January 7, 1974. After Hollywood Squares ended, game show fans would hear the voice of Don Pardo intoning "You'll never know when someone in the game will stand up and yell "JACKPOT!!!"
It would be the opening to the new NBC daytime game show Jackpot, which debuted 50 years ago on January 7. Produced by Bob Stewart, the show featured 16 contestants who competed for an entire week as they solved riddles to earn cash. One player was designated "The Expert" and chose one of the 15 players, all but one had a money amount. The contestant read a riddle and if the expert answered correctly, they would continue. If the expert was stumped, the contestants would trade places. One player had a Jackpot Riddle. If it was found early in the game, the expert could continue or wait until all the riddles were used.
Another way a player could win is via the Super Jackpot. Before the game, a target number was established, followed by a multiplier of 5 to 50. That would constitute the amount for the Super Jackpot. If the target number was matched in the game, a more difficult riddle would be asked and if it was solved, the Super Jackpot was won, with a maximum of $50,000.
Jackpot was commissioned by then NBC Vice President of Daytime Programming Lin Bolen, who canceled the long running shows Concentration and Sale of the Century to air shows had more flashier sets and younger hosts. But in order to get Jackpot on the air, she made some lineup changes. First, she canceled The Who, What or Where game with Art James and moved Baffle into the 12:30 ET period. Second, she relocated Jeopardy, a show she didn't like because it was too staid and attracted an older audience to Baffle's timeslot of 10:30 and put Jackpot in the noon slot.
Second, she got a young host to preside over the show, Los Angeles disc jockey Geoff Edwards. Edwards was also hosting the syndicated game show The New Treasure Hunt in California so he would commute to New York for each Jackpot taping. Bolen would also dictate his look on the show, ordering him to get his hair permed and dressed him in leisure suits.
Though Jackpot did nicely in the ratings but wasn't highly rated as the Art Fleming hosted quiz show, it held up against the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless and ABC's aging revival of Password.
But things would begin to unravel for Jackpot in 1975 when Bolen would be one of the first daytime executives to utilize a focus group. The results showed the group didn't like the riddles and encouraged Stewart to change to straight questions. That would be the first of several changes that summer. The other changes would be the elimination of the target number and at the start of the game, the amount of the Super Jackpot would be set. Also, NBC moved Jackpot to the 12:30 slot and shortened its airtime due to a network newscast at :55 past 12.
Those changes would result in Jackpot's cancellation in October of 1975. CBS attempted a revival in 1984 with Nipsey Russell hosting but it was not picked up. The show returned in 1986 on the USA Network with a new host, Mike Darrow and a new production base in Toronto to save money. This version would run for three years. Edwards would then host another revival in the fall of 1989 but due to the syndicator Palladium going bust, the show was canceled in March 1990.
An interesting footnote, the theme to the original version of Jackpot was used for years as the theme for the syndicated show This Week in Baseball, hosted by former Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen. I'll wrap this up just like each episode in the original run where everybody stood up and shouted "JACKPOT!!!"
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