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CBS's DOUBLE DARE
JEOPARDY! RETURNS TO NEW YORK
Take a Dare,
Play the Game
of Double Dare
The Score Productions theme became far more identified with NBC's original version of Card Sharks from 1978-81.
Most viewers associate the title Double Dare with Marc Summers' long-running jump-in-the-jello favorite from Nickelodeon days of the '80s.
The poetic open eventually became fodder for viewers to send in their own rhymes to begin Card Sharks.
GSN presented the debut episode of CBS's Double Dare last weekend in its overnight slot. Only the hardcores remember its five-month run. Candidly, the show was just too complex and had too many carryovers from one of television's biggest game show bombs of the '60s.
Alex Trebek did his only game for CBS with this effort not long after the end of High Rollers on NBC. Double Dare was a marginal variation on the average question-and-answer show. Where it became complicated was in its bonus game. A winning contestant took on three experts in a category, usually Ph.D. professors labeled "The Spoilers."
If the concept looked vaguely familiar, it was. When ABC tried unsuccessfully to revive the big-money quiz in 1963 with 100 Grand, the Sunday night game featured a bonus round where a champion took on five authorities on a subject in an attempt to wrest the top prize. No one ever scaled the heights. 100 Grand was canceled in three weeks. TV Guide reported host Jack Clark had to spend almost half of the show's 30 minutes explaining the show's extensive rules in an overboard effort to convince viewers the show was legit.
Goodson-Todman's Double Dare was just too dark and too serious to compete in the morning. The show lost 43 percent of the audience from its Price Is Right lead-in. That further damaged the audience being fed to CBS's 11:30 a.m. soap, the aging Love of Life.
A time switch with Price moving to 10:30 and Double Dare to 10 was even worse. Many CBS affiliates bolted and abandoned Trebek.
Mercifully, the game was over in April 1977. CBS opted for long on-the-shelf repeats of Here's Lucy. That fared even worse. Arguably, the weakest of CBS's three Lucille Ball comedies, Here's Lucy was gone by the fall and never made a dent in syndication. Only the occasional airing of the debut episode on GSN has preserved the memory of a Double Dare long consigned to television's vaults.
FOR CELEBRITY JEOPARDY!
The tensions are all over. Philbin returns, along with 29 other performers, for two weeks of Celebrity Jeopardy! at Radio City Music Hall. The shows tape next Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Among the segments will be the series' 5,000th syndicated episode.
In addition to Philbin, playing the game will be television actors Dana Delany ("Kidnaped"), James Denton and Doug Savant ("Desperate Housewives"), Kathryn Erbe ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent"), Miguel Ferrer ("Crossing Jordan"), Joely Fisher ("'Til Death"), Hill Harper ("CSI: NY"), Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother"), Jane Kaczmarek ("Help Me Help You"), Carson Kressley ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"), Susan Lucci ("All My Children"), Christopher Meloni ("Law & Order: SUV"), Bebe Neuwirth ("Cheers," "Frazier"), Michael McKean ("Laverne & Shirley"), Paul Shaffer ("Late Night with David Letterman"), Harry Shearer ("The Simpsons"), Steve Schirripa ("The Sopranos") and Sam Waterston ("Law and Order").
From Broadway, Mario Cantone, Brian Stokes Mitchell and comedian Martin Short join the parade. CNN's Nancy Grace and Soledad O'Brien take a crack. Cookbook guru and new talk show host Rachael Ray is aboard, along with last season's Dancing with the Stars champion Drew Lachey. From outside entertainment: Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, author Scott Turow and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi.
The shows air Nov. 8-21. More than $1 million will be contributed to the celebrities' favorite charities.
“I’m looking forward to these special weeks of shows, not only because of the fun celebrity element but also because so many good causes will benefit from the stars’ participation,” said host Alex Trebek in a statement. “These celebrities are not afraid to go out on a limb, take a risk and still have a good time. The audience will love it!”
Each of the 10 winners earn at least $50,000 for their charities with the runners-up guaranteed at least $25,000.
Welcome
Ralph Edwards Tribute (will be restored soon)
Miss Francis' gowns by Bonwit Teller
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