Game shows have been around since almost the first days of television. Their popularity comes and goes with their heyday in the United States being in the 1970s.
With cable came entire channels dedicated to game shows 24/7, mostly playing shows from years prior. With streaming services, those same shows are available to view at our leisure.
Game show hosts also achieved major celebrity status. People like Bob Barker, Gene Rayburn, and Alex Trebek became pop culture icons.
But what goes on behind the scenes to get the finished product ready to air?
Reddit user Meme_Lord4522 asked:
"People who have been on game shows, what are some things that watchers don't know?'"
Chopped
"I dated a guy who was on Chopped. He said it's not as rushed. That they are allowed to have sips of alcohol if they're using it in the food."
"The one that bothered him was that they were super encouraged to take swipes at each other and he's a really nice guy."
~ throwawaymy*beads
"I was on (and won) Chopped! In my episode the clock was mostly real."
"The first round they added 5 minutes, but they did it very early on, like 10 minutes into the round. Not sure why."
"The dessert round I was literally scrambling to get everything on the plate up until the last minute."
"They did ask some leading questions to try and have me take a dig at another chef, but I told them I wasn't comfortable saying anything too harsh and basically left it at, 'they were probably unfamiliar with that ingredient because it doesn't hold up well to pickling'."
"I've also been on Guy's Grocery Games and Kitchen Crash."
~ WarriorChef
Kitchen Crash
"Kitchen Crash is where chefs go door to door to find a family that will let them raid their fridge and use their ingredients to cook for three rounds. In reality, the 3 families were preselected, but they thought they were going to be on a gardening block party show."
"They were told to have food in the house to pot luck barbecue, that way they didn't have empty kitchens. I hung out with the family I was partnered with for a few hours after the show and had pizza and beer and they told me all about it from their perspective."
"They also thought it was going to be in the afternoon, but we surprised them at 9am."
~ WarriorChef
Survivor
"I had a cousin win my country’s version of Survivor. He finished the final competition about 45 min before everyone else, but the producers cut it in a way that made it seem like he barely won with just a few inches ahead of second place."
"But I guess that’s to be expected with reality TV."
"Another fun fact—the host of the show tried to get all of the women to gang up and get my cousin voted out, and it was so bad that the producers had to step in and tell him to stop (that part didn’t get aired of course)."
"Also the host of the show, who was a 'respected' TV host in my country at the time, was a raging alcoholic during the whole trip."
"They also had to halt the shooting of the show and get the contestants into hotels on the mainland for around 2 months because a lot of the people got hit by some kind of virus or bacteria that made a lot of them extremely sick."
~ Tjobi
The Price Is Right
"I won the Showcase Showdown on The Price Is Right back in 2012."
"The day is LONG. Started standing in line around 6am, then you’re put through quick interviews. They ask what’s your name, where you’re from, and what do you do (work)."
"I have no idea why they picked me because my answers were pretty unenthusiastic as I was just happy to be in the audience. My guess was that I was a young 23-year-old woman with okay legs."
"You truly do not know if you will be called to 'come on down' until the moment of."
"Yes, the wheel is heavy."
"After the show, you’re pulled into a back room to discuss prize acceptance, paperwork, and taxes. You also sign an NDA declaring you will not tell others the outcome of your episode, which airs 3 months after filming."
"The prizes are truly nice and high quality! I won 3 international trips in the Showcase and the locations and accommodations were incredible."
~ CallMeGabrielle
"My mother won the first microwave that The Price Is Right gave as a prize [1972]."
"I was about 14 years old, and I cooked everything in that monster."
~ CrankyYankers
Cash Cab
"No one hails the cash cab. It’s all a setup, though the contestants don’t necessarily know they’re about to be onCash Cab."
"They also pull you out of the cab after the initial scheme, set everything up, then send you on your way. You also get a cheque, not the actual cash."
~ Longjumping_Band_192
"My sister went to NYU and when she was out at a bar with some friends, this guy was chatting her and her friends up and was casually asking them trivia questions and they were all having a great time."
"He then slipped them all his card and said he worked for the Discovery Network (or whatever channel it was on) and asked if they wanted to be on a TV show that went to different restaurants in the city."
"They all were totally stoked and said yes of course. They made arrangements the next day via his number on the card and he said to be ready to be picked up at X intersection at X time."
"My sister was unable to go because of a prior commitment, but when the friends showed up, it was the cash cab."
"So they knew they were going to be filmed for a show, they were just misled about what it was so they would act surprised when they got in."
~ chicagokate412
Jeopardy!
"On Jeopardy! there are tiny lights surrounding the game board that aren’t visible on camera."
"You can’t ring in until the lights flash and if you try before the lights flash, you get locked out for a couple of seconds."
"That’s why you see people rapidly clicking the signaling device."
~ Bigits38
"The time between when the lights come on and a contestant presses their button is milliseconds. The competition is tough!"
