NEW YORK -- Judging from the amount of red-orange shag carpeting on the set of ABC's Match Game, Alec Baldwin may be using a time machine to commute to work.
In front of an audience at a studio on Manhattan's West Side, Baldwin was soliciting racy fill-in-the-blank answers from a panel of boozed-up celebrities who took advantage of a full bar backstage. With a long, skinny microphone made famous on the 1970s daytime hit, he breezily played his host role as if it was one long Saturday Night Live sketch. At one point, he introduced himself as "the love child of Charles Nelson Reilly" -- a reference to the flamboyant panelist from Match Game's past.
The Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor is bringing some marquee value to a genre that doesn't get much critical respect, especially in an era when quality scripted TV is abundant. Match Game premiered June 26, giving ABC four game shows on the air, the most of any prime-time broadcast network lineup since Who Wants to Be a Millionaire first became a white-hot hit 16 years ago.
This summer's game show wave is driven by revivals of classic titles such as To Tell the Truth, $100,000 Pyramid and Celebrity Family Feud filling a network need for recognizable, low-cost and easy-to-launch first-run programming at a time when it's tougher to get viewers to notice new shows.
Networks were once able to draw summer audiences with reruns of their hits once the official TV season ended in May. Those days are long gone as viewers can catch up on their favorite programs through online streaming, video-on-demand services or their DVRs.
Although complex serial dramas draw buzz and accolades, there is still a large segment of the TV audience with an appetite for programming they can just turn on and enjoy without requiring any binge-watching to catch up on plot points. And classic game shows fit the bill.
"At the end of the day, people like to see other people win," said CBS Daytime President Angelica McDaniel. "When you turn on a game show, you have that inevitable opportunity to experience joy. It's a great escape."
Although game shows are cost-efficient to produce, as several episodes can be shot in one day on a single set, they are by no means cheap programming when a big name is attached. For Match Game, Baldwin's talent fee is said to be more than $200,000 an episode.
Three of ABC's shows come from FremantleMedia North America, stewards of the classic game formats created by Goodson-Todman Productions during the first few decades of television. To Tell the Truth -- hosted this summer by Black-ish star Anthony Anderson -- first showed up in 1956, while Match Game premiered in 1962. Both have been revived numerous times. Celebrity Family Feud, with Steve Harvey as host, is a spinoff of the current syndicated Family Feud, which first appeared on ABC daytime in 1976.
The original versions of Goodson-Todman shows became mass-appeal hits when viewers had fewer channel choices. As a result, Fremantle has found that the games have strong brand recognition spanning several generations.
Even stars have a soft spot for the Goodson-Todman formats. Baldwin seemed like a long shot to host Match Game when the idea was first suggested to his agents. It turned out he was among the viewers who loved it when it was a bawdy, innuendo-filled daily cocktail party on CBS from 1973 to 1979.
"Alec said 'I'm not doing this without Gene Rayburn's microphone,'" recalled Rob Mills, head of alternative programming at ABC, referring to the telescoping mic that the show's original host used.
ABC's new Match Game has the same logo and wah-wah guitar-infused theme song that longtime fans will recall. But game shows can't make it on nostalgic appeal alone, especially among younger viewers. Having strong personalities -- such as Baldwin, Anderson and Harvey -- as hosts who are "invested" in the show is a must, said Jennifer Mullin, co-chief executive of FreemantleMedia North America.
Style on 07/12/2016