The Game Show Forum > The Big Board
$ale of the Century discussion
tyshaun1:
--- Quote from: Neumms on August 17, 2023, 05:25:40 PM ---This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
--- End quote ---
To give you an idea, this list was right around the same time the Winners Board premiered. Notice the not great clearances for any game not named Price, Wheel, or Scrabble.
Ian Wallis:
--- Quote from: tyshaun1 on August 19, 2023, 07:21:09 AM ---
--- Quote from: Neumms on August 17, 2023, 05:25:40 PM ---This struck me as I read the article that called $ale "NBC's hottest new game show." Were ratings sinking when the winner's board premiered? Did it make them go up? And did a drop in ratings prompt the Winner's Big Money Game? Both changes were brought on by the network, right?
--- End quote ---
To give you an idea, this list was right around the same time the Winners Board premiered. Notice the not great clearances for any game not named Price, Wheel, or Scrabble.
--- End quote ---
Wow - I love stuff like this. I wish there was more of it around.
Interesting notes on this:
It looks as if Press Your Luck was just slightly beating Sale of the Century at this time, but if Sale had the same no. of stations it likely would have been ahead.
Super Password - just a few weeks after its premiere and it really wasn't doing that well. The noon slot obviously didn't help.
Body Language with only 103 stations. It's surprising how far the 4 PM slot had fallen by the mid-80s. In my out-of-town TVGuides from the '70s, Tattletales was still listed at 4 PM in most of those editions for its first couple of years, but by around mid 1976 or so, more and more stations started tape-delaying it at 9:30 the next morning. I guess that's why Goodson fought for the 10:30 slot for the Card Sharks revival - he knew it wouldn't do that well if it came on at 4. IIRC, we've read that Press Your Luck had started to drop a fair bit by fall 1985 so CBS was probably more willing to move it by that point.
I guess most of us lamented the expansion of soap operas at the expense of game shows, but I guess when you look at the ratings, there was a good reason why they did it.
ChrisLambert!:
Amused at how you can almost see the exact group of people that switch over to TPIR2 when Wheel ends.
calliaume:
--- Quote from: Ian Wallis on August 19, 2023, 10:52:27 AM --- I guess that's why Goodson fought for the 10:30 slot for the Card Sharks revival - he knew it wouldn't do that well if it came on at 4. IIRC, we've read that Press Your Luck had started to drop a fair bit by fall 1985 so CBS was probably more willing to move it by that point.
I guess most of us lamented the expansion of soap operas at the expense of game shows, but I guess when you look at the ratings, there was a good reason why they did it.
--- End quote ---
One other reason: airing Card Sharks on CBS in the morning allowed the syndicated version to air in individual markets from 4 PM onward, if memory serves—I think the same held true for Kennedy TPIR. WABC, for example, aired Rafferty Card Sharks at 4:30 PM after Jeopardy!, until the Oprah juggernaut allowed them to move her show to 4 PM and Jeopardy! to 7. (This was a huge deal at the time—all three NYC network stations had been airing network news at 7 PM for decades.)
I would still argue there would have been an audience for network game shows in the afternoon after 3 PM, not that it matters much now. The Rules o’ Daytime (air the games in the morning when wifey is doing the housework, air the soaps in the afternoon after she’s done with them) are long gone.
danderson:
You can tell the 3 strongest shows for NBC were Wheel Of Fortune,Days of Our Lives and Another World, because they were cleared by 99 percent of the stations. I wonder if that a big difference in the ratings.
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