Just found an advance listing. It appears "Price" will be on City at 8 PM, followed by Blue Skies and Hudson & Rex. If that turns out to be the case, it will be an all-Canadian primetime on the station. 

Shorty Wave wrote:

I imagine this should do quite well for Citytv, especially with Mandel hosting, but it bothers me that Canadians have to basically replicate American game shows to be successful, like this and CBC’s Family Feud.

However, I don’t really see this changing as we haven’t really produced a successful Canadian game show, although I think Test Pattern, hosted by the late Dan Gallagher on MuchMusic back in the day, was a unique piece of pop culture, plus pure CanCon!

CBC did well with Canada's smartest person. Maybe they should bring that back... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%27s_Smartest_Person

It doesn't matter to me if a game show produced here is a replicate of a US show or from somewhere else.  Many big US game shows are from other countries originally.   Deal or No Deal, America's Funniest Home Videos, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, American Idol, Weakest Link, Big Brother, American Ninja Warrior, Dancing With The Stars and others came from countries outside of the US.  

Like most things, I am sure City's version will be criticized since it won't exactly be the same as the long running US Price Is Right.  And even if it was exactly the same, it would be criticized for not being Canadian enough, or just a rip off of the American show.  I say good on City TV for the ambitious effort.  Hope the program does well!  And good on them featuring an all cancon Tuesday evening.

Test Pattern was a cool game show.  Somebody should give it another spin...

My all time favourite story on this came in the mid-1960s, when CHCH tried to do a local game show called "It's A Match." 

It was hosted by a still disgraced Jack Barry, who had fled to Canada after the quiz show scandals drove him out of the U.S. and he wound up working at the local Hamilton station.

The purpose of the game was to test your memory about what you saw and be able to pick two matching pictures, a kind of visual Concentration. 

I used to come home from school to watch this thing. One day, they had on a local school teacher, a guy by the name of Rocky Sankoff. Why I remember that, I have no idea. In any event, this guy had a photographic memory and could instantly recall where everything was. He never lost a single game and remained the champion for months and months. 

After each show, Barry would ask him "Rocky, do you want to come back and defend your title tomorrow?" and of course, he said yes. 

Until that second month or so, when he answered the question with "No Jack, I want to give someone else a chance." And with that his long reign on the show ended. 

And how much did Mr. Sankoff walk away with after weeks and weeks of undefeated playing? Exactly sixty-four dollars. Yes, he'd been on the program forever and the only thing he had to show for it was a lousy 64 bucks. That was what Canadian game shows were like back then. It didn't help that CHCH was a small station with no budget and probably should not have been doing a local game show at all. 

For some reason, I've never forgotten that and it was my first time learning that - in those days at least - while Monty Hall was giving away cars and trips with one appearance on "Let's Make A Deal" over on ABC, Canadians were getting a pittance even in that year's lower income range. 

I'm certainly glad that isn't the case any more. But boy, were we ever cheap back then! I hope he spent the money wisely!

paterson1 wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

This is only possible because of a rule change by the government. There was a time Canadian TV and radio stations were only allowed to give away prizes under a certain price threshold. I can't remember the exact number, but I think it was limited to around $500-1,000. 

I remember as a kid my mom taking me to CFTO to watch a terrible game show called "All About Faces." We were in the audience when the floor director tried to get the audience to go "oooh" and "aaaah!" when they showed the top prize - a mattress!

That was what the grand prize winner got. I remember watching it when it hit air and it sounded absurd to think people would gush over a mattress. Fortunately, those stupid rules were changed and I'm not sure if there still is a limit on a prize value in this country anymore. 

Although under Canadian rules, I think you still have to answer a (usually very simple) skill testing question to get your prize, because God forbid you should just win anything without having to somehow "earn" it.

In any event, I'm assuming prizes like expensive cars and trips will be part of the Canadian version of "Price," just like it is in the U.S.  

And with the Canadian show whatever the prize no taxes need to be paid.  But the US shows back then had some lame prizes too.  Like a years supply of Rice-A-Roni for the runners up on Jeopardy, and grand prize winner taking home $300 or less.  

I think Canadian TV may have been cheap, not focusing on the prizes much, or just didn't have the budget for better prizes in the 70's and 80's.  I know there were limits but Canadian TV game shows likely never came close.
 
Back in the 70's CHUM was regularly giving away $1,000 for "I Listen To CHUM".  Also I recall them having contests in that decade, giving away cars (even Corvettes) and motorcycles to lucky listeners.  And this was in addition to all of the free concert tickets, dinner prizes and tee shirts that they always had for prizes.  

 

Of course the prize winnings on the Art Fleming version of Jeopardy were in the $300 range. $10-$50 for round one. $20-$100 for round two.

Big8Newsie wrote:

Radiowiz wrote:

I seem to also recall a time when CKCO TV had their own local gameshow where some guy walked around a mall with a microphone selecting random people to answer trivia questions.
That's something that can still be done on the cheap today...perhaps even cheaper than cash cab because it's all on foot with no vehicle, so no gas to pay...

The CKCO-TV version was Johnny Walters Trivia Company.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=07f0QO8F1Y4

There's a lot more here on the late Johnnie Walters.