Some honorable mentions: Trivia Trap - the original format was perfect with selecting the wrong answers to avoid the correct answer. The 2nd format with the True or False(Fact or Fiction) round was a waste of time, and the new Trivia Trap round made me feel like I was watching Family Feud by hoping your teammates agree with your answer. Play The Percentages - The couple format was good because it showed how well they can work as a team. Plus, Geoff Edwards’ conversation with the contestants were good to watch. The 2nd format might be the work of Good Ol’ Dan Enright… Going from couples to solo was a bad idea(Who the hell thought they need a category for one player, a category for the other player and Pot Luck?), a point value that makes any question more difficult that seems like it came from Twenty-One, and the bonus round format of “Get X and Y before Z.” Card Sharks(Raffety) - Changing the upfront game was a good idea on paper, however if you didn’t won any prizes in the main game, Bust on the Money Cards, and you didn’t win a Car(Or a Trip during Teen Week) with a Joker and the next match you lost, you were going home with consolation prizes. They should had kept the $100 per game just to make sure the champion was guaranteed they left with something
How'd I forget Play the Percentages, Mark Two? Took a unique-ish format and brought it back to ANOTHER Q&A quiz show with an "avoid the X" bonus game. Percentages barely had anything to do with it then too. Well at least B-E didn't try to stick celebrities into that show too.
(Dis)Honorable mentions... Trivia Trap changing the front game just two months into its six-month run, from getting rid of incorrect answers to a generic true-false round and "agree or disagree" round before the Trivia Race Play the Percentages switching from a 2 vs. 2 format to a 1 vs. 1 format like almost every other Barry-Enright game at the time, along with a format overhaul in gameplay Sale of the Century going from shopping to Winners Board to completely out-of-nowhere Winners Big Money Game that had nothing to do with the main premise The UK Krypton Factor and its massive format overhaul for the 1995 series, along with the Super Round, and Gordon Burns getting an unneeded co-host Caesars Challenge changing bonus rounds from moving letters into place in a 9-letter word (then solving it in 10 seconds) to a generic (and very difficult) round where you just had to unscramble five words in 30 seconds to win the car Card Sharks with Bob Eubanks making its car game more difficult to win by switching from finding the CAR card to a poll question and getting the number on the nose
At least with Caesar's Challenge, they could have easily increased the "scramble" bonus to maybe a Classic Concentration-style method of adding five seconds for each failed attempt, similar to adding an extra letter in place for each successful day as defending champion for the cage bonus.
Bumper Stumpers' bonus round cheapening in both Season 2 and 3, where they went from $2000 to $1600, all the way down to $1,500 - and by the 3rd format, it was near impossible to win because the $1,500 required you to get all 5 plates AND answer the puzzle to triple the $500 to $1,500.
Will there be an opposites equivalent, too? (Top 5 Best Format Changes). All good choices here. 11:56 James Shigeta. 13:39 The pink squares in the spelling format changed to $500 later on.
@VahanNisanian if so, I'd go with sale of the century adding the speed round. Initially it was just 3 final questions. Most often it was anti-climatic. There's even one clip floating around where a contestant was going for the lot, one of her opponents gets the first of those 3 questions wrong as a result it was now impossible for either of the 2 challengers to catch her, they played out the next question, Jim realized it was over before he went to the last question: "Last question....To Hell with the last question (throwing the card away) she's won it all!".
Very nice video. You made this kinda tough. I agree with your top 5 based on the criteria what you gave. The only ones I can think of is typical of what happens when a game show is about to die. For example, when Hot Potato went to a Celebrity format. Celebrities in my opponent hurt the flow of that game. Some can say the same for Whew! when it had celebrities too. However, I am not sure if this change would count and if most would agree. I would have had the loss of the Joker Jackpot in Joker's Wild in the 70s would be one on this list. It was not clear if the change was done more so to make it ready for syndication due to time or not. We had one rules change where the Jackpot could be broken more than once which was good from the original. Also, this give the player something to shot for. Granted in the early days of the Joker Jackpot, some people did risk the money that was won. But the format held true for those who did. After the jackpot can be broken more than once, it made it worth while to go for it since you didn't have to wait for failed attempt to build it up to a significant amount. Taking this away to us a format with a guaranteed $500 for win and $1000 plus prizes if beating the devil seems to be an efficient way to make the show seem smother but cheapen the possible total prize money won. Considering that the jackpot started at $2500 and the original bonus game allowed you to win a car in addition $2000+ for 4 $500+ wins, It would seem that the change from spinning for specific prizes on the reels to Jokers and devils to determine to win a prize started this process of softening the cost while making the show seem efficient. By the time it was cancelled by CBS to start the Syndicated version, we got the format that we remember the most. I know the changes are debatable mainly because the flow of the main game and show flow were not affected. But the change took risk out of the game too for something that was more of a guarantee for a cheaper bonus round. Lastly, I agree with those who mentioned Play the Percentages. Granted, most mentioned the changes to the main game which were really bad. However, there was two other changes that came before the change the main game where it was obvious that cost saving measures were done. And to be honest, these changes were NOT needed since it rarely happened. For those who may not remember, Play the percentages has a big money 5 figure jackpot. In the original broadcast of the pilot, you could win the big jackpot in the bonus round if the couple pick a percentage that matches a correct answer in the round. This lasted one episode before it was replaced with if a couple guess the percentage of a question in the main game on the nose that they would win the game there and win the big 5 figure jackpot. I believed this only happened twice before they changed format again to single contestants and the 5 figure jackpot being removed all together. Note the first iteration of the jackpot wasn't bad and didn't hurt the flow of the show since it was a bonus game mechanic. The second iteration add a new component to the show's main game and didn't happen often to remove it. Just goes to prove that they were keeping the payout cheap on the show considering that the regular bonus game had a max of $2500 payout.
Play the Percentages deserves and honorable mention. Only was on for nine months and they has two formats! I preferred the couples format, it was different than just about every other Barry/Enright game.
I guess the revival rule might invalidate this one (not sure if it was technically a "revival") but for UK viewers out there, anybody else remember the Krypton Factor "Super Round"? Y'know, that round that you were supposed to compete in after playing for advantages in the previous rounds, and yet somehow seemed to make everything up to that point seem completely pointless 80% of the time? That was rough.
