history of game shows

2. • First game show 1938- “Spelling Bee”.
• Over the course of the 1950s, game shows quickly became a fixture. Daytime game shows would be played for lower
stakes to target stay-at-home housewives. Higher-stakes programs would air in primetime (around 7pm).
• During the late 1950’s, high-stakes games such as Twenty One and The $64,000 Question became popular very fast.
However, the rise of quiz shows proved to be short-lived because in 1959, many of the higher stake game shows were
discovered to be fixed and ratings declines led to most of the prime time games being cancelled.
• Panel games had success in primetime until the late 1960s, when they were dropped from television because of their
supposed “low budget” nature. However, this did not last long as in American day time television they made a
comeback through comedy driven shows (in the 1970’s).
• The prime time access rule, which took effect in 1971, barred networks from broadcasting in the 7-8pm time slot
immediately before prime time, opening up time slots for syndicated programming. (Syndication is the licensing of the
right to broadcast television and radio programs without going through a broadcast network.) Most of the syndicated
programs were “night time” variations of network daytime game shows; these game shows aired once a week, but by
late 1970’s and early 1980’s most of the games had switched to five days a week.

3. • In the 1980’s, game shows were the lowest priority of television networks, and were removed every thirteen weeks if
unsuccessful.
• “24/7” formats such as Big Brother and Survivor were scoring big successes in Europe and were beginning to make their
mark in the UK and US.
• By 2005 or so, game shows seemed to be in a bit of a slump. The last few years had seen ITV practically cancel every
game show they had, even ones that had been running for over 20 years which caused others to cancel as well.
• So it was somewhat of a relief for Deal Or No Deal to arrive and become the first new game show in years to actually get
everyone talking. It had a £250,000 top prize, something that would have been unimaginable 10 years earlier in prime
time, let alone day time.