Gameshow Marathon USA

Crap show - but interesting to see how they do things differently!

Gameshow Marathon is hosted by Ricki Lake and takes the same format as the UK version, though with a slightly different line up of games.

It began tonight with The Price is Right and continues with Let's Make a Deal, Beat the Clock, Push your Luck, Card Sharks, Match Game and concludes with Family Fued - the last three of which are the US versions of Play your Cards Right, Blankety Blank and Family Fortunes.


So beginning with The Price is Right. Pretty much the same format until the end.

Firstly, a minor thing but the wheel is not 5, 10, ... , 100 - instead it's broken into 5c, with the target being $1.00

The big difference though is two contestants take part in the Showcase, with two showcases on offer.

The "winner" is shown the first showcase and can either bid on it or pass it to their opponent. Another showcase is then shown for the remaining player.

The overall winner is the one who gets closest to the value of their showcase without going over!

I was flipping channels and I think I saw it. I think it was CBS. Looked stupid.

I think the UK has better sounding names,

anyway I bet ITV are making money of this format!

also has anyone heard iif UK version is coming back again>

Interesting show.

Does anyone know if we will ger a 2nd series of this in the UK?

Don't think it's been anything other than a rumour - there are plenty more game shows to do yet!


Actually, it would work well for ITV1 next summer, filling an hour of the Saturday night schedule during the annual summer slump.

And if Ant and Dec don't want to miss out on their summer holidays, there is no reason why it couldn't be recorded in advance.


Back to the US version - I just can't understand why they chose Ricki Lake as host - you'd think they'd have gone for a comedian / comic presenter of some sort!

anwers Money!

there doing this on the Cheap!

Id quite like to see another series of Gameshow Marathon in ITV's autumn schedule but I dont think that is going to happen as Ant and Dec will have Takeaway plus another series of Im a Celeb get me out of here.

The original Crowther British version of TPIR worked on similar lines with the showcase. The reason it was changed for later versions is time. I prefer the US idea to be honest.

I just love the way the US TPIR hasn't essentially changed in 35 years; same host, set, music, games, format, studio. Pure class, and a clear demonstration that changing things around probably does more harm than good when a format starts to flag.

One thing that annoyed me was that ITV hacked this version up, presumably to cut out the copious advertising you get on the US version -- they even have things like a packet of sweets opening up the showcase, in order to sell an extra 10 seconds of advertising space.

US gameshows (in their real form, not this hopeless ******* ITV-produced form) are so much better than the UK equivalents in most cases. It's about time a company in the UK had the sense to follow the Lifestyle Channel's idea from the early days of Sky and broadcast some of the old classics. These old shows surely can't cost more than a couple of hundred quid apiece to show abroad by now, and I'm convinced the enterprising channel here would get quite a cult following showing them.

Most of the best US gameshows (Match Game, TPIR, Card Sharks, Family Feud etc etc) are Goodson-Todman productions and that company kept 95% of the tapes, so there's plenty to sustain a run. It's kept the US version of Challenge TV alive for over a decade.

BUT would a USA version work in the UK?

It doesn't need to in huge numbers, given the low prices involved.

Bear in mind that when Lifestyle showed their "Great American Gameshows" series in the late 80s/early 90s, they achieved very respectable ratings -- the most-watched channel on satellite for that time of day, as I recall.

Now obviously times have changed, a lot, in the meantime, but it shows that the audience is potentially there. The series achieved minor cult status at the time, no reason why it couldn't again.