Would _Debt_ count for this category? According to legend, _Jeopardy_ sued _Debt,_ claiming it was too similar to _Jeopardy._ I don't remember what exactly came of it, but either way the format of the game was forced to completely change based off this issue & basically doomed _Debt._
@@Quartzquiz333 The only real change was the replacement of the board from being analog to a digital monitor, while requiring each category to be played entirely for the General Debt round, while making the Debtonator effective for the entire round. Still, having then-retro Fleming-era technology for the board seemed charming prior to the change.
Here is an honorable mention, the new “Scrabble” hosted by Raven-Symone. It’s a completely different game show, and it debuted on the CW two weeks ago. I watched a little bit and it was okay, but it doesn’t live up to the original with Chuck Woolery where he hosted back in the 1980’s. The new “Scrabble” has changed its format compared to “Tic Tac Dough ‘90”. I’ll have to watch it on the CW app.
@@OhBear-j8l This wouldn't qualify since its a revival and not a mid-series change. They should have added more elements from the Woolery version as well (make it an hourlong show, have two crossword rounds just like in the NBC version with the $500/$1000 bonus squares along with $500 awarded to the winner of that ound, have the winners meet in a championship round that's just like the Scrabble board game (make a Bingo and receive a $5,000 bonus), with $1000 going to the winner of that round, and then have the winner play the extended Scrabble Bonus Sprint round (4 words in 25 seconds for $20,000 in addition to what they would earn in previous rounds).
Password Plus - The $500 Format Change from November 1981 thru March 1982. The scoring system made the game more tedious than it needs to be. $100-$100-$100 (with the partner changeover after this puzzle)-$200-$200-$200, this meant that at the bare minimum 4 puzzles (if you swept the 1st 4 puzzles $100-$100-$100-$200) was required to win. Otherwise expect a long road to 5-6 puzzles to get through the game. Not to mention some of the puzzles were asinine and if you got stuck with bad celebrities that entire week (I.e. Sorrell Booke, bka Boss Hogg on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows who were good celebs elsewhere but were downright awful here), getting through the maingame was a snoozer waiting to happen. The only saving grace with this format was the Growing Jackpot Alphabetics but even then sifting through 5-6 puzzles at worst was a chore to get through to play Alphabetics.
And Double Dare 2000 with the Triple Dare challenge it took too much time to explain. Although this version had episode runtimes that were nearly 4 minutes longer than the 2019 version, most DD 2000 episodes were around the 24-minute mark
Items that could’ve made the cut: The “Winner’s Big Money Game” from $ale of the Century. Good format, but didn’t fit the essence of $otC. The last year of the original Family Feud, where the winning score was raised to $400. Likely done as a way to screw with Richard Dawson, but also took the life out of the game itself. Swapping a single value round for a double MAY have taken some of the sting out of it, but the show was still on borrowed time. Finally, the $100,000 bonus round on Bergeron’s Hollywood Squares, done likely as a response to the exploding (but soon waning) popularity of Millionaire. The negative reaction to this format basically led to the format change of the far superior H2 (with Henry Winkler replacing Whoopi as EP).
@@OhBear-j8l which makes this list somewhat weirder. Don’t get me wrong; the entries on this list were sound, but some more gimmes straight from the website were ripe for the picking.
The H² era of "Hollywood Squares" (especially the first 'self-contained' format from 2002-03) doesn't get enough love and respect. Loved the bright set, the Teena Marie "Square Biz" remake theme music, and the prize format. Unfortunately, they ended up cutting the prize budget drastically and went to a 'straddled episode' format for the final 2003-04 season where the the bonus round could be played at the start of the show in some episodes, killing off any incentive to watch the rest of the show unless you watch primarily for the celebrity banter. Favorite episodes gotta be from Charlie's run and the Punk'd-style April Fools' show.
Another honorable mention, I think, would go to “Win, Lose or Draw”, when the format was over complicated late in the original 1980s run. Originally the scoring system was if you guessed correctly it was $200, except if the person drawing handed off after 30 seconds, the value dropped to $100. By the time the series ended, it was changed to the team being silent for the first 25 seconds while the clues were drawn, then they had the next five seconds to guess for $200. If they were not successful, they had the remaining 30 seconds to guess for $100, while steals were $50. That was overcomplication at its worst.
Baffle (when it became All-Star Baffle in its final months in 1974) - Baffle was the first ever game show to heavily utilize neons on its set and unfortunately it was also arguably one of the very first game shows to switch from celeb/civvie contestants to all-celebrity contestants.
Honestly the shuffle format, jump the question lifelines, & the music honestly hurt syndicated _Millionaire_ more than the "big bad clock" did. At least there's a backstory regarding the clock & why it existed, albeit the times being too short was the main problem (Should've been 30/60/90 minimum instead of 15/30/45 for it to work). However there was absolutely *no* excuse for the other stuff, especially the shuffle format.
It was not mentioned in this video but the reason why the shuffle format got implemented was because of a lawsuit that Celador did on Disney over unpaid fees on the Primetime version. It was started in 2004 and lasted for 6 years even after Celador sold the rights of Millionaire in 2007. The lawsuit ended in June or July of 2010 in Celador's favor and Disney not only had to paid the unpaid fees (which granted was nothing with the amount of money the Mouse had) they also lost whatever rights they had over the Millionaire format which is why the format was changed and why they also got rid of the music and the hot seat in favor of the podium and video screen. I'm guessing they were allowed to keep the name and question format due to it not being trademarked.
Have you talked about Pictionary with Jerry O'Connell, Fox Name That Tune, CBS Lingo with RuPaul, ABC's The Chase or GSN Split Second (FWIW I don't think I've seen your thoughts on Monty's Split Second as well)? Also, your thoughts on newer shows like Flip Side, Beat the Bridge, Person Place or Thing, The Floor and The 1% Club? Plus your thoughts on the unveiling by Wink Martindale of the three Pyramid pilots between the late 90's and 2010, and the pilots to Wayne TTD90 and Begeron's TTD revival?
The worst game changes were Family Feud Challenge where they added the Bullseye format, and Remote Control where they had a new bonus round called the Wheel of Jeopardy where it got bad. Honorable mention celebrity versions with Beat The Clock (Hall), Whew, Bullseye.