~ LinearAdvance
Deal or No Deal
"I was in the audience for Deal or No Deal once. There were a couple running gags that didn't make the TV cut."
"They also took the secrecy of the briefcase contents very seriously. One of the briefcases got dropped, and it opened."
"I don't think anyone saw the number inside, but that was enough for every one of them to be taken back behind the stage and re randomized."
~ Monoplex
Trivial Pursuit: America Plays
"I was on Trivial Pursuit: America Plays where someone in the audience blurted out the answer before I could."
"They stopped production, removed the audience member, took me off stage, reset the entire round and started over."
"The kicker is I knew the answer anyway, and the new round had a category I knew absolutely nothing about."
"Audience member cost me $30k."
"I was really bummed at the time. It's been about 15 years since then; I hadn't thought about it for years until just now."
"No big deal. It was free money anyway; I didn't actually lose anything and I had fun playing."
~ Kahzgul
Countdown
"Not me on the show, but my dad."
"In the early days of Countdown (UK show) during the Richard Whiteley era (so mid 1980s), if the numbers game was a particularly tricky one they weren’t solved by Carol Vordermann immediately at the end of the round as portrayed on TV, rather, she would work on it as the programme continued and would record her solve later which would then be edited in to make it look like she had solved it there and then."
"If it was a really difficult one, then Carol didn’t solve it at all. It was a behind-the-scenes guy called Michael Wylie that worked it out and then Carol would present it as though she had solved it herself."
~ realmofconfusion
Wheel of Fortune
"I was a winner on Wheel of Fortune 10 years ago. There's only one big wheel, they have to transport it to other taping locations if not in L.A. (I was), and that f*cker is heavy."
"As part of prep for the actual taping, they have everyone practice the proper way to spin it—left hand grips the padded rail in front of you, right hand pulls the wheel toward you and continues the momentum to push the wheel along its spin."
"They tell us not to try aiming for a specific space because it's too obvious and too hard to control."
~ teamcrazymatt
Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
"Not me, but an acquaintance was taped for Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?."
"He was definitely smarter than a fifth grader."
"But that doesn't make for good television; it never went to air."
~ zeroentanglements
Ink Master
"I was on Ink Master as a human canvas twice, which was not exactly a game show for the human canvases, but it involves a prize."
"The show was set in NYC and even had city backdrops in the opener, but it was filmed in a studio in NJ. The artists all had personas to play, selected by the producers, and did their best to abide."
"Most of the judges barely stuck around set; they’d film their stuff in quick succession then left, and they edited to make it seem like they were always there."
"The art was real, obviously, but there was much more time than depicted spent on deciding. I remember it taking FOREVER to film the skull picks though, because we had to be given the skills with the name on the bottom, film that, wait, then read the names slowly."
"It took two days to film a 30 minute episode. All in all it was an amazing experience!"
~ AkuraPiety
Slime Time Live
"I was on Slime Time Live as a kid in the early 2000s, back when they filmed it at Universal Studios Florida."
"They picked the contestants that are going to play in advance and then put us in the crowd and announced us on air and told us to act surprised."
"The host, Dave Aizer, was a jerk and wouldn't talk to the contestants off-air. The two cohosts Jonah Travick and Jessica Holmes were a lot nicer though."
"Also the slime is cold and takes multiple washings to get out of your hair."
~ Corn_Boy1992
Let's Make a Deal
"Was on Let's Make a Deal."
"The camera lenses tend to make the studio look larger than it is in real life, I was surprised how much smaller it felt sitting in the audience."
"They do a group interview thing before the show starts to help pick people and weed out the ones that won't make for good TV."
"They have costumes there you can pick from, but if you bring your own you're more likely to get picked. They'll make you ride a bus to the studio though, so make sure your costume can fit in the seat. I learned that the hard way."
"They tell everyone to stay smiling/hyped the whole time because if they picked you from the interview process, they can change their mind at the last minute before Wayne calls you if they think the cameras will pan to you and you look like a sour puss. This makes everyone there stay really energetic the whole time which I thought was clever."
"Lastly, I know this makes me sound like a psycho, but Wayne Brady smells amazing!"
~ fallingoffdragons
Game Show Aficionado
"I've been on six-game shows from 1983 until around 1997."
"They mostly shot five episodes each day. So it's a long day."
"They start with reviewing rules, your wardrobe, and signing contracts etc... Eventually you play practice games on the actual set. Food is provided all day long."
"Generally, episodes were shot three months before airing, and I didn't receive any money or prizes until one month after airing. Of course you pay taxes on any prizes or cash.
"You can refuse any as well. I refused a trip to Australia—it was either take the prize or give it up."
"Most travel prizes are for off-season and the window was only two months. My wife would have been eight and nine months pregnant in that window, so she did not fell like being on such a long flight."
"I won: Catch Phrase, Now You See It, The Weakest Link (daytime version)."
~ mgoflash
Do you have any behind-the-scenes game show info?