Match Game

Host: Gene Rayburn
Announcer: Johnny Olson
Regular Panelists: Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson

Premise: Contestants score points and win cash by giving the same answers that a panel of celebrities did.

Rules: The game consists of two rounds. In each round, the players get one question to play. The question is read aloud to the panelists: Mary got on her graduation night." The panelists all write down their answers to the question. The contestant then gives his or her answer. One at a time, the celebrities give their answers, and score one point for the contestant if the answers match. The score is denoted by marking green triangles for the challenger and red circles for the champion. In round two, the contestants get a second, usually easier, question to try and match the celebrities he or she did not match in roound one. After the second round, the contestant who matched more imes won $100 and played the "Super Match."

If the contestants tied at the end of round two, each gets one more question, whoever scores more matches moves on.

The winner of the match gets to play the Audience Match. A previous studio audience (likely from another Goodson-Todman game) gave their answer to a question, like FIRE _____. Three chosen celebrities gave their answers, and the contestant could take one, or come up with their own. The answers were revealed, the top answer won $500, the second most common response won $250, and the bottom response won $100.

The player could then multiply the Audience Match winnings by ten by matching one more celebrity on another fill-in question. If the contestant matched, the cash was won ($5500, $2750, or $1100, in addition to the $100.) If not, the Audience Match money was won.

Note: At this point in the show, Richard Dawson was picked by the contestant to play 90% of the time. In 1978, the producers installed a "Star Wheel" to determine who the Super Match to be played with. 3/7 of each star's space had gold stars on them, and allowed the contestant to play for double the money, up to $10,000.

Contestants could stay on until they won over $21,000 (later increased to $25,000.)
Match Game PM
Changes: The contestants had 3 chances (two chances until 1976) to match the contestants. Whoever won the match got to play the Double Audience Match.

The contstant played two Audience Matches and could win $10,000 by matching on one celebrity. (The Star Wheel could make this a $20,000 jackpot).
Contestants left after that show, and did not return.

Match Game
Changes: This version which ran from 1979 to 1981 (after the CBS version ended) gave two contestants two chances to win $10,000. Each contestant played two games, with a Super Match after each, and left the show after that. Games did straddle.
Match Game '90 ABC- July 1990 to July 1991, 12:00 pm

Two players play the game. Each gets one choice of questions for round one, and each match of the six stars scores $50. After both players have a chance to win money, they play "Match-up!".

The trailing player chooses one of the six stars to play with. Ross reads a "Super Match" style question with a blank in it and two choices. The contestant pushes a button to pick their answer, then the star gives their answer. A match wins $50, and the game continues for 30 seconds.

The second half has another "Match Game" for $50 a match, and "Final Match-up!" was played for $100 a match within the time limit (a star could only be picked once for this part of the game).

The player that won more money kept the money and got to play the "Super Match" for $10,000.

The Super Match was just like that from the 70s version, with values of $500-$250-$100 in the early going, and $500-$300-$200 later. A player who didn't score in this portion played for $500 in the Head-to-Head Match, or $1,000 after the scoring change.

To determine which star would play the Head-to-Head match, the Star Wheel was spun. Red dots around the wheel would double the payoff for a correct match, otherwise the "Audience Match" money was won.

Champions could play for up to five days, at which point they retired.

Match Game '98 Syndicated August 1998-August 1999

Two players competed for the chance to win $5,000.

One player chose one of two "categories" (puns probably taken from the "Win Ben Stein's Money" wastebin), and tried to match the five "stars." Each match was worth one point.

Round two was played similarly, but matches were worth two points, and the player with more points won the game. If there was a tie, the players wrote their answers, and the stars filled in the blank.

The Audience Match was played as normal, worth $500-$250-$100. If no match was found, the champ played for $500 in the Super Match. If the champion failed to match a star in the Head-to-Head Match, he or she won a small stereo in addition to the money.