Blackout (game show)
| Blackout | |
|---|---|
| Format | Game show |
| 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 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. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | January 4, 1988 – April 1, 1988 |
Blackout is an American game show that aired on CBS from January 4 to April 1, 1988. The pilot was hosted by former Entertainment Tonight anchor Robb Weller, but he was replaced for the series by Bob Goen (himself a former anchor on Entertainment Tonight). Johnny Gilbert was announcer for most of the run, with Jay Stewart (in his final announcing job) taking over for the last two weeks. The show was a Jay Wolpert production.
Gameplay
Two teams, consisting of one celebrity and one contestant each, competed. A sentence with four blanks was shown to the teams. The first team to play had the celebrity record a 20-second description of the word, while the contestant was not allowed to listen. Once the time was up, the player listened to a playback of the recording. However, the opposing celebrity got a chance to use a plunger called a "blackout button", which effectively acted as a "mute" button, silencing the playback as it was pressed. The celebrity was able to black out up to seven seconds of their opposing team's description (with an additional second given each time the first team's celebrity repeated a key word in their description).
If the player was able to guess the word, the team won $100 and the first shot at solving the puzzle. If not, the opponent, who had heard the entire description, guessed. The process alternated back and forth until the puzzle was solved. If neither player identified a word, it was posted on the board but neither team got to guess. If a celebrity accidentally said the word or part of the word itself during the description, the opponents automatically won $100 and a chance to guess. If neither team solved the last word, Goen read a pre-written description of the word and both players had to hit a buzzer to guess. A correct answer won the word, but an incorrect guess gave the opposing player the full description.
A second puzzle was played in the same manner, with celebrities and contestants switching roles of give and guesser. The first team to solve two puzzles won the game and advanced to the Clue Screen bonus round.
If the game ended in a tie, one last word was played. The contestant with more money (or the winner of a coin toss, in case of a tie) was shown a word and chose between giving a description to that word for ten seconds while the other team "blacked out" three seconds of the description. If the partner of the describer got it right, his team won; if he was wrong (or if the describer said the word itself or part of it), the opposing team won. Both teams kept their money.
Clue Screen
In the Clue Screen round, one player faced a video screen while his/her partner faced away from it. The team was given 70 seconds to try to solve five subjects based on clues that were displayed on the screen. The player looked at the screen, and when he/she had determined that there were enough clues to solve, he/she said "Solve it!", at which point the list of clues was frozen and the teammate looked at the clues and guessed. A correct guess earned $250. If five subjects were solved before time ran out, the contestant won $10,000.
Set
Blackout was taped at in Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California.[1]
Broadcast history
Blackout debuted at 10:00 AM on January 4, 1988, replacing the long-running $25,000 Pyramid. Facing both the still-popular Sale of the Century on NBC (ABC had never programmed in the 10:00 AM slot) and the wrath of angry viewers who believed that CBS had been too hasty in canceling The $25,000 Pyramid, Blackout was unable to find an audience. After 13 weeks and 65 episodes, CBS canceled Blackout and returned The $25,000 Pyramid to its former timeslot. Pyramid aired for an additional 13 weeks, until July 1, 1988, and made way for a previously-planned revival of Family Feud that debuted on July 4, 1988.
A brief clip of the Robb Weller-hosted pilot episode was seen in the background during the opening sequence of the ABC miniseries The Stand in 1994.
International Version
A short-lived Dutch version of the show hosted by Bert van Leeuwen aired in the Netherlands on channel EO from 1991-1992.
References
- ↑ "Shows–CBS Television City". Retrieved 25 July 2011.