A Brief History of Game Shows

Podcast Transcript

Ever since the advent of broadcast television, one of the staples of television programming has been game shows.

Game shows have been around for almost 90 years, and during that time, contestants have won everything from a goat to millions of dollars.

Some game shows require an incredible amount of skill, and others require nothing but dumb luck.

However, it hasn’t been all fun and games. They have also been the subject of scandal and controversy.

Learn more about game shows, how they work, and their history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Even if you haven’t thought of it as such, game shows have become a part of our modern culture.

If you have ever asked to buy a vowel, phrased an answer in the form of a question, or asked someone if that is their final answer, it is an acknowledgment of just how ingrained game shows have become.

You might not have thought of game shows as a cultural touchstone, but that is exactly what they have become.

I’ve covered many, many topics on this podcast, and a common theme is that some modern thing actually has ancient roots.

For game shows….. that is absolutely not the case.

Game shows are totally a creation of electronic mass media.

The thing with both radio and television is that they involve filling time.

If we go way back to the early days of radio and television, a station might be broadcasting from 12 to 20 hours per day. That meant that they had to find 12 to 20 hours of content to broadcast every single day.

In these early days, almost all broadcasts were live due to the cost of difficulty of recording, especially at a high quality. They had dramas, comedies, news, sports, music, and almost anything they could think of to fill the time.

One of the ideas that caught on was the airing of live contests with contestants.

Believe it or not, the first radio and television game shows actually appeared in the same year within a few weeks of each other.

The first radio game show was Information Please, which debuted on May 17, 1938, on the NBC radio network. Information Please was a phrase that was used to request information from telephone operators at the time.

The premise of the show was that a panel of experts would answer questions from the audience. $2 was given if a question was used on the show, and $5 if they could stump the experts.

The first television game show was Spelling Bee, which debuted in Britain on May 31, 1938. As the name would suggest, the show was a literal spelling bee. There were only four episodes of the show ever produced for television.

None of these very early game shows were very successful and didn’t garner much of an audience.

The first real hit was a show called Dr. I.Q.

Dr. I.Q. debuted in 1939. It was hosted by actor and entertainer Lew Valentine, who portrayed the titular “Dr. I.Q.” The show was recorded at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, with a live audience.

Contestants were selected from the audience and challenged with questions of varying difficulty, earning prizes such as silver dollars for correct answers. Known for its fast-paced format and engaging audience participation, the show also popularized the catchphrase, “I have a lady in the balcony, Doctor!”

It paved the way for many later game shows by blending knowledge-based challenges with a live audience. It ran until 1959.

Television wasn’t really popular in the 1940s. Not many people owned television sets, and television broadcasts were only available in a few cities.

By 1950, television audiences were expanding rapidly, and the game show format was revisited.

The first big show of the 1950s was Truth or Consequences. It debuted on television in 1941 after its radio success, but the 1941 TV show was just a one-off experiment in New York City.

Hosted by Ralph Edwards, it ran from September 1950 until May 1951. It was brought back on NBC from 1954 to 1956, then again on daytime TV from 1956 to 1965, and then in syndication until 1988. From 1956 to 1975, it was hosted by Bob Barker.

Game shows, usually referred to as quiz shows, were very popular in the 1950s. Shows, like Break the Bank, Stop the Music, and Hit the Jackpot had large prizes, and there was a period when the US government tried to shut them down, arguing that they were illegal lotteries.

While these cases were being fought, the shows kept running and became more popular.

In 1952, a former radio show called Winner Take All was brought to television. This show was notable for several things.

It was the first game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Goodson, a producer, and Todman, a business-savvy executive, formed their partnership in 1946, combining creative vision and operational expertise. Together, they created a string of hit game shows, including What’s My Line?, Family Feud, The Price Is Right, Match Game, and To Tell the Truth.

Winner Take All was also the first show hosted by Bill Cullen, who was one of the most prolific game show hosts in history. He hosted 23 different game shows throughout his career.

Finally, Winner Take All was the first show to introduce many elements that became common in game shows, including buzzing in, contestants being locked out, and having a returning champion.

The high stakes and large audiences of game shows eventually led to the quiz show scandal of the 1950s.

The quiz show scandals of the 1950s were a major controversy in American television history, involving widespread manipulation of quiz show outcomes to enhance their dramatic appeal and boost ratings.

These programs, such as Twenty-One, The $64,000 Question, and Dotto, had audiences of millions of viewers with their high-stakes competitions and charismatic contestants. However, behind the scenes, producers were orchestrating results by feeding contestants answers or scripting certain moments to create tension and ensure audience engagement.

The scandal came to light when Herbert Stempel, a former contestant on Twenty-One, revealed he had been instructed to deliberately lose to Charles Van Doren, a contestant producers favored for his appeal. Further investigations, spurred by Congressional hearings in 1959, uncovered similar practices across other quiz shows.