Wheel of Jeopardy was the bonus game of the Syndie version of Remote Control. MTV RC in season 4 still had the name the artist bonus round in the season 1-3 version, the name the artist bonus game in season 5 used the wheel from the syndie version
@@Matthew6248 Greed had the worst format change when they gave away $4,000,000 and became Super Greed The Joker's Wild (Finn) when they changed back to the classic version and mixed in the current version.
I will always spare the Star Wheel on lists like this. First, nostalgia (THIS was the MG I grew up on, of course). Second, upped Super Match stakes, if you like that sort of thing. I will admit it left your chances to luck regarding getting a competent star to play with, though.
How about the Bonus category on Jeopardy, where the clues each had two correct responses, and the player had the option of going double or nothing for the second answer after getting the first answer right. Really upset the rhythm of the game and was quickly killed.
Dishonorable mentions: Family Feud's 400 point format: it zapped the life of Feud thus accelerating the show's cancellation in 1985. Winners Big Money Game on Sale Of The Century. Krypton Factor 1995 season with the infamous Super Round and a co host for Gordon. Trivia Trap's 2nd format (focus groups ruining a ABC show and not the last time it happened to a ABC show in the 1980s as consulting with a focus group ruined the Real Ghostbusters starting with the 2nd ABC season in 1987).
What about Time Machine, going from "The Year Is Right" to "Name That Year"? Not to mention Break the Bank 1985, which went from a stunt format to a cash format that made the first two rounds unnecessary and the bonus round generic.
Celebrity Hot Potato DIDN'T make it?? Wow. I mean Bullseye was worse, but... Of course, Celebrity Format should just be its own spot in general. It almost never works.
Has nothing to do with this topic. Grundy Scrabble ain't coming back. We had 30 plus years and no one tries. That is telling. Pretty please get over it, people. Did you all hate the Hub Scrabble show this much too? GSN pilot?
@@OhBear-j8lThe GSN pilot wasn't that great; Scrabble Showdown (which had one round based on 80's/90's NBC Woolery Scrabble) and CW Scrabble are much better (not as good as the original). I do wish they would have just one 80's style Crossword round and Speed round on Raven Scrabble and just have the same contestants compete for the entire hour, but I do like the unscramble anagram words round. Also, watching people play Scrabble and their strategies is surprisingly more interesting than I thought it would be.
How about the 400-point format on Family Feud in the final season of the Dawson run, which you yourself covered on Game Show Garbage? Or the switch to an all-celebrity format for Bullseye in 1981-82, which you also covered for Game Show Garbage? Heck, I would even consider the Star Bonus on Woolery Wheel in 1978 to be a bad format change.
Okay, I got one. The $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime. It's not in the game in itself but more on how you received the money if you won it. Now which do you say sounds better? You win the million in the form of an annuity that lasts for 25 years or getting $900,000 as the annuity and the rest is over $100,000 in cash and assorted prizes? I mean I rather take the latter of having that million stretch for 25 years and a LOT could happen in that time. And the only thing you had to was maintain a 3 day winning streak.
It's kinda a standard though, a lot of shows and contests pay out the big prize in an annuity. Millionaire even did that for $500K and $1 million winners for a while: $125,000 up front then the rest in 10 even payments over the next 10 years. Pepsi had that with the play for a billion too: if someone had won the $1 billion tou could either take a 41 year annuity or a lump sum payment of $250 million.
How about the format change for the last season of Nickelodeon Double Dare in 2019, I know it's a reboot but let me explain. The 2019 season was mostly a celebrity episode season. The 3 worst issues were 1) No more prizes on the obstacle course, just cash. 2) Episode runtimes were cut from 22 mins in the 2018 Season to 20 mins in this Season 3) Then about 2-3 mins were taken away from game play and given to celebrity talk.
And indeed it was better with civilians. It was ironically coming from a GT show, as wasn't it Mark Goodson who advocated that a good format can be described in one sentence?
I really want to see a full episode with the infamous “Mosquitos” blooper in the Spelling format. I saw a clip of it when it was part of “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” where Chuck Woolery was the guest where the clip was included.
@@Quartzquiz333 I hope the full episode with the “Mosquitos” blooper will be appearing on the Wink Martindale YT channel in the future in “Wink’s Vault”.
Someone once said the spelling format was meant to make it feel more like actual Scrabble. You know, like the CW version is???? Almost like never the twain should meet, huh?
As for everything else...a lot of these will be YMMV's... $500 to win on Password Plus. But it depends on how often you like to see Alphabetics. Seasonal rot of Sale bonus games. No shopping = less stakes in the front game aside from being in first place. Card Sharks introduces the car game and audience polls = YMMV again. But I can see how it slowed the pace of the show, and makes even winning at the Money Cards end up as a downer. The Q&A Bergeron Squares bonus game (the Whoopi era was losing steam too anyway) Audience Game on Joker's Wild...probably if you like seeing the actual game from beginning to end.
He gambled on the $1 million actually and lost losing $475,000. Ouch! The other lady Cindy mentioned had $100,000, jumped at $250k, jumped at $500,000 and got the $1 million wrong. A $75,000 loss still hurts, but nowhere near as much as $475,000.
Waiting for nostalgia stans to claim "eliminating shopping" on Wheel. I get the perks of that, on the other hand. Toss-Ups maybe?? (as it eliminates more Wheel time)
Not a show, but ... Buzzr. Eliminates obscure shows, one hour blocks, less variety. Shoves in 2000s stuff no one wants. The Christmas light thing this year upcoming? Smacks of a 2004 GSN move. For that matter, Game Show Network becomes GSN, The Network for Games. Enjoy museum TV stations while you can, they never last .
