1990-91 Syndicated Ratings Question

[Dbacksfan12]

It's oft been mentioned how the five new shows in 1990 all flopped; I believe half were toast by March.  Does anyone have concrete ratings data?  A Google search was unhelpful.

[carlisle96]

It's oft been mentioned how the five new shows in 1990 all flopped; I believe half were toast by March.  Does anyone have concrete ratings data?  A Google search was unhelpful.

I never saw any formal ratings, but in my city, most of these shows started out in afternoon or morning time slots, and 13 weeks later, were seen at 2:00am or later. Those "ratings" were all I needed to see.

[BrandonFG]

I looked up the syndicated ratings in the 1992 World Almanac, but as of February 1991 the lowest-rated show out of their list of 16 was Feud, with a 6.0 rating. None of the rookie games - or any fall 1990 premiere for that matter - registered.

Also tried looking in David Gleason’s Broadcasting and Cable archives, to no avail. Someone else might have better luck; I know they’ve posted syndication ratings there before.

[TLEberle]

Damn! These days anything not NFL or Idol would soil themselves for a six.

[PYLdude]

It's oft been mentioned how the five new shows in 1990 all flopped; I believe half were toast by March.  Does anyone have concrete ratings data?  A Google search was unhelpful.

I never saw any formal ratings, but in my city, most of these shows started out in afternoon or morning time slots, and 13 weeks later, were seen at 2:00am or later. Those "ratings" were all I needed to see.

In mine two were stuck in overnight from the beginning, two were plugged in the morning, and one was in access. The first two were Joker and TTD, the next two were Trump Card and Quiz Kids Challenge (which, oddly enough, replaced Wheel on weekends when WCBS lost it to WABC), and The Challengers was the last.

I wanna say that Trump Card never left its slot, because I do remember seeing it there in the spring of 1991. The Challengers went to the morning at mid season and beyond that, I can’t tell you. Although I’m sure TTD disappeared from WNBC’s lineup when $100,000 Pyramid launched in January (unless they didn’t air the reruns; then again, wasn’t Pyramid initially distributed by the same company as Joker?)

[Jamey Greek]

It's oft been mentioned how the five new shows in 1990 all flopped; I believe half were toast by March.  Does anyone have concrete ratings data?  A Google search was unhelpful.

I never saw any formal ratings, but in my city, most of these shows started out in afternoon or morning time slots, and 13 weeks later, were seen at 2:00am or later. Those "ratings" were all I needed to see.

In mine two were stuck in overnight from the beginning, two were plugged in the morning, and one was in access. The first two were Joker and TTD, the next two were Trump Card and Quiz Kids Challenge (which, oddly enough, replaced Wheel on weekends when WCBS lost it to WABC), and The Challengers was the last.

I wanna say that Trump Card never left its slot, because I do remember seeing it there in the spring of 1991. The Challengers went to the morning at mid season and beyond that, I can’t tell you. Although I’m sure TTD disappeared from WNBC’s lineup when $100,000 Pyramid launched in January (unless they didn’t air the reruns; then again, wasn’t Pyramid initially distributed by the same company as Joker?)

Yes it was Orbis distributed the first season of Pyramid and after Orbis shut up shop Multimedia took over.

[Joe Mello]

It certainly underlines the popularity of Wheel and J! when the only shows that drew more than second-run episodes were Oprah and TNG

[Chelsea Thrasher]

There's an ad for Family Feud of all things that discloses the Share #'s for the Rookie Five at launch in the 21-24 metered markets they cleared. 

Challengers got an 11 share, Tic Tac Dough a 10, Joker a 9, and Quiz Kids and Trump Card bring up the rear at an 8 share. 

There's an article from later in the year that notes that while TTD started off a little stronger, it's numbers quickly fell off a cliff. Based on the fact that Wink-era reruns had been in circulation on USA for the past three years and the show had been fairly popular at it's peak, and thus provided a suitable study for comparison fresh in viewers' minds - and given this version's infamy in the fandom - it's a fair guess why viewers turned against it and why stations seemed eager to dump it and why it was the first to go.

Quiz Kids started anemic and didn't get better - and exited JUST after TTD in December '90. At the time it was noted that none of the five were above 75th place in the ratings in syndication, with Joker generally seen as "potentially salvageable" while Trump Card and The Challengers' numbers were poor but with distributors with deep pockets willing to commit to a full season order (in part hoping to pick up some stations as other shows collapsed). The Challengers' numbers were affected by several significant lost clearances and time slot downgrades compared to launch numbers, while Trump Card started in the basement and stayed there.

Joker was right there with them, however it's explicitly stated in late 1990 that Orbis (who also distributed Joker) was launching $100,000 Pyramid in January '91, and planned to keep Joker going paired with Pyramid where possible in the hopes to salvage the former (or at least provide a few landing places for Pyramid in markets that cleared Joker).  When Pyramid debuted and Joker didn't so much as twitch a metter, it was scrapped after February sweeps. 

Between a slightly hotter launch (because Pyramid) and managing to pick off a few of Joker's stations, Pyramid did enough to come back in September. (but itself would be out by December).

Trump Card went all the way to May and at least finished the season with Warner's backing, but it was already clear the show wasn't getting a second year.

The Challengers held on through the summer - although exact numbers are scarce beyond "never cracked the top 75 after launch month", it wasn't performing horribly in every market, and once it hit it's floor it seemed to stay there with a small but loyal audience.  So Disney ate up the full year's contract, the show kept on until September then everyone promptly moved tf on. 

[steveleb]

As someone who worked copiously with and around those ratings, I can pretty much tell you that I don't recall any week of any of them breaking a 4.0 rating, with the possible exception of Week One of THE CHALLENGERS.    JOKER/TIC and QKC were pretty much in the hugh 1s.  TRUMP in the low 2s. 

As contrast, FEUD was regularly in the high 4s and low-mid 5s; obvs WHEEL and JEOPARDY were double digits.

The use of MM shares were a sure sign that the ratings themselves were awful; again, while I have no records per se I have recall and I played this very game of deception.  Use bigger numbers regardless of what they indicate so that at a glance the perception of success to a disgruntled buyer can be conveyed.

[Dbacksfan12]

Thanks to all who provided detailed information.  However, based on that, I have a follow-up question:

Was The Challengers promoted as a Jeopardy! killer or as something to build around?

I know KCCI in Central Iowa aired them back-to-back, at least at launch.

[PYLclark86]

Thanks to all who provided detailed information.  However, based on that, I have a follow-up question:

Was The Challengers promoted as a Jeopardy! killer or as something to build around?

I know KCCI in Central Iowa aired them back-to-back, at least at launch.

I can't speak for what pitch the station managers received, but the promos for the general public focused more on the current events slant. The tagline for the early part of run was "The Best News in Game Shows."

https://youtu.be/EkGyZ5kT4Zk?si=HuYGEAUbntQgs9fQ&t=42