Your two favorite/two least favorite Family Feud formats?

[BrandonFG]

NTT finished in the Top 20 in 84, and outperformed a few other rookie shows that got renewed. LMAD and nighttime $ale come to mind.

I’ve said before that mounting a daily musical game show had to be tough. NTT alone had a roster of close to two dozen shows per taping, and even though they were only playing a short snippet I can’t imagine it being cheap, especially with someone like Sandy Frank producing. Maybe some of the songs were public domain?

Wheel’s sudden rise as a juggernaut always fascinated me. I know it was NBC’s highest-rated game show, if not highest-rated in NBC daytime (I forget). But that’s still a low bar to set given what daytime looked like in the early-80s. And yet, even with NY and LA not picking it up until midseason it somehow blew everyone out the water. By the end of the first season it had double the ratings of Feud.

[tyshaun1]

NTT finished in the Top 20 in 84, and outperformed a few other rookie shows that got renewed. LMAD and nighttime $ale come to mind.

I’ve said before that mounting a daily musical game show had to be tough. NTT alone had a roster of close to two dozen shows per taping, and even though they were only playing a short snippet I can’t imagine it being cheap, especially with someone like Sandy Frank producing. Maybe some of the songs were public domain?

Wheel’s sudden rise as a juggernaut always fascinated me. I know it was NBC’s highest-rated game show, if not highest-rated in NBC daytime (I forget). But that’s still a low bar to set given what daytime looked like in the early-80s. And yet, even with NY and LA not picking it up until midseason it somehow blew everyone out the water. By the end of the first season it had double the ratings of Feud.

I think program directors seemed to believe that every game placed in syndication was expected to perform as well as Wheel and J! . Think about how many shows were one-and-done for example: TPIR, CS, High Rollers, Break The Bank, Strike It Rich, Wipeout, Anything For Money, Every Second Counts, Headline Chasers, etc.

As for Wheel's rise, it was already climbing just before it hit syndication (2nd highest rated NBC show behind Days), so I believe it was a case of right place, right time.

[aaron sica]

I don’t know for sure how good Name That Tune really had to have been doing, at least in my area; it had three different time slots in the year it was on the air. It started in the morning, got moved to the afternoon once Jeopardy got picked up by WABC and paired alongside it, then got shuttled off to the post-Nightline slot around midseason. I know KNBC had it pre-news for awhile but I’m not sure what happened after that.

In Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Jeopardy! was slotted originally at 5pm, and NTT at 7pm on (then) WDAU. At mid-season, their times were swapped in a clear indication of which show WDAU had more faith in.

[Ian Wallis]

As for Wheel's rise, it was already climbing just before it hit syndication (2nd highest rated NBC show behind Days), so I believe it was a case of right place, right time.

My understanding is that the more glamourous prizes they added to the nighttime version (compared to daytime), plus the $5000 space were two factors in it becoming a big hit.  Plus Feud was starting to look tired by then.  In January 1984 the famous TVGuide article came out about how difficult Richard was to work with and that's when the ratings really shot thru the roof - especially with bigger markets picking up the show by mid-season.

[johnnya2k3]

I don’t know for sure how good Name That Tune really had to have been doing, at least in my area; it had three different time slots in the year it was on the air. It started in the morning, got moved to the afternoon once Jeopardy got picked up by WABC and paired alongside it, then got shuttled off to the post-Nightline slot around midseason. I know KNBC had it pre-news for awhile but I’m not sure what happened after that.

KNBC slotted the Jim Lange Name That Tune to weekends only though in Phoenix (where I was living at the time), it was weeknights at 6:30 on then-ABC station KTVK.