This is Obscure Game Show of the Week, where I look back at game shows you probably don’t remember.
In the summer of 1999, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire pulled a rare TV daily double: it revitalized both a network and a genre. ABC was lagging badly behind both CBS and NBC in broadcast ratings, and game shows had never been less popular (only mainstays The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy had any sort of traction, with syndication having not too memorable reboots of Match Game, The Newlywed Game, The Dating Game, and Love Connection, though the Hollywood Squares reboot would be a home run)
After two successful brief runs in August and November, every big network wanted a piece of the action. I’ll be looking at the Million Dollar Gameshows in detail, including Millionaire, at another time.
Today, I’ll briefly touch on one of the Million Dollar Games of the new millennium, Winning Lines.
Winning Lines is a port of the British game show of the same name. Co-produced by Celador Entertainment, best known for creating Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Stone-Stanley Entertainment, best known for Fun House, The Mole, Shop ‘til You Drop, and Legends of the Hidden Temple, the show aired on CBS in early 2000.
Hosting the show was television legend Dick Clark. He needs no introduction, but I’ll give him one anyway. Born in Mount Vernon, New York, “America’s Oldest Teenager” broke through nationally with American Bandstand, which he hosted from 1956 to 1987. His first game show gig came with the short lived The Object Is in 1963, but his big breakthrough in the genre was the word-association game The $10,000 Pyramid in 1973. He would host multiple incarnations of the show until the cancellation of the first version of The $100,000 Pyramid in 1988.
He would host a few game shows in the following decade, including The Challengers in 1990-91, Scattegories in 1993, and It Takes Two in 1997. Later in 2000, Clark would host two specials on Fox, Challenge of the Child Geniuses. It would be his final game show.
Also during the 1990s, Clark collaborated on a few game shows, including the 1990 reboot of Let’s Make a Deal and Fox's own answer to Millionaire, Greed, airing from November 1999 to July 2000.
Of course, I cannot go on about Clark without mentioning his annual New Year’s Eve special. Though the specials dated back to 1972, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve would be an annual tradition on ABC since 1975. He would be a presence on the show for the next 30 years, missing only the 2004 show due to a stroke he had suffered a stroke a month prior. Clark last appeared on the 2005 special, when he ceded hosting duties to Ryan Seacrest. Clark died of a heart attack just a day after going through a procedure on his prostate in Santa Monica, California on April 18, 2012 at age 82.
Winning Lines begins with 49 contestants (the most for a game show until 1 vs. 100 a few years later), each numbered 1-49. A question with a numerical answer is asked. The players have five seconds to work out the math and enter the answer on a keypad. The person who got it in the fastest time advanced to the next round. This was repeated five more times to complete the round.
In the second round, their assigned numbers are carried with them. Though it’s officially called “Sudden Death”, I like to call it “Defend Your Number”. More questions are asked, each with a numerical answer. The answers are one of the six numbers that made it to the round. The person that buzzed in with the correct number can knock out another player if they have that number, or they can remain in the game if their number is their own. A wrong answer knocks them out of the game, regardless of whoever had the number. This continues until one player remains. The survivor gets $2,500 to keep, regardless of how they do in the show’s signature round, the Wonderwall. (For the record, the five runners-up got $1,000 each. So... not a totally worthless trip to Television City.)
In the Wonderwall, 49 answers are spread out over three large screens. In three minutes, contestants must give 20 correct answers (and their corresponding numbers), each within 15 seconds. A contestant can call for a pitstop (essentially a time out) twice, as well as pass on two questions. Wrong answers are strikes, three strikes and they’re out. At two strikes or 15 seconds left, the contestant can end the round by hitting the glowing “bail out” button and leave with whatever they’ve banked at that point. If the player strikes out or runs out of time, their Wonderwall winnings are gone.
The show also had a home game where if someone could make up their home or cell number (excluding area code) from the last digits of the first round winners plus the last digit of the last correct answer given on the Wonderwall, they could win $50,000. True story: I missed it by one digit on one of the episodes.
Unfortunately, with the show airing on Saturdays (later Fridays), it never had a chance with viewers, and the series was axed on February 18 after just nine episodes, with a tenth episode never making it to air. Winning Lines would be last show Clark hosted for CBS, and as mentioned above, the next to last game show he would host in his legendary career.
Just for you guys, I've included two full episodes in the post: the American premiere (which featured the show's biggest winner), and the third season premiere from the UK version. Enjoy!
American version (January 8, 2000)
UK version (June 9, 2001)