The long goodbye

Apologies to Raymond Chandler fans for borrowing one of his titles. But game shows did endure a long goodbye from U.S. broadcast network prime time after the 1960s.

Just how long the hiatus lasted was brought home to me by this tweet from Alex Davis. On the thread the very reliable Chris Lambert correctly nailed Newlywed Game as the last U.S. game show that survived four full seasons in broadcast prime time.

According to the Wikipedia (usual caveats) prime time schedules, Newlywed Game held down a Saturday night slot on ABC for four seasons, ending in 1970-71. And then game shows disappeared from those schedules until Regis hosted that money tree show in the 1999-2000 season. But no game show (including Millionaire) has managed to last four full seasons in broadcast prime time since the return.

It's the demos, folks. Wheel of Fortune has survived forever in syndication. Pat and Vanna regularly pull more total viewers than all but a handful of prime time shows. In the February 4-10 week, only eight prime time shows got more than Wheel's average of 12.1 million viewers.

If Wheel skewed young, it would be running in broadcast prime time forever. But it doesn't, so it isn't.