"Give me high ratings! Give me a hit!" Celebrity Family Feud host Steve Harvey would exclaim after it was revealed that the prime time celebrity version of the hit syndicated game show Family Feud was the highest rated of ABC's Sunday night game show lineup, finishing fourth in the recent Nielsen ratings.for the week ending August 1.
Celebrity Family Feud's high ratings also carried over to the following show, The $100,000 Pyramid. The latest incarnation of the classic word game finished seventh for the week. Wrapping up the evening was the revival of the hit 70s game show Match Game. The show ranked 14th that week.
In all the years of following game shows (by the way, this is the first entry on the subject), it's the first time a major broadcast network has aired an all game show lineup, though Celebrity Family Feud was preceded by America's Funniest Videos.
Now, an in depth look at a ratings success for ABC.
Now in it's second season, Celebrity Family Feud has been a summertime hit, especially against rerun competition. Harvey who took over hosting the syndicated version from John O'Hurley in 2010, parlayed the ratings resurgence in syndication into a prime time success. In a previous article written for examiner.com, it was mentioned that like other stand up comedians who have hosted game shows, Harvey doe not upstage the contestants, he does was successful hosts such as Bill Cullen and Bob Barker have done well and that is listen and react. The results have been extremely funny and that has been the key to saving the syndicated version from cancellation as well as generating high ratings. It's still one of the best game show formats ever invented, a very simple game that the home audience can play along. You turn on the show, you hear Harvey read the question, and you play along.
As for the $100,000 Pyramid, it's the first time since the original $10,000 Pyramid debuted in 1973 that the durable word game has aired in prime time. Michael Strahan, who recently left Live With Kelly and Michael presides over the festivities. The show has gone back to the original front game format, where two teams attempt to identify seven words in 30 seconds instead of six in 20 seconds in the Donny Osmond version. A carryover from the $25,000 Pyramid that aired on CBS is the "Mystery 7", where a contestant can win a trip if they guess all seven words in 30 seconds. Now comes what makes any version of Pyramid a classic, the Winner's Circle. Contestants can win $50,000 in the first game and if they win the second game, a possible $100,000 if they can identify six subjects in 60 seconds. It is still to this day, the best bonus round of any TV game show ever invented because it has the most important elements needed for a successful game show, drama, tension and suspense. Strahan, like his predecessor Dick Clark, also gives clues if a contestant comes up short in the Winner's Circle. If Bob Stewart, who originally created this classic was still alive, he would be very impressed at what he saw.
And that brings us to the final prime time game show entry, the revival of the hit 70s comedy game show Match Game. When it was mentioned that Alec Baldwin would be stepping into the host's role that the late Gene Rayburn made famous, there was skepticism that it was a bad move since he never hosted a game show. But it turned out to be a good move as Baldwin, who uses Rayburn's telescopic microphone has proven himself to be a capable hosted, interacting very well with the contestants and the celebrity panel that has included Jack McBrayer, Niecy Nash and Cheryl Hines.
It's the fourth revival of Match Game after three unsuccessful attempts and this time FremantleMedia has got it right, going back to the hit 70s format. The contestants still play two rounds and the questions still yield double entendre responses that sometimes get censored. One staple character from the Rayburn version that was mentioned in an episode was Dumb Dora and the audience responded "How dumb is she?" It still a very funny game show. The only thing wrong with this incarnation is the money amounts are rather cheap. If a contestant wins the Audience Match or comes up short, instead of playing for ten times their winnings in the Head to Head match, they play for five times the amount. The best way would have been to keep the ten times payoff and use the Star Wheel for a possible $50,000 if it lands on a star.
So there you have it. A prime time success that has viewers gathered around the TV on Sunday nights, playing along with three highly rated game shows.
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