ABC Fun and Games 2019 rankings

[howierules86]

Here's mine:

1. The $100,000 Pyramid
2. Press Your Luck
3. Match Game
4. Celebrity Family Feud
5. Card Sharks
6. To Tell The Truth

How about you?

[ooboh]

• Press Your Lick
• The $100,000 Pyramid
• Card Sharks
• Match Game
• To Tell the Truth
• Celebrity Family Feud

[Mr. Weatherman]

If you want to post your game show power rankings, that’s fine.  But at least provide your reasoning.  I love y’all, but I could absolutely care less about reading your lists without any context whatsoever.

[someguy23475]

Haven’t seen Card Sharks, so out of the others, only Pyramid is decent. The others range from subpar to unwatchable.

[Roadgeek Adam]

If you want to post your game show power rankings, that’s fine.  But at least provide your reasoning.  I love y’all, but I could absolutely care less about reading your lists without any context whatsoever.

To be fair, I kept reading the title as ratings, which also came out. XD

[PatrickRox80]

Good:
The $100,000 Pyramid

Watchable:
Press Your Luck
Card Sharks

Nope:
Match Game
To Tell the Truth
Celebrity Family Feud

[Alfonzo]

If you want to post your game show power rankings, that’s fine.  But at least provide your reasoning.  I love y’all, but I could absolutely care less about reading your lists without any context whatsoever.

Well, since you asked so nicely...

1)The $100,000 Pyramid
This show stays truest to it's original format. Michael Strahan proved that he was too smart to stay in football and is an excellent host.

2) Match Game
Alec Baldwin genuinely shocked me with how well he's hosting the show. Yes, some of the celebrities are dim, but wasn't that true with the 70s version? Yes, it also pushes the envelope, but wasn't that true with the 70s version?

3) Press Your Luck
Has the potential to move into second place on my list. Excellent set and awesome Whsmmy animations! Yes, Elizabeth Banks came off a little stiff in the first episode, but I think she'll improve over time. The bonus round is a little slow and plotting, but not completely terrible.

4) To Tell the Truth
Look, the classic T4 just wouldn't work nowadays. Too stiff and a little rigid. I'm actually glad that they let Anthony Anderson asked the panel questions instead of being just a traffic cop like the previous hosts (Including poor Alex Trebek) were forced to be. I also find Mama Doris hilarious. Maybe the celebs can cut down on some silly questions but as long as the game has one of the best "Play along at home" Factors and it is reasonably entertaining I won't complain too much.

5) Card Sharks.
Sigh. There's so much potential here. Joel McHale is not bad as a host. The set is absolutely gorgeous! The format is fine, even with the extended line of cards. The big problem so far: It moves too slooooooooow!!!!!! Maybe Card Sharks wasn't meant to be an hour long show and it had to be stretched out. I actually fell asleep watching the first episode. If the pace picks up I might rate it higher. Not a bad show, just a slow one!

6) Celebrity Family Feud
I think that Steve Harvey/Family Feud overkill is starting to harm this. Steve does not need to act so shocked anymore about the racy answers he hear! Also, does almost every single question have to have a dirty subtext to it? For once can't they just ask "Name a brand of candy bar" instead of "Name a type of candy that describes your wife's behind"?! Some shows like Match Game and The Newlywed Game thrive on innuendo, but on Family Feud, which used to have contestants younger than 13 on the show it isn't necessary to be successful, and now it's harming the show.

[ThomHuge]

Well, since you asked so nicely...

I think PtR's point was simply that people should think about what they're posting. Seems like we've gotten a lot of content lately that had no thought put into it. I'm happy to put some thought into mine:

My listing:
1) Press Your Luck. I'm not sure how much of this is because of its own merits, and how much is because of what it isn't--namely Whammy!. This version is very faithful to the original, but with plenty of upgrades to bring it to 2019. The set is high-tech and flashy and makes extensive use of computer graphics, and they rely a lot on the "wow" factor (the first time the center part of the board flipped over my eyes tricked me into thinking it had physically flipped over before I realized the whole center part is an LED screen)--but it all fits together. Elizabeth was a little stiff and rehearsed on the preview episode, and they had terrible contestants, but on the first actual (?) episode both were better, and showed that this format can absolutely work in 2019. The bonus round...well we don't dwell on that since we know everyone's feelings about it, but if that's the price for getting a half-hour of classic gameplay at the top of the hour, I can live with it. (To put this in perspective--in a normal week I watch exactly one hour of broadcast television, and that's Supernatural when it's in-season; I tuned in for both episodes of PYL last week and I'll be tuning in this coming week too.) The use of the classic sound effects is great; I'm a bit disappointed that we don't have the classic "boingggg" of the Whammies popping up, and that the board sound is the GSM one, but again, small prices to pay for Whammy animations that are in the style of the classic show (and have I mentioned--YAY for including the classic ones) when it was probably very tempting to do them all in CGI like Whammy did. The theme music is my only genuine complaint--they took 14 seconds of the original theme and looped it. It was probably a cost-cutting measure, but it's a disappointment not to hear the entire thing re-orchestrated.

(Disclaimer: PYL is the only one I've seen a full episode of, the rest are being judged by clips I've seen.)

