MG/HS Hour had problems with panelist bookings. People at MGP knew it at the time. Many panelists were nobodies at the time and they're still nobodies nigh onto 40 years later. Lots of soap opera actors, even from soaps on CBS! Nedra Volz was their one success story.
I realize the ratings weren't very good, but that time slot was poison. Given some of the garbage NBC was running at that point, a Match Game half-hour in the mornings was worth a shot.
I dunno.
Match Game was back after just a year off,
Hollywood Squares was back after two years off, and it may not have been enough time. The MG questions weren't as salacious as they were in the CBS days; I'm not sure if that was Goodson's decision or NBC's. Booking soap opera stars on game shows makes no sense. And there weren't any familiar faces (i.e. regulars); I don't know who made the most appearances, but even Nedra Volz was in less than a quarter of the episodes.
MG didn't really make it in a morning time slot twice; I don't know that NBC would have benefitted by putting it at 11:30 or noon.
That said, booking less famous celebs isn't necessarily the worst strategy (that's kinda how Brett Somers was discovered). A few people have pointed out that the third week of the show was probably one of the best: besides two $30,000 wins, the stars worked well together and appeared to enjoy being there, even if none of them became household names.
And the time slot was a killer;
General Hospital was the #1 soap and
The Guiding Light was in the top five. But I would think counterprogramming would make more sense; why put a third soap in that slot? (
Santa Barbara was on for eight and a half years and never made it above #10.)
Does anybody know what
MG/HS's ratings were during its nine months on the air? (And if
Whew! drew a lot of kids, did CBS ever consider moving it to an afternoon time slot?)
