Match Game facts for kids

Match Game was a game show that ran from 1962-1999. Hosted Premierie on 1973 Present CBS GSN & More Premierie June 26 2016 on ABC During $100,000 Pyramid Match Game The Hollywood Squares (1983) Like The Price is Right in Wheel of Fortune October 31 1983 on 1962-2016 Present Finale Until of 1979 in 1980-1982 in 1990 Theme in 1960s-2010s Like Pyramid

Contestant Competition

First the challenging contestant would pick a question, A or B. Host Gene Rayburn would read it to the contestant. Then the contestant and the six celebrities would write their answer to the question on a piece of paper. Then after the contestant and the celebrities got done with their answer, Gene would ask for the contestant's answer. They would tell it to him. Then he would ask the celebrities for their answers. If the contestant's and a celebrity's answer are the same the contestant would get a point, and a green triangle would light up.

Then the defending contestant would take the remaining question. Then the process was the same as above, except red circles lit up. Whoever had the most points at after two rounds of the above procedures would win $100 and go on to the Big Money Super Match.

Big Money Super Match

Audience Match

Before the game show, the audience would be surveyed. Their top 3 answers to the question (e.g. Road ___) would be worth (3rd most popular) $100, (2nd most popular) $250, and (most popular) $500. The contestant would pick 3 celebrities to give them answers they thought would be under the $500 slot. Then the contestant would choose one of those answers or make up their own. The answers were revealed one at a time.

Head-to-Head Match

If the contestant won the Audience Match, they would get a chance to win 10 times that money. They had to match a celebrity's answer exactly to questions like ____ Bee. At first, the contestant chose the celebrity they wanted to play with. In 1978, the Star Wheel was introduced. The contestant spun a wheel to determine which celebrity they would be playing with. If the wheel stopped on a gold star section, the money the contestant would be playing for was doubled.

Other versions

The first Match Game had different rules from this one and was shown on the NBC network starting in 1962 and ending in 1969. Then, this Match Game was introduced on the CBS network in 1973. That version ended in 1979. In 1975, a syndicated version titled Match Game PM started. It had three rounds of gameplay, and two Audience Matches in the Big Money Super Match. It ended in 1981. A second syndicated version with the same gameplay as Match Game PM started in 1979, and ended in 1982. In 1983, it was combined with another game show, Hollywood Squares, to form the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, which was on television for one year. Six years later, in 1990, it was brought back for the ABC network with a new host, Ross Shafer. In this version, contestants played for cash. It also featured a new round called the "Match Up" round. It was played at the end of both rounds. To start, a contestant chose one of the celebrities. The contestant had 30 seconds (45 in the second round) to match the celebrity in Super Match-style questions. Each question had two choices. Matches were worth $50 in the first round and $100 in the second. This version ended in 1991, but in 1998 it returned with Michael Burger as host. It featured five celebrities instead of six. This version was not very famous, however, and ended in 1999.

Images for kids

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  Gene Rayburn (center) hosting a prime-time Match Game special episode, 1964

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  Charles Nelson Reilly (pictured in 2000) was a regular panelist from 1973 to 1991.

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  Richard Dawson, a regular panelist from 1973 to 1978, was usually chosen to participate in the head-to-head match.

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  McLean Stevenson became a regular panelist during its final season in syndication.