I'm guessing we're sticking to gameplay changes. Because boy am I stunned that ALL the Celebrity Editions of, like, anything, were spared. Okay, I GUESS Password All-Stars counts. But again that was more about the gameplay changes. Maybe one day we'll get the five worst Celebrity versions? Anyway.... I'd pick Celebrity Bullseye, as my most odious Celeb edition. (Note: I really didn't follow Celebrity Millionaire or Weakest Link...but AFAIK they didn't change much, just seemed like they ran out of ideas) We all know what Cyndi thinks of civilian Bullseye. Celebrity Bullseye dumbed the show down, slowed it to a crawl, and sometimes you saw NO bonus game an episode. And said bonus just being for whatever cash you get before three bullseyes? You could win LESS than in the front game. (I would have let the celebrity play with a contestant, celeb gets the cash for their charity, and player gets the prize package. At least pretend there's bigger stakes!) And honorable dismention to Jack Barry and Dan Enright in general for NOT learning their lessons and giving us Celebrity Hot Potato. Heck, Celebrity Bullseye was not the first time they tried to change a format to get more celebrities on the show. Go to Wink's channel and look up the Joker's Wild format change from I wanna say 1973? Okay, CHP I won't penalize as much as CB because it was essentially the same game, same pace. But they cut out the gimmick of the show (occupation vs. occupation) and watered it down in other ways (no 7-straight jackpot) I guess I was lucky to not see the "celebrities goofing around" episodes very much. But I sure read about Milton Berle's antics on the show and BTS! I am surprised that Enright didn't try to "fix" Play the Percentages by giving contestants a celebrity partner instead of married couples! Celebrity Whew!....okay it had basically the same humor and wackiness we like Whew! for. But the content I noticed was dumbed down, sometimes the celebrities were the same honestly too. And an already complex game NOW had to add further rules to allow team play up front and at the Gauntlet! Keeping the basic spirit of the show keeps me from burying it as deep as the B-E examples, though.
HATED Celebrity Whew! Took away half of the contestant's control! Randy Amasia's game would not have been anywhere near as good if he was lumbered with a dumb celebrity.
@@Quartzquiz333 This too. Pyramid and Password are different cause it's more direct teamwork. Having each person carry half the load each...yeah, it takes control away.
@@jesselockhart1230 they sort of still did a definitions-like format after the change. But I think it worked better with the money amounts rather than the categories cause they set the dollar values too low at $25/$50/$100. It took $2,000 to win the game, think about it if you had contestants prone to getting singles a $25 a pop it would take 80 answers to win. Even 40 at $50 a pop is a lot.
Shuffle format on Millionaire was worse, imo. Also, the elimination of the final cash builder on Weakest Link (which isn’t part of a revival because the syndicated version dropped it first)
Yes on weakest link, having another cash builder at double values gave you a reason to keep the stronger player on to try to bank more money. Without at least another round, there was no reason to keep a tougher opponent on.
@@marcpower4167 yes!!! Too often on the revival, the strongest link is voted off so the other 2 have a better chance of winning head-to-head. Yes, we saw that during the Anne era as well, but at least there was some suspense before. Now there isn't, and you don't want to play too well
The star bonus on Wheel of Fortune in 1978 was a disaster it was just a complete crapshoot whether or not it was hit and when it was the show was heavily edited to shreds. Player that landed on it at the end of the game select what prize they would play for from easiest to the most difficult then they how to choose four continents in a vowel and had 15 seconds to guess a puzzle
I believe it was actor James Shigeta who won the first password all stars tourney, at least that's what I read. And on the Scrabble spelling format the pink square was actually worth $500. I remember seeing an episode where a pot went over $1600 cause one player spelled out a word with two pink squares.
Sally Struthers mentioned once on an episode of password plus that she won "a lot of money" for her charity and Allen acknowledged she won one of the tournaments
If this was an honorable mention how about Doug davision price is right in 94 example we you call contestant instead of going to contestant row you come on stage what do you think about that
@Quartzquiz333 the only mid-season change TNPIR made was that some episodes had the big wheel instead of the price was right. But I hear that was out of necessity cause they ran out of material
I've always thought that one of the easiest ways to ruin a game show was to make it an all-celebrity format.
Some honorable mentions: Trivia Trap - the original format was perfect with selecting the wrong answers to avoid the correct answer. The 2nd format with the True or False(Fact or Fiction) round was a waste of time, and the new Trivia Trap round made me feel like I was watching Family Feud by hoping your teammates agree with your answer. Play The Percentages - The couple format was good because it showed how well they can work as a team. Plus, Geoff Edwards’ conversation with the contestants were good to watch. The 2nd format might be the work of Good Ol’ Dan Enright… Going from couples to solo was a bad idea(Who the hell thought they need a category for one player, a category for the other player and Pot Luck?), a point value that makes any question more difficult that seems like it came from Twenty-One, and the bonus round format of “Get X and Y before Z.” Card Sharks(Raffety) - Changing the upfront game was a good idea on paper, however if you didn’t won any prizes in the main game, Bust on the Money Cards, and you didn’t win a Car(Or a Trip during Teen Week) with a Joker and the next match you lost, you were going home with consolation prizes. They should had kept the $100 per game just to make sure the champion was guaranteed they left with something
How'd I forget Play the Percentages, Mark Two?
Took a unique-ish format and brought it back to ANOTHER Q&A quiz show with an "avoid the X" bonus game.
Percentages barely had anything to do with it then too.
Well at least B-E didn't try to stick celebrities into that show too.
I think "honorable" mention would have been Trivia Trap mid stream. The appeal of round 1 was to cut the wrong answers.
Not to mention the leftover question. Loved that part.
Harvey’s week on Millionaire was so bad than SNL made a sketch about it in 2010.
that was so funny!
Honorable mention: sale of the century changing from prize board to big money game.
I agree, the winner's big money game itself wasn't a terrible concept, it just didn't fit in with the show.
Shopping was the best. It was actually in line with the shows' premise (earning more than enough money to buy the biggest prizes).
another one: Trivia Trap
@@VahanNisanian The shopping was boring & gave the viewers the chance to switch back to the end of TPIR. There's a reason the producers got rid of it.
@@RickSilas It didn't air opposite TPIR; it aired opposite PYL.
(Dis)Honorable mentions...
