of time to explain that when Joe Dunn retired on Joker's Wild. If any other producers did that, they didn't make nearly the big deal of it that Jack did.

Pretty sure the "hard cap" was used on CBS Gambit as well; I vaguely remember Wink informing contestants that approached it that they had to give back cash/prizes if they exceeded it.

Besides TJW and Gambit, how many CBS shows had anybody come close to $25,000 before they let them keep the excess? TPIR didn't have this problem. Nobody on Match Game got to $25,000 until, what, 1979? $10,000 Pyramid and Now You See It both had "win the bonus round and retire" rules.

[JasonA1]

One contestant on Match Game '75 got above $20,000, meaning her $5,000 Head-to-Head questions started to be worth whatever the difference between her total and $25,000 was.



-Jason

[Argo]

On The Price is Right, the rule informing contestants to “bid in dollars only” is considered ancient at this point. I thought it was done away with at the start of the 90s, but I was surprised to find an episode from 1996 with Bob still letting contestants know to do precisely that.

The Inquisitive One

I wouldn't be surprised if they have to do this every time a new contestants arrives in contestants row nowadays. The FEW episodes I've seen of Drew's and last years of Bob, it seemed like they had to explain the rules of every game like it was the first time played. Just like the contestants who "watch the show every day" but never seen Clock Game before.

[TLEberle]

I thought only Barry & Enright did that as their way of complying with CBS's prize limits. Jack Barry took quite a lot of time to explain that when Joe Dunn retired on Joker's Wild. If any other producers did that, they didn't make nearly the big deal of it that Jack did.

Could've sworn Jeopardy! did that in the 80s (and it supposedly hit Frank Spangenberg hard when he won $102K in 1990).

Officer Frank was less than a thousand bucks away from Chuck Forrest's total after four days. I think he had to know that the charity angle was a certainty if he won. Also he seemed rather happy to give the money to the hospice so I wouldn't say it "bit him".

On his fifth day Frank's FJ bet of $10,100 would have allowed for a co-champion if he were wrong and second doubled and was right. He also would have missed Bob Blake's total by just a teensy bit.