Blackout (game show)
| Blackout | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jay Wolpert |
| Written by |
Joel Hecht Jay Wolpert Jon Field Meredith Kornfeld |
| Directed by | John Dorsey |
| Presented by | Bob Goen |
| Narrated by |
Johnny Gilbert Jay Stewart |
| Theme music composer | Middle "C" Productions |
| Country of origin |
 United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jay Wolpert |
| Producer(s) |
Joel Hecht Randall Neece |
| Location(s) |
CBS Television City Hollywood, California |
| Running time | approx. 26 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Jay Wolpert Productions Taft Entertainment Television Inc. |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | January 4 – April 1, 1988 |
Blackout is an American game show that was broadcast on CBS as part of its daytime schedule from January 4, 1988 until April 1, 1988. The program was created and produced by Jay Wolpert.
Bob Goen served as the host for Blackout. The show's original announcer was Johnny Gilbert, with Jay Stewart announcing for the last two weeks. This was Stewart's final announcing job before his 1989 death.
Gameplay
Main game
Two teams, each consisting of a contestant and a celebrity partner, played. One of the players was usually a returning champion and played from a yellow desk while the other player played from a red desk.
The object of the game was to solve word puzzles that consisted of a sentence or short paragraph with four blank spaces. Each blank represented a word, and the object of the game was for one of the players to guess the word based on clues provided by their partner. Both teams had what were referred to as "blackout buttons", which were used to block out various portions of the description in an attempt to hinder the opponents' ability to guess.
Play in the first round began with the red team being shown a word. The celebrity gave a twenty-second long description of the word, which was recorded, while his/her partner put a pair of headphones on and his/her portion of the desk was moved so the partner could not see or hear anything. After the celebrity was done describing the word, the contestant was brought back into play so he/she could hear the playback. The yellow team, meanwhile, would use their blackout button to block out a maximum of seven seconds of the recording. An additional second was added on if a cluegiver repeated a word at any point in their description.
After the playback was finished, the contestant provided a guess based on the information he/she was able to hear. If he/she could not do so, the yellow team's contestant got a chance to guess and had the advantage of having heard the entire description. Correctly guessing the word won $100 for the player that did so and a chance to guess the puzzle. Saying the word, a form of it or part of it was illegal, and if either team did so $100 and a free guess were awarded to the other team. Otherwise, the word went up on the board and play continued until the puzzle was solved, with the team that did so earning a point. If the fourth word went unidentified, Goen would give a pre-written definition of it as a toss-up and the first player to buzz in with the right answer received the $100.
In the second round the roles were reversed, with the contestants now serving as cluegivers, and the round started with the yellow team. The same rules applied, with the first team to solve the puzzle gaining the point.
The first team to score two points won the game and advanced to play the Clue Screen for $10,000. If the score was tied after two puzzles were played, a sudden-death tiebreaker was played with one final word. The contestants were once again in control of giving the clues and blacking out. This time, the team that correctly guessed more words (or the winner of a backstage coin toss if both sides were tied) was given a choice. The contestant could either describe the word or operate the team's blackout button. Both celebrities in this case put the headphones on and were moved up so they could not see or hear anything.
The cluegiver had ten seconds to describe the word for his/her partner while the opponent was given three seconds of blackout time plus any penalty time for repeated words. After the description was played back, the celebrity had to try and decipher the word based on how much of the description he/she had heard. Answering correctly won the game, while an incorrect answer gave the win to the opposing team.
Clue Screen
In the Clue Screen round, the object was to guess the identity of five subjects. Before the round started, the contestant decided whether he/she would look at the screen or if the celebrity would. The other player would then stand with his/her back to the screen.
The round began when Goen gave the category for the first subject and the subject itself in order to aid the screen viewer in deciding how many clues would be needed to correctly guess the subject. Up to six clues would be displayed on the screen one at a time. At any point, the player watching the screen could yell out "solve it" if he/she felt there was enough information displayed. Once he/she did, the other player turned to face the screen and offered a guess. The round continued for a total of seventy seconds and if the team managed to correctly identify the five subjects needed the contestant won $10,000. If not, $250 was given for each one guessed correctly.
Contestants remained on the show until they were defeated or have won five matches.
Set
Blackout was taped in Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California.[1]
Broadcast history
Blackout debuted at 10:00 AM on January 4, 1988 and took the place of The $25,000 Pyramid, which had been cancelled by CBS after five and a half seasons. Blackout never managed to find an audience, however. NBC's Sale of the Century routinely beat it in the ratings, and Blackout did not perform as well as Pyramid had in the slot. CBS, unsatisfied with the performance, decided to move in another direction. Blackout was cancelled following its initial sixty-five episode order, which ended on April 1, 1988, and the network began working on a revival of Family Feud which would launch later in the year. Blackout's immediate replacement was its predecessor, as The $25,000 Pyramid was brought back for a final run of sixty-five episodes while Family Feud was waiting to debut; Pyramid aired its final episode on CBS on July 1, 1988 and was replaced by Family Feud the following Monday.
Blackout has not been seen on television since its cancellation by CBS.
A brief clip of the pilot episode, which was hosted by Robb Weller, was seen in the background during the opening sequence of the ABC miniseries The Stand in 1994.
International versions
| Country | Local Name | Host | Network | Year Aired |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Netherlands |
Blackout | Bert van Leeuwen | Evangelische Omroep | 1991-92 |
References
- ↑ "Shows–CBS Television City". Retrieved 25 July 2011.
External links
American version
- Blackout at the Internet Movie Database
- Blackout at TV.com