Trivia Trap changing the front game just two months into its six-month run, from getting rid of incorrect answers to a generic true-false round and "agree or disagree" round before the Trivia Race
Play the Percentages switching from a 2 vs. 2 format to a 1 vs. 1 format like almost every other Barry-Enright game at the time, along with a format overhaul in gameplay
Sale of the Century going from shopping to Winners Board to completely out-of-nowhere Winners Big Money Game that had nothing to do with the main premise
The UK Krypton Factor and its massive format overhaul for the 1995 series, along with the Super Round, and Gordon Burns getting an unneeded co-host
Caesars Challenge changing bonus rounds from moving letters into place in a 9-letter word (then solving it in 10 seconds) to a generic (and very difficult) round where you just had to unscramble five words in 30 seconds to win the car
Card Sharks with Bob Eubanks making its car game more difficult to win by switching from finding the CAR card to a poll question and getting the number on the nose
At least with Caesar's Challenge, they could have easily increased the "scramble" bonus to maybe a Classic Concentration-style method of adding five seconds for each failed attempt, similar to adding an extra letter in place for each successful day as defending champion for the cage bonus.
Bumper Stumpers' bonus round cheapening in both Season 2 and 3, where they went from $2000 to $1600, all the way down to $1,500 - and by the 3rd format, it was near impossible to win because the $1,500 required you to get all 5 plates AND answer the puzzle to triple the $500 to $1,500.
1 vs. 100 going to where the 1 won money for every 10 of the 100 who answered incorrectly
Will there be an opposites equivalent, too? (Top 5 Best Format Changes). All good choices here. 11:56 James Shigeta. 13:39 The pink squares in the spelling format changed to $500 later on.
@VahanNisanian if so, I'd go with sale of the century adding the speed round. Initially it was just 3 final questions. Most often it was anti-climatic. There's even one clip floating around where a contestant was going for the lot, one of her opponents gets the first of those 3 questions wrong as a result it was now impossible for either of the 2 challengers to catch her, they played out the next question, Jim realized it was over before he went to the last question: "Last question....To Hell with the last question (throwing the card away) she's won it all!".
Very nice video. You made this kinda tough. I agree with your top 5 based on the criteria what you gave.
The only ones I can think of is typical of what happens when a game show is about to die. For example, when Hot Potato went to a Celebrity format. Celebrities in my opponent hurt the flow of that game. Some can say the same for Whew! when it had celebrities too.
However, I am not sure if this change would count and if most would agree. I would have had the loss of the Joker Jackpot in Joker's Wild in the 70s would be one on this list. It was not clear if the change was done more so to make it ready for syndication due to time or not. We had one rules change where the Jackpot could be broken more than once which was good from the original. Also, this give the player something to shot for. Granted in the early days of the Joker Jackpot, some people did risk the money that was won. But the format held true for those who did. After the jackpot can be broken more than once, it made it worth while to go for it since you didn't have to wait for failed attempt to build it up to a significant amount. Taking this away to us a format with a guaranteed $500 for win and $1000 plus prizes if beating the devil seems to be an efficient way to make the show seem smother but cheapen the possible total prize money won. Considering that the jackpot started at $2500 and the original bonus game allowed you to win a car in addition $2000+ for 4 $500+ wins, It would seem that the change from spinning for specific prizes on the reels to Jokers and devils to determine to win a prize started this process of softening the cost while making the show seem efficient. By the time it was cancelled by CBS to start the Syndicated version, we got the format that we remember the most. I know the changes are debatable mainly because the flow of the main game and show flow were not affected. But the change took risk out of the game too for something that was more of a guarantee for a cheaper bonus round.
Lastly, I agree with those who mentioned Play the Percentages. Granted, most mentioned the changes to the main game which were really bad. However, there was two other changes that came before the change the main game where it was obvious that cost saving measures were done. And to be honest, these changes were NOT needed since it rarely happened. For those who may not remember, Play the percentages has a big money 5 figure jackpot. In the original broadcast of the pilot, you could win the big jackpot in the bonus round if the couple pick a percentage that matches a correct answer in the round. This lasted one episode before it was replaced with if a couple guess the percentage of a question in the main game on the nose that they would win the game there and win the big 5 figure jackpot. I believed this only happened twice before they changed format again to single contestants and the 5 figure jackpot being removed all together. Note the first iteration of the jackpot wasn't bad and didn't hurt the flow of the show since it was a bonus game mechanic. The second iteration add a new component to the show's main game and didn't happen often to remove it. Just goes to prove that they were keeping the payout cheap on the show considering that the regular bonus game had a max of $2500 payout.
Play the Percentages deserves and honorable mention. Only was on for nine months and they has two formats! I preferred the couples format, it was different than just about every other Barry/Enright game.
I had the same thought
Ditto
The couples formal was much better
The station I watched kept airing the promo featuring the original format long after it was changed.
Now I want to find any International version of Feud that used the Bullseye round
I guess the revival rule might invalidate this one (not sure if it was technically a "revival") but for UK viewers out there, anybody else remember the Krypton Factor "Super Round"? Y'know, that round that you were supposed to compete in after playing for advantages in the previous rounds, and yet somehow seemed to make everything up to that point seem completely pointless 80% of the time? That was rough.
Would _Debt_ count for this category?
According to legend, _Jeopardy_ sued _Debt,_ claiming it was too similar to _Jeopardy._ I don't remember what exactly came of it, but either way the format of the game was forced to completely change based off this issue & basically doomed _Debt._
@@Ultimate23Dragon Didn't they stop using "You are..." answers and just give them straight?
@@Quartzquiz333 The only real change was the replacement of the board from being analog to a digital monitor, while requiring each category to be played entirely for the General Debt round, while making the Debtonator effective for the entire round. Still, having then-retro Fleming-era technology for the board seemed charming prior to the change.
I read somewhere that Lifetime had canceled Debt because it was being watched by too many men and not getting the target demo of women.
Here is an honorable mention, the new “Scrabble” hosted by Raven-Symone. It’s a completely different game show, and it debuted on the CW two weeks ago. I watched a little bit and it was okay, but it doesn’t live up to the original with Chuck Woolery where he hosted back in the 1980’s. The new “Scrabble” has changed its format compared to “Tic Tac Dough ‘90”. I’ll have to watch it on the CW app.
No Scrabble game show has even tried to be a remake of the Grundy format. Let it go.
@@OhBear-j8l This wouldn't qualify since its a revival and not a mid-series change. They should have added more elements from the Woolery version as well (make it an hourlong show, have two crossword rounds just like in the NBC version with the $500/$1000 bonus squares along with $500 awarded to the winner of that ound, have the winners meet in a championship round that's just like the Scrabble board game (make a Bingo and receive a $5,000 bonus), with $1000 going to the winner of that round, and then have the winner play the extended Scrabble Bonus Sprint round (4 words in 25 seconds for $20,000 in addition to what they would earn in previous rounds).
