History IQ started with a question before the intro ("...and that's how we play History IQ!"), and some early episodes of GE College Bowl started with a tossup leading into the opening sequence.

Also, GSN Split Second.

I just realized, not that this would be on anybody's radar, that for the last few seasons of QuizBusters, WE had a cold open! We would play our first set of ten questions with me standing in the audience section, then I'd throw to a recorded open before taking my usual place.  In a cursory check, I couldn't find an example of it on YouTube.  Most of the episodes that have been posted go back a lot further than that.

For game shows, I think of Cold Open as having content before the title. I don't really think of Knockout being a cold open anymore than I do Studs.  Replace Arte or Mark with an unseen announcer and nobody would argue this.

Part of the problem is that game shows themselves sort of defy the traditional understanding of what a cold open is. The Merriam-Webster definition is "a scene of a film or television episode that precedes the title sequence or opening credits and that typically takes place in the middle of the narrative or plot."

So, ignoring the scene and narrative parts of that definition, that would mean the late-stage Garry Moore TTTT open sort of defies a category. Because you see the title card first, without the announcer ever giving the title, and the subsequent introduction of the stars is equally blurry, since Garry says the title to kick it off and there's no superimposed logo. (Yes, the logo was superimposed at that point in the "mod" set years. I'm aware.)

Nickelodeon Double Dare and that Clue Crew bit could count by some interpretation, because both of those things precede the proper introduction of the show's title. Knockout's cold open is closest to how we generally understand it in scripted, like the opening scenes on The Office. No music, no titles - nothin'. But then Knockout never has a proper title sequence that follows. C'est la vie.

-Jason

It's interesting what does and doesn't feel like it "counts" as a cold open. I'm not inclined to include anything with the format "(drumroll) This is our champion...", for instance.

Speaking of Twenty-One, Maury's version started with just him speaking, right?

I could maybe see an argument that "Hi, I'm [celebrity], and I've got a secret!" counts.