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How did nighttime shows differ from daytime shows back in the day?

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danderson:
Were those differences because of lesser commercial time, etc? For example Hollywood Squares had best 2 out of 3 match in daytime, but both players played entire show in syndication.

byrd62:
Nighttime To Tell the Truth (1956-67): 3 rounds are played
Daytime + syndicated TTTT (1962-68 + 1969-78, respectively): 2 rounds are played

Daytime Tic Tac Dough (1956-59) + Dotto (1958) + Let's Make a Deal (1963-76 + synd. 1971-77) : Organist (first two shows), 3-or-4-piece house band (LMaD), or recorded musical cues (last season or two of daytime/synd. LMaD)
Nighttime Tic Tac Dough (1957-58) + Dotto (1958) + Let's Make a Deal (1969-71) : Big-band-type orchestra

calliaume:
This is just the 1970s games.  No returning champions for any of the nighttime versions of games listed here.

Hollywood Squares
Daytime - straddled, champion was crowned by winning best two out of three games
Nighttime - did not straddle, champion was crowned by winning most cash ($250 per game, $50 for every X and O in any unfinished games) and wins a car

Match Game
Daytime - straddled, two questions played for each contestant, most matches wins, ties are broken by playing an additional round, one Audience Match and one Super Match played for up to $5,000
Nighttime - did not straddle, two (later three) questions played for each contestant, most matches wins, ties are broken by sudden death tiebreaker (similar to Super Match question), two Audience Matches and one Super Match played for up to $10,000

Let's Make a Deal - no changes other than the addition of the Super Deal for the 1975-76 syndicated nighttime version

Name That Tune, Celebrity Sweepstakes, The $10,000/$20,000/$25,000 Pyramid - no significant changes other than cash/prize amounts (Celebrity Sweepstakes awarded a bonus prize for winning the game in the syndicated version)

Jeopardy - 1974-75 syndicated winners received a prize based on the amount won in the regular game

High Rollers - partway through the syndicated season, rules were changed so that any contestant who won a game played the Big Numbers (previously, contestants had to win two out of three games as in the daytime version)

The Price Is Right - no Showcase Showdown; top two prize winners played the Showcase

Break the Bank
Daytime - the bank started at $5,000 and grew by $1,000 (later $250) for every day it wasn't won, the game winner won a bonus prize, no end game
Nighttime - slightly higher values for boxes (100/300/500 instead of 100/200/300), the bank stayed at $10,000 in prizes throughout the show, end game (pick a star, win a prize)

The Gong Show - top prize increased from $516.32 to $712.05

Sale of the Century may have had some variations between the last few months of the NBC version and the syndicated version, but I'm not familiar enough with either one to know for sure.

JasonA1:

--- Quote from: danderson on December 30, 2018, 07:15:44 AM ---Were those differences because of lesser commercial time, etc? For example Hollywood Squares had best 2 out of 3 match in daytime, but both players played entire show in syndication.

--- End quote ---

To answer your question a little more succinctly, a lot of the changes in formats from daytime to nighttime were to keep each show self-contained. I don't think commercial time played into it. But now I'm curious as to why that became the preferred method. In '77, Joker's Wild proved a show could be fed to stations to play in a certain order - i.e. keeping continuity with returning champions. So it wasn't strictly a technical limitation that explained why most producers chose to have contestants play for an entire show (Match Game PM, Cullen Pyramid, et al) or eliminated champions altogether (Dawson's nighttime Feud, etc.). Not to mention the shows that had no daytime analog, but still chose to go for one-and-done (Treasure Hunt, Cross-Wits, etc.)

-Jason

Sodboy13:
A lot of the syndicated offerings before the mid-to-late 1970s were aired once per week, so carryover champions weren't really needed. Combine that with the practice of "bicycling" - rotating episodes among affiliates to save on the expense of tape, so every market's concept of "aired in order" was different - and it was necessary to keep games self-contained.

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