@@pannoni1491 Pannoni? As in, who found the part of the TAT logo?
@@pannoni1491 I agree that it doesn't belong on the list. But Woolery Stans gotta Stan.
I personally hate the "force" fire making from Survivor.
Password Plus - The $500 Format Change from November 1981 thru March 1982. The scoring system made the game more tedious than it needs to be. $100-$100-$100 (with the partner changeover after this puzzle)-$200-$200-$200, this meant that at the bare minimum 4 puzzles (if you swept the 1st 4 puzzles $100-$100-$100-$200) was required to win. Otherwise expect a long road to 5-6 puzzles to get through the game.
Not to mention some of the puzzles were asinine and if you got stuck with bad celebrities that entire week (I.e. Sorrell Booke, bka Boss Hogg on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows who were good celebs elsewhere but were downright awful here), getting through the maingame was a snoozer waiting to happen.
The only saving grace with this format was the Growing Jackpot Alphabetics but even then sifting through 5-6 puzzles at worst was a chore to get through to play Alphabetics.
Celebrity formats are a sign the show is on its last legs.
And Double Dare 2000 with the Triple Dare challenge it took too much time to explain. Although this version had episode runtimes that were nearly 4 minutes longer than the 2019 version, most DD 2000 episodes were around the 24-minute mark
Items that could’ve made the cut:
The “Winner’s Big Money Game” from $ale of the Century. Good format, but didn’t fit the essence of $otC.
The last year of the original Family Feud, where the winning score was raised to $400. Likely done as a way to screw with Richard Dawson, but also took the life out of the game itself. Swapping a single value round for a double MAY have taken some of the sting out of it, but the show was still on borrowed time.
Finally, the $100,000 bonus round on Bergeron’s Hollywood Squares, done likely as a response to the exploding (but soon waning) popularity of Millionaire. The negative reaction to this format basically led to the format change of the far superior H2 (with Henry Winkler replacing Whoopi as EP).
And two of these were Game Show Garbage inductees!!
@@OhBear-j8l which makes this list somewhat weirder. Don’t get me wrong; the entries on this list were sound, but some more gimmes straight from the website were ripe for the picking.
The H² era of "Hollywood Squares" (especially the first 'self-contained' format from 2002-03) doesn't get enough love and respect. Loved the bright set, the Teena Marie "Square Biz" remake theme music, and the prize format. Unfortunately, they ended up cutting the prize budget drastically and went to a 'straddled episode' format for the final 2003-04 season where the the bonus round could be played at the start of the show in some episodes, killing off any incentive to watch the rest of the show unless you watch primarily for the celebrity banter. Favorite episodes gotta be from Charlie's run and the Punk'd-style April Fools' show.
Another honorable mention, I think, would go to “Win, Lose or Draw”, when the format was over complicated late in the original 1980s run. Originally the scoring system was if you guessed correctly it was $200, except if the person drawing handed off after 30 seconds, the value dropped to $100. By the time the series ended, it was changed to the team being silent for the first 25 seconds while the clues were drawn, then they had the next five seconds to guess for $200. If they were not successful, they had the remaining 30 seconds to guess for $100, while steals were $50. That was overcomplication at its worst.
Baffle (when it became All-Star Baffle in its final months in 1974) - Baffle was the first ever game show to heavily utilize neons on its set and unfortunately it was also arguably one of the very first game shows to switch from celeb/civvie contestants to all-celebrity contestants.
I think the car round change on Card Sharks in 1988 was a disaster too
Honestly the shuffle format, jump the question lifelines, & the music honestly hurt syndicated _Millionaire_ more than the "big bad clock" did.
At least there's a backstory regarding the clock & why it existed, albeit the times being too short was the main problem (Should've been 30/60/90 minimum instead of 15/30/45 for it to work). However there was absolutely *no* excuse for the other stuff, especially the shuffle format.
It was not mentioned in this video but the reason why the shuffle format got implemented was because of a lawsuit that Celador did on Disney over unpaid fees on the Primetime version. It was started in 2004 and lasted for 6 years even after Celador sold the rights of Millionaire in 2007. The lawsuit ended in June or July of 2010 in Celador's favor and Disney not only had to paid the unpaid fees (which granted was nothing with the amount of money the Mouse had) they also lost whatever rights they had over the Millionaire format which is why the format was changed and why they also got rid of the music and the hot seat in favor of the podium and video screen. I'm guessing they were allowed to keep the name and question format due to it not being trademarked.
@JohnathanWilliamson849 Somehow that makes the Shuffle format sound even worse if *that's* the origin of it...
Haven’t seen the video yet but am throwing my hat in the ring for Tipping Point switching to 3 players in Season 12.
Honorable mention: Finders Keepers UKs final season (not the 2006 revival, the old series)
Which I think was the Worst Format Changes...
Hollywood Squares' Big Money Bonus Round from 2001-02
And
Robb Weller's Win, Lose or Draw
Have you talked about Pictionary with Jerry O'Connell, Fox Name That Tune, CBS Lingo with RuPaul, ABC's The Chase or GSN Split Second (FWIW I don't think I've seen your thoughts on Monty's Split Second as well)?
Also, your thoughts on newer shows like Flip Side, Beat the Bridge, Person Place or Thing, The Floor and The 1% Club?
Plus your thoughts on the unveiling by Wink Martindale of the three Pyramid pilots between the late 90's and 2010, and the pilots to Wayne TTD90 and Begeron's TTD revival?
The worst game changes were Family Feud Challenge where they added the Bullseye format, and Remote Control where they had a new bonus round called the Wheel of Jeopardy where it got bad. Honorable mention celebrity versions with Beat The Clock (Hall), Whew, Bullseye.
Wheel of Jeopardy was the bonus game of the Syndie version of Remote Control. MTV RC in season 4 still had the name the artist bonus round in the season 1-3 version, the name the artist bonus game in season 5 used the wheel from the syndie version
@@Matthew6248 Greed had the worst format change when they gave away $4,000,000 and became Super Greed The Joker's Wild (Finn) when they changed back to the classic version and mixed in the current version.
I will always spare the Star Wheel on lists like this. First, nostalgia (THIS was the MG I grew up on, of course).
