Game show "cold opens"

[SamJ93]

For lack of a better term, I'm using "cold open" to mean that the game begins immediately from the first camera shot, instead of just the standard announcer spiel and logo graphics.

Offhand, I can think of only three that did this--Double Dare, History IQ and TVLand Ultimate Fan Search (all of which, probably not coincidentally, shared a lot of the same production staff). On a second tier, you had shows that started with something somewhat related to the gameplay but was ultimately irrelevant to the outcome--Split Second, Bumper Stumpers, Wheel's short-lived "Preview Puzzle." Any other examples of either?

[Ian Wallis]

I think Classic Concentration would probably fall into the second tier category, wouldn't it?

[Casey Buck]

The last few seasons of QuizBusters had a cold open with the Quick 10.

[BrandonFG]

All my examples vaguely fall into Tier 2...

-The original You Don't Say! with Tom trying to figure out the celebrities' names.
-Face the Music opened with the baby shot from the Championship Game.
-On Win, Lose or Draw the teams sat around watching someone draw an unrelated puzzle.

[TLEberle]

Season four of American Gladiators would begin with a portion of an event—usually Powerball, then the opening sequence.

[TLEberle]

All my examples vaguely fall into Tier 2...

-The original You Don't Say! with Tom trying to figure out the celebrities' names.
-Face the Music opened with the baby shot from the Championship Game.
-On Win, Lose or Draw the teams sat around watching someone draw an unrelated  puzzle.

In the second season of Get the Picture, the show would open wwith pieces of a toss-up puzzle being randomly revealed as Henry J read the show open.

[tidefan12]

Another for Tier 2…..

The ‘89 revival of Now You See It with the “Hidden in this jumble of letters” spiel….

[WhammyPower]

"Definition" giving a clue and revealing its answer definitely counts as a tier 2.

And two more for Nickelodeon tier 2:

- "Finders Keepers" showing the second hidden picture puzzle and saying one object that's in it.
- "Figure it Out" showing the first contestant and their secret to the home audience only (which doesn't affect the in-studio game outcome, so I'm putting it as tier 2).

[byrd62]

Didn't Jack Barry's Twenty-One, during the 1950's quiz-show scandals, originally open with a title sequence in its early days, until the Herbert Stempel-Charles Van Doren series, when it changed to Jack doing a cold-open?

[Kniwt]

Knockout marginally falls into Tier 1, since there's no opening spiel or music or even title* -- just Arte going right to the contestant intros.



* (unless all the surviving clips/episodes have had a title sequence removed)

[Jimmy Owen]

Knockout marginally falls into Tier 1, since there's no opening spiel or music or even title* -- just Arte going right to the contestant intros.



* (unless all the surviving clips/episodes have had a title sequence removed)

No. It always started with Arte chatting to the audience.
What about Talkabout?  I've seen different types of opens.

[jlgarfield]

When Trivia Trap changed its format midway through its run, the show began with a quick Q from Bob Eubanks.

[SuperMatch93]

Some early episodes of GE College Bowl began with a tossup prior to the intro.

[jage]

Make the Grade was another that dropped one of the questions into the open for tier 2. There's others that did an example of gameplay during the open - Idiotest comes to mine.

[Marc412]

Tier 2:  When Family Feud had the Bullseye round, Gene would open the show with a question.