A game show involves members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. In some shows contestants compete against other players or another team whilst other shows involve contestants striving alone for a good outcome or high score. Game shows often reward players with prizes such as cash, or holidays and goods and services provided by the show's sponsors. Early television game shows descended from similar programs on broadcast radio.Types
There are several basic genres of game shows with a great deal of crossover between the different types.
- The simplest form of game show is a quiz show whereby people compete against each other by answering quiz questions or solving puzzles. Quiz shows usually involves members of the public, but sometimes special shows are aired in which celebrities take part and the prizes are given to charity. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! are examples. Some quiz shows, such as the word games Password and Pyramid, pair celebrities and non-notable citizens.
- A panel game usually involves a celebrity panel answering questions about a specialist field such as sport or music and is often played for laughs as much as points. Match Game, a CBS daytime show from the 1970's is one such example. Other examples include What's My Line and To Tell The Truth.
- The third kind of game show involves contestants completing stunts or playing a game that involves an element of chance or strategy in addition to, or instead of, a test of general knowledge. Deal or No Deal is an example of this format, combining both luck and strategy.
- Reality game shows have become popular in recent years. In a reality show the competition usually lasts several days or even weeks and a competitor's progress through the game is based on some form of popularity contest, usually a kind of disapproval voting by their fellow competitors or members of the public.
- Dating game shows, the original reality games, in which the prize is typically a well-funded dating opportunity that one can only pursue with the individual one has 'won' on the show. They are also a type of date auction where competitors compete for dates not with money but with seductive powers or attractiveness or the promise of an enjoyable date or even ultimately marriage.
History
In the US, television game shows fell out of favor in the 1950s after it was revealed that favored contestants on The $64,000 Question, Twenty One and other shows had been given answers and coached by the producers (see: Quiz show scandals). They came back into favor in the 1960s by adopting merchandise prizes of far less value and by emphasizing larger numbers of simple questions, or physical contests without an advantage.
In the middle of the 1960s, Chuck Barris conceived a new genre in which the competitor's personal life became part of the show. They were the forerunners of today's reality game show. The prize was typically romantic opportunity (The Dating Game — the first dating game show) or fame (The Gong Show) rather than cash. One of his famous shows, The Newlywed Game, actually led to some divorces. This genre virtually disappeared from US screens in the 1990s. Blind Date, the British version of The Dating Game, remained popular in the United Kingdom.
The height of the game show era began in the early 1970s, thanks in part to the success of popular game shows like The Price Is Right, Match Game, The Joker's Wild and The $10,000 Pyramid. Many of these game shows provided amazing game show sets filled with flashing chase lights and sometimes flashing neon lights. This era of game shows officially ended in the 1990s, leaving The Price Is Right as the only daytime network game show remaining on U.S. television. In syndication, however, a handful of game shows continue to be popular, including Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, and to a lesser extent, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Family Feud. (All of those shows were originally network daytime shows except for Millionaire, which was a nighttime summer limited-run series that became an unexpected breakout hit.)[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Game show ]
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