Second, upped Super Match stakes, if you like that sort of thing.
I will admit it left your chances to luck regarding getting a competent star to play with, though.
How about the Bonus category on Jeopardy, where the clues each had two correct responses, and the player had the option of going double or nothing for the second answer after getting the first answer right. Really upset the rhythm of the game and was quickly killed.
I thought it was interesting, but disliked the fact that if the first contestant passed, the others could ring in and steal control.
Huh? When did they do that?
@@megamanj2004X 1997-98 season
Dishonorable mentions: Family Feud's 400 point format: it zapped the life of Feud thus accelerating the show's cancellation in 1985. Winners Big Money Game on Sale Of The Century. Krypton Factor 1995 season with the infamous Super Round and a co host for Gordon. Trivia Trap's 2nd format (focus groups ruining a ABC show and not the last time it happened to a ABC show in the 1980s as consulting with a focus group ruined the Real Ghostbusters starting with the 2nd ABC season in 1987).
I never like the clock format in wwtbam in the uk has well.
What about Time Machine, going from "The Year Is Right" to "Name That Year"? Not to mention Break the Bank 1985, which went from a stunt format to a cash format that made the first two rounds unnecessary and the bonus round generic.
Honorable:
Engvall Lingo
Celebrity Whew and Hot Potato
Celebrity Hot Potato DIDN'T make it??
Wow.
I mean Bullseye was worse, but...
Of course, Celebrity Format should just be its own spot in general. It almost never works.
Cyndi, what are your thoughts on the new Scrabble show, with Raven-seymone & the new Trivial Pursuit show, with LeVar Burton?
I'm glad I missed the Raven version.
Has nothing to do with this topic.
Grundy Scrabble ain't coming back. We had 30 plus years and no one tries. That is telling. Pretty please get over it, people.
Did you all hate the Hub Scrabble show this much too? GSN pilot?
@@OhBear-j8lThe GSN pilot wasn't that great; Scrabble Showdown (which had one round based on 80's/90's NBC Woolery Scrabble) and CW Scrabble are much better (not as good as the original). I do wish they would have just one 80's style Crossword round and Speed round on Raven Scrabble and just have the same contestants compete for the entire hour, but I do like the unscramble anagram words round. Also, watching people play Scrabble and their strategies is surprisingly more interesting than I thought it would be.
How about the 400-point format on Family Feud in the final season of the Dawson run, which you yourself covered on Game Show Garbage? Or the switch to an all-celebrity format for Bullseye in 1981-82, which you also covered for Game Show Garbage? Heck, I would even consider the Star Bonus on Woolery Wheel in 1978 to be a bad format change.
I have the Deal or No Deal board game.
StarDylan1 did a parody of WWTBAM making fun of clock format
SEE YOU AFTER SCHOOL.
Okay, I got one. The $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime. It's not in the game in itself but more on how you received the money if you won it. Now which do you say sounds better? You win the million in the form of an annuity that lasts for 25 years or getting $900,000 as the annuity and the rest is over $100,000 in cash and assorted prizes? I mean I rather take the latter of having that million stretch for 25 years and a LOT could happen in that time. And the only thing you had to was maintain a 3 day winning streak.
It's kinda a standard though, a lot of shows and contests pay out the big prize in an annuity. Millionaire even did that for $500K and $1 million winners for a while: $125,000 up front then the rest in 10 even payments over the next 10 years.
Pepsi had that with the play for a billion too: if someone had won the $1 billion tou could either take a 41 year annuity or a lump sum payment of $250 million.
How about the format change for the last season of Nickelodeon Double Dare in 2019, I know it's a reboot but let me explain. The 2019 season was mostly a celebrity episode season. The 3 worst issues were 1) No more prizes on the obstacle course, just cash. 2) Episode runtimes were cut from 22 mins in the 2018 Season to 20 mins in this Season 3) Then about 2-3 mins were taken away from game play and given to celebrity talk.
Password All-Stars was complete trash, LOL!!!😂
I didn't mind the format (would have been better without an all celeb format) but I see the problem, it overcomplicates an otherwise very simple game.
And indeed it was better with civilians.
It was ironically coming from a GT show, as wasn't it Mark Goodson who advocated that a good format can be described in one sentence?
#2, most imfamous was MOSQUITOS...to the point Chuck made it a running gag later in the series.
I really want to see a full episode with the infamous “Mosquitos” blooper in the Spelling format. I saw a clip of it when it was part of “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” where Chuck Woolery was the guest where the clip was included.
@@Musicradio77Network I actually saw that episode when it aired in the summer of '85. Hilarious!!!
@@Quartzquiz333 I hope the full episode with the “Mosquitos” blooper will be appearing on the Wink Martindale YT channel in the future in “Wink’s Vault”.
Someone once said the spelling format was meant to make it feel more like actual Scrabble. You know, like the CW version is????
Almost like never the twain should meet, huh?
Surprised you didn’t mention Jeopardy’ 78.
It was a revival, thus did not count.
Will there be the upcoming syndicated revival of Jackpot with Derek Hough as the new host in the near future?
As for everything else...a lot of these will be YMMV's...
$500 to win on Password Plus. But it depends on how often you like to see Alphabetics.
Seasonal rot of Sale bonus games. No shopping = less stakes in the front game aside from being in first place.
Card Sharks introduces the car game and audience polls = YMMV again. But I can see how it slowed the pace of the show, and makes even winning at the Money Cards end up as a downer.
The Q&A Bergeron Squares bonus game (the Whoopi era was losing steam too anyway)
Audience Game on Joker's Wild...probably if you like seeing the actual game from beginning to end.
I’ve seen the “Mosquitos” clip. These 2 contestants should have known that O is a good vowel choice. Not always, but still a great choice.
@GameShowGumbo, at 8:45-8:50 one person actually went for the $500,000 question that was Ken Basin in the 10th Anniversary specials.
He gambled on the $1 million actually and lost losing $475,000. Ouch! The other lady Cindy mentioned had $100,000, jumped at $250k, jumped at $500,000 and got the $1 million wrong. A $75,000 loss still hurts, but nowhere near as much as $475,000.
Waiting for nostalgia stans to claim "eliminating shopping" on Wheel.
