Long-running champions with unusually low winnings

[MikeK]

We've had Jeopardy! champions the last few years go on lengthy winning streaks and racking up close to or over a million dollars.  It make me think about people who had long reigns which were essentially slow grinds.  Three people come to mind:

1.  Ray Winston, who won about 10 games on Double Dare in 1977 and only accumulated just over $7000.

2.  I don't know the name but I recall someone on Match Game around 1975 or 1976 who won at least a dozen games but also didn't sniff the all-time money record at the time.

3.  Nancy Wagner, on the Password '75 episode discovered in the summer of 2020.  Betty White mentioned at the start of the show that she had appeared for 14 days with a hair over $18,000 in winnings.

I'm sure the collective hivemind can come up with others.

[Ian Wallis]

2.  I don't know the name but I recall someone on Match Game around 1975 or 1976 who won at least a dozen games but also didn't sniff the all-time money record at the time.

It was a gentleman named George, who appeared at the end of '76 and beginning of '77.  He won (I think) 14 games, but just a little over $16,000 - which was a lot for that time.  He kept whiffing on the super match when $5000 was at stake, but usually won when it was $1000.  It was during his reign that they had two male contestants play each other for the only time in that version's history.

[Bryce L.]

1.  Ray Winston, who won about 10 games on Double Dare in 1977 and only accumulated just over $7000.

Doing a little math here... I know winning a game brought with it $500 minimum, and thus ten victories would ring up $5,000... which is also how much knocking off the Spoilers would award. Did Ray keep striking out with them or something?

[colonial]

In the UK, there was a show in the late 90s/early 2000s called "100%" that was similar in form to GSN's "Inquizition." Three contestants answered 100 multiple choice or T/F questions, with the winning player receiving 100 pounds and getting the chance to defend their title next show. A guy named Ian Lygo won 75 times on the show, winning 7,500 pounds for his troubles.

JD

[PYLdude]

How well did Joe Dunn do against the Devil? I would have to imagine most of his winnings were front game and any cars he got from milestones.

[TLEberle]

We can math it out. He won no less than $8,000 in front games and probably not more than $9,000. His three cars are between $15,000 and $16,000. So at most that puts him at $25,000. If a bonus win averaged $4,000 that means he had to win at least ten of his sixteen tries to get to $66,200, not counting a bailout at some point.

*Eileen Jason took ten wins to get to $39,500 and I don’t remember if she got to fifteen wins, so the rest of the way to $55k had to be bonus wins.

Source, YouTube.
Yes, you could pile up rather a lot of money on Joker’s Wild, but it was a slow boat.

[CarpetCrawler]

I always think of Alan Emrick on Whew!  I traded for all of his run, watched it all in one sitting, and had no idea until I watched them that he never actually won on the Gauntlet.

[TLEberle]

I always think of Alan Emrick on Whew!  I traded for all of his run, watched it all in one sitting, and had no idea until I watched them that he never actually won on the Gauntlet.

Howard Wilson only piled up about seven grand in six wins before his bonanza—I think Alan would have won another thousand given a sixth whack at it, to say nothing of maybe a successful gauntle5 run.

[chris319]

This Ray Winston?

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1847357.html

[whewfan]

1.  Ray Winston, who won about 10 games on Double Dare in 1977 and only accumulated just over $7000.

Doing a little math here... I know winning a game brought with it $500 minimum, and thus ten victories would ring up $5,000... which is also how much knocking off the Spoilers would award. Did Ray keep striking out with them or something?

Ray never won against the spoilers. He was still one of the best players of the short lived series.

[MikeK]

1.  Ray Winston, who won about 10 games on Double Dare in 1977 and only accumulated just over $7000.

Doing a little math here... I know winning a game brought with it $500 minimum, and thus ten victories would ring up $5,000... which is also how much knocking off the Spoilers would award. Did Ray keep striking out with them or something?

The key word is 'about'.  It's been almost 15 years since I saw his run on GSN.  He may have won 8 or 9.  He did strike out at The Spoilers on at least one occasion.  For as good as he was in the main game, he was the exact opposite versus The Spoilers.

[SuperMatch93]

Sandy Mumbach won sixteen games on The $20,000 Pyramid before finally summiting the Winner's Circle.

[MikeK]

Alice Conkright, before winning it all.  Her MO was win everything and buy nothing.  Thus, all her winnings at the start of her final game were acquired through the Fame Game.

[alfonzos]

I always think of Alan Emrick on Whew!  I traded for all of his run, watched it all in one sitting, and had no idea until I watched them that he never actually won on the Gauntlet.

My friend, Alan Emrich (with an 'h') confirms five unsuccessful gauntlet runs with over $5K in winnings.

[mmb5]

This Ray Winston?

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1847357.html

Yep, that one.