The revelations shocked the public, eroded trust in television, and led to significant industry changes, including stricter regulations and the end of sponsor-driven control over program content. These events also made it illegal to rig game shows, fundamentally reshaping how television was produced and perceived in the United States.

Despite the scandals, game shows made a big return in the 1960s.

Shows like Jeopardy!, which debuted in 1964, introduced innovative formats with intellectual rigor.

The Dating Game, which premiered in 1965, and The Newlywed Game in 1966, combined humor and personal relationships into a game show.

The 1960s and early 1970s saw a rise in daytime television game shows targeting homemakers. These game shows tended to have lower prize values than prime-time game shows because of the difference in audience sizes.

Notable examples include Let’s Make a Deal, which premiered in 1963, and The Price Is Right, which was revived in 1972.

The Price Is Right is one of the longest-running and most iconic game shows in television history.

The original The Price Is Right was created by the previously mentioned Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and premiered on NBC on November 26, 1956.

The original version, hosted by Bill Cullen, featured four contestants bidding on merchandise in an auction-style format, with the winner being the closest to the actual retail price without going over.

After a successful run on NBC and later ABC, this version ended in 1965.

CBS revived The Price Is Right on September 4, 1972, with a new format and host Bob Barker. The revival was reimagined as a daytime show with greater audience interaction.

This version introduced several key changes:

Contestants were selected directly from the audience with the iconic call: “Come on down!”

Multiple pricing games, such as Plinko, Cliff Hangers, and Showcase Showdown, became defining elements of the show.

The Big Wheel and the Showcase segment were added to create climactic moments.

The revived Price Is Right is the longest-running game show in history, having been on the air for 53 years and recording over 9000 episodes.

The 70s saw a rise in celebrity-centered game shows such as Match Game and Hollywood Squares.

Some shows like Wheel of Fortune, which premiered in 1976, succeeded in TV syndication.

One of the most interesting events in the history of game shows took place in 1984 on the show Press Your Luck. Press Your Luck was a game show where contestants answered trivia questions to earn spins on a flashing game board, aiming to win cash and prizes while avoiding the mischievous “Whammy,” which would wipe out their earnings.

A contestant named Michael Larson memorized the patterns on the game board, which determined where the flashing lights would land. By recognizing and timing the patterns, he avoided the dreaded “Whammy” spaces and consistently landed on high-value prizes and additional spins.

Over two episodes, Larson exploited this strategy to win an unprecedented $110,237 in cash and prizes, a record at the time. His incredible run stunned the producers and viewers, but since he broke no rules, his winnings were awarded.

One of the biggest trends in game shows starting in the late 1990s and early 2000s was the creation of shows with enormous prize pools, up to a million dollars or more.

The show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire debuted in 1998 in the UK, which was followed by a US version in 1999.

The show’s popularity in the US and the UK led to international adaptations in over 100 countries.

The success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire led to a rash of shows with potential million-dollar payouts.

Shows like Survivor and Big Brother blended traditional game show elements with reality TV to award prizes.

As the payouts on game shows grew, many of the long-running game shows changed their rules to allow for larger prizes.

Most notably, Jeopardy! removed the limit on the number of times returning champions could come back. For twenty years, it was limited to five appearances, but in 2003, they allowed unlimited appearances.

The new rule allowed for one of the greatest runs in game show history in 2004 by Ken Jennings.

Jennings’ 2004 run on Jeopardy! is one of the most iconic achievements in game show history. Over 74 consecutive games, from June 2 to November 30, 2004, Jennings displayed unparalleled trivia knowledge, quick buzzer reflexes, and strategic gameplay, earning a total of $2,520,700 in regular-season winnings.

His streak set a record for the longest winning run in the show’s history and captivated audiences, turning him into a cultural phenomenon.

Because of his initial 2004 run on Jeopardy!, Jennings was invited to appear on other game shows such as Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. Additionally, he was invited to return to several all-star tournaments on Jeopardy! with larger prizes.

As of the recording of this podcast, Jenning’s total winnings across all game shows is $5,296,214, which is the highest in game show history.

The newest trend in game shows is adapting them for the online world. The world’s most popular YouTuber is Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, who gives enormous sums of money to contestants for a wide variety of tasks in many of his videos.

Amazon Prime recently launched a game show hosted by Mr Beast called Beast Games with a top prize of $5,000,000, a record for game shows by a wide margin. Moreover, unlike some game shows where the top prize isn’t guaranteed to be given out, Beast Games will have a $5,000,000 winner.

However, the $5,000,000 prize isn’t the most impressive part of the show. The total budget for the series, which consists of just 10 episodes, is over $100,000,000.

Game shows have become a part of modern culture, and they appear to be here to stay. If trends and inflation continue, we have probably not seen the end of record-setting prizes.

Game shows have not only entertained us but also mirrored our aspirations, proving that with a mix of knowledge, luck, and charisma, anyone can take a chance at winning big.