I get the perks of that, on the other hand.
Toss-Ups maybe?? (as it eliminates more Wheel time)
Yikes focus groups.
There's a reason why MST3K went after them in season 7.
Not a show, but ...
Buzzr.
Eliminates obscure shows, one hour blocks, less variety. Shoves in 2000s stuff no one wants. The Christmas light thing this year upcoming? Smacks of a 2004 GSN move.
For that matter, Game Show Network becomes GSN, The Network for Games.
Enjoy museum TV stations while you can, they never last .
More of a reality competition show but make an dishonorable mention for the new era of Survivor hourglass edition lol!
What are your thoughts on the relaunches of Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit on The CW?
I'm guessing we're sticking to gameplay changes.
Because boy am I stunned that ALL the Celebrity Editions of, like, anything, were spared. Okay, I GUESS Password All-Stars counts. But again that was more about the gameplay changes.
Maybe one day we'll get the five worst Celebrity versions?
Anyway....
I'd pick Celebrity Bullseye, as my most odious Celeb edition. (Note: I really didn't follow Celebrity Millionaire or Weakest Link...but AFAIK they didn't change much, just seemed like they ran out of ideas)
We all know what Cyndi thinks of civilian Bullseye. Celebrity Bullseye dumbed the show down, slowed it to a crawl, and sometimes you saw NO bonus game an episode. And said bonus just being for whatever cash you get before three bullseyes? You could win LESS than in the front game. (I would have let the celebrity play with a contestant, celeb gets the cash for their charity, and player gets the prize package. At least pretend there's bigger stakes!)
And honorable dismention to Jack Barry and Dan Enright in general for NOT learning their lessons and giving us Celebrity Hot Potato. Heck, Celebrity Bullseye was not the first time they tried to change a format to get more celebrities on the show. Go to Wink's channel and look up the Joker's Wild format change from I wanna say 1973?
Okay, CHP I won't penalize as much as CB because it was essentially the same game, same pace. But they cut out the gimmick of the show (occupation vs. occupation) and watered it down in other ways (no 7-straight jackpot) I guess I was lucky to not see the "celebrities goofing around" episodes very much. But I sure read about Milton Berle's antics on the show and BTS!
I am surprised that Enright didn't try to "fix" Play the Percentages by giving contestants a celebrity partner instead of married couples!
Celebrity Whew!....okay it had basically the same humor and wackiness we like Whew! for. But the content I noticed was dumbed down, sometimes the celebrities were the same honestly too. And an already complex game NOW had to add further rules to allow team play up front and at the Gauntlet! Keeping the basic spirit of the show keeps me from burying it as deep as the B-E examples, though.
HATED Celebrity Whew! Took away half of the contestant's control! Randy Amasia's game would not have been anywhere near as good if he was lumbered with a dumb celebrity.
@@Quartzquiz333 This too.
Pyramid and Password are different cause it's more direct teamwork.
Having each person carry half the load each...yeah, it takes control away.
Huh....I thought Tic-Tac-Dough 90s would be no. 1
@@antibishonen Cyndi specifically said she was excluding reboots.
@@aaronmorris1513 Ray Combs' Family Feud is a reboot.
@@antibishonen but Bullseye WITHIN Combs FF isn't.
Closest format change in TTD 90 would be...
Making the dragon rap, LOL
@OhBear-j8l RAPPING DRAGON!
Should have kept the car (SUV,Jeep), win 5 in a row, win a vacation? That is wrong, Steve.
How do you split a car amongst five people?
90's TJW was bad format done in reverse! The Definitions format was terrible to start with and reverted back to Q&A but it couldn't help the show.
@@jesselockhart1230 they sort of still did a definitions-like format after the change. But I think it worked better with the money amounts rather than the categories cause they set the dollar values too low at $25/$50/$100. It took $2,000 to win the game, think about it if you had contestants prone to getting singles a $25 a pop it would take 80 answers to win. Even 40 at $50 a pop is a lot.
Shuffle format on Millionaire was worse, imo. Also, the elimination of the final cash builder on Weakest Link (which isn’t part of a revival because the syndicated version dropped it first)
Yes on weakest link, having another cash builder at double values gave you a reason to keep the stronger player on to try to bank more money. Without at least another round, there was no reason to keep a tougher opponent on.
@@marcpower4167 yes!!! Too often on the revival, the strongest link is voted off so the other 2 have a better chance of winning head-to-head. Yes, we saw that during the Anne era as well, but at least there was some suspense before. Now there isn't, and you don't want to play too well
The star bonus on Wheel of Fortune in 1978 was a disaster it was just a complete crapshoot whether or not it was hit and when it was the show was heavily edited to shreds. Player that landed on it at the end of the game select what prize they would play for from easiest to the most difficult then they how to choose four continents in a vowel and had 15 seconds to guess a puzzle
That five consonants and a vowel thing could have a future, though. Just a hunch .
I believe it was actor James Shigeta who won the first password all stars tourney, at least that's what I read. And on the Scrabble spelling format the pink square was actually worth $500. I remember seeing an episode where a pot went over $1600 cause one player spelled out a word with two pink squares.
I believe it was Bill Bixby
It became $500 for pink squares during the Spelling format later on.
@@nextbarker2702 No, Shubdogg is right. James Shigeta won the first tournament.
@@nextbarker2702I just checked on Wikipedia, Bixby was a finalist in the second tournament won by Dawson, but Shigeta did win the first one.
Sally Struthers mentioned once on an episode of password plus that she won "a lot of money" for her charity and Allen acknowledged she won one of the tournaments
Nancy Walker won the first Password All-Stars celebrity tournament. I guess I'm in the minority, but i enjoyed All-Stars.
So she wiped out the competition and quickly picked up the championship?
If this was an honorable mention how about Doug davision price is right in 94 example we you call contestant instead of going to contestant row you come on stage what do you think about that
No, that wasn't a mid-season format change. It was played like that from the beginning.
@Quartzquiz333 the only mid-season change TNPIR made was that some episodes had the big wheel instead of the price was right. But I hear that was out of necessity cause they ran out of material
TBH The shuffle millionaire format was far worse...
They should keep it the way it is and leave it alone. 😀👍
Sometimes change is good though, to freshen things up
@@marcpower4167 future topic idea, Cyndi?