2)  The $100,000 Pyramid. To look and listen to this one (set and theme music) they seem to be trying to be faithful to Pyramid's roots in the same way they are with PYL. From the clips I've seen, Michael seems a capable host (the first clip I saw had him on the floor after someone said the P-word), who wants to have fun with things...which immediately made me think "thank GOD he's not going for outrage like Steve Harvey does, what a welcome change." I was never really into Pyramid during the Dick Clark days (saw it during the USA rerun days), but it seemed a clever enough format; I saw the Donnymid years in first run broadcast, and it struck me as trying too hard to be modern with the high-tech set and that godawful theme music. From what I can gather, Strahan's version gets it right.

3)  Match Game.  Going by what little I've seen in clips, they seem to want to have as much fun on this show as they did in the Gene Rayburn days. I can't really offer substantive comments because I haven't seen a full show.
4)  Celebrity Family Feud.  This one gets points only because of familiarity with the name and with the format. I appreciate that there's a primetime version of Family Feud on the air for us to enjoy, but I'm overexposed to Steve Harvey's Feud as it is, and from what I can gather they do the exact same schtick on this one that they do in daytime. Other than its flashier set (make no mistake, I love gameshow sets that are homages to the classic versions, but are still high-tech), I'm not really sure what this one has to offer.

Honorable mentions: Card Sharks and To Tell the Truth. I never saw their original incarnations, and as much effort as they're obviously putting into the reboots to judge by their promos, I'm just not interested.

[Alfonzo]

No sarcasm was meant whatsoever. I was quite happy to go into detail. I agree with PayingTheRent and I apologize if it came off as I didn't.

[JayC]

1. $100,000 Pyramid- Michael Strahan does very well hosting and it is the most faithful to the classic version. Could do without some of the more innuendo categories and the Winner's Circle tends to have some overly easily categories and friendly judging, but big wins are fun.

2. Press Your Luck- Love the set and music, Elizabeth Banks is a good host, and the first two rounds are great. Not a big fan of the new bonus round though, would've rather they end after round 2 or had a third round with all 3 contestants playing.

3. Card Sharks- Really nice set, Joel McHale is fine hosting, and the high stakes of the Money Cards is definitely exciting. My main wish is they made contestant podiums like the 70s and 80s versions, and using 10 cards is a little excessive.

4. Match Game- I like Alec Baldwin's hosting personally and some of the celebrity banter is fun, but some of it is annoying and there's been several contestants that have dragged episodes down.

5. Celebrity Family Feud- I agree with most of what's been said by others so far, but I do like in some cases seeing the families of celebrities playing.

6. To Tell the Truth- I like Anthony Anderson and Mama Doris and some of the contestant's stories are interesting, but the celebrity panelists have been more on the annoying side than not and I wish it was a little more of a real game show and not a panel show. Just not my cup of tea.

[someguy23475]

Celebrity Family Feud has never been good, even back in the Dawson era. I can’t watch the current version, so of course adding celebrities doesn’t make it better.

TTTT is the worst of the bunch. The panel doesn’t care about the game, so they ask unfunny, stupid questions. The host should never be allowed to question the contestants during the game- that’s why you have a panel. This is a show where the host is supposed to play traffic cop. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun- watch Garry Moore, Gordon Elliott, and to a lesser extent Bud Collyer to see how it’s done. It’s supposed to be more of cerebral game.

Match Game is bad due in part to some annoying celebrities (more-so than the 70s run), but the biggest reason is Baldwin. You can tell being a game show host is demeaning to him, but he wants the money. He was chosen for the name with no regard to hosting ability. He’s also annoying and smug, like he always is. Remember how he treated his daughter?

I’ve given my thoughts on Press Your Luck, but to be fair on that one I did not see the second episode.

If I had to rank them:

1. Pyramid
2. Press Your Luck (a huge dropoff from Pyramid)
3. Match Game
4. Celebrity Feud
5. To Tell the Truth
0. Card Sharks (have not seen)

[imhomerjay]

TTTT is the worst of the bunch. The panel doesn’t care about the game, so they ask unfunny, stupid questions. The host should never be allowed to question the contestants during the game- that’s why you have a panel. This is a show where the host is supposed to play traffic cop. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun- watch Garry Moore, Gordon Elliott, and to a lesser extent Bud Collyer to see how it’s done. It’s supposed to be more of cerebral game.

It's actually supposed to be whatever ABC wants on their air. It's a malleable format and has adapted well to the world of the 2010s...nearly 2020s. And clearly it's delivered what ABC wanted to keep it going.

[Roadgeek Adam]

It's actually supposed to be whatever ABC wants on their air. It's a malleable format and has adapted well to the world of the 2010s...nearly 2020s. And clearly it's delivered what ABC wanted to keep it going.

The 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and probably 2020s. TTTT is a format that anyone can in any decade because it works.

[Alfonzo]

The 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and probably 2020s. TTTT is a format that anyone can in any decade because it works.

Only T4 and TPiR can claim to be the only game shows on television in some format every decade since the 1950s. Beat the Clock is one decade short (1990s).

[Roadgeek Adam]

No idea on Truth, but it seems inevitable Price will be the first eight decade game show.