Blackout (game show)

Blackout
Created by	Jay Wolpert
Written by	Joel Hecht Jay Wolpert Jon Field Meredith Kornfeld
Directed by	John Dorsey
Presented by	Bob Goen
Narrated by	Johnny Gilbert Jay Stewart
Theme music composer	Middle "C" Productions
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	65
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jay Wolpert
Producer(s)	Joel Hecht Randall Neece
Production location(s)	CBS Television City Hollywood, California
Running time	approx. 26 minutes
Production company(s)	Jay Wolpert Productions Taft Entertainment Television Inc.
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	January 4 – April 1, 1988
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Blackout was an American game show that aired on CBS from January 4 to April 1, 1988. The pilot was hosted by Robb Weller, but he was replaced for the series by Bob Goen. Johnny Gilbert was announcer for most of the run, with Jay Stewart (in his final announcing job) taking over for the last two weeks. The show was a Jay Wolpert production.

Gameplay

Main game

Two teams, each consisting of a contestant and a celebrity partner, played. One of the players was usually a returning champion and played from a yellow desk while the other player played from a red desk.

The object of the game was to solve word puzzles that consisted of a sentence or short paragraph with four blank spaces. Each blank represented a word, and the object of the game was for one of the players to guess the word based on clues provided by their partner. Both teams had what were referred to as "blackout buttons", which were used to block out various portions of the description in an attempt to hinder the opponents' ability to guess.

Two rounds were played, with the celebrities giving the clues in the first round and the contestants doing so in the second.

Play in the first round began with the red team being shown a word. The celebrity gave a twenty-second long description of the word, which was recorded, while his/her partner put a pair of headphones on and his/her portion of the desk was moved so the partner could not see or hear anything. After the celebrity was done describing the word, the contestant was brought back into play so he/she could hear the playback. The yellow team, meanwhile, would use their blackout button to block out a maximum of seven seconds of the recording. An additional second was added on if a cluegiver repeated a word at any point in their description.

After the playback was finished, the contestant provided a guess based on the information he/she was able to hear. If he/she could not do so, the yellow team's contestant got a chance to guess and had the advantage of having heard the entire description. Correctly guessing the word won $100 for the player that did so and a chance to guess the puzzle. Saying the word, a form of it or part of it was illegal, and if either team did so $100 and a free guess were awarded to the other team. Otherwise, the word went up on the board and play continued until the puzzle was solved, with the team that did so earning a point. If the fourth word went unidentified, Goen would give a pre-written definition of it as a toss-up and the first player to buzz in with the right answer received the $100.

In the second round the roles were reversed, with the contestants now serving as cluegivers, and the round started with the yellow team. The same rules applied, with the first team to solve the puzzle gaining the point. If the team that solved the first puzzle solved the second, they won the game and advanced to the Clue Screen for a chance at $10,000.

If the game ended in a tie, an all-or-nothing tiebreaker was played. In this case, the contestant whose team guessed the most words or the winner of a backstage coin toss was given the option to either give the description of one final word or to black out the opponent. Both celebrities wore the headphones so neither knew what was going on. The cluegiver was given ten seconds to speak, the opponent was given three seconds of blackout time, and the one second penalty for repeating a word was still in play. Correctly identifying the subject won the game, while guessing wrong or giving an illegal clue resulted in an automatic loss.

Clue Screen

In the Clue Screen round, the object was to guess the identity of five subjects. Before the round started, the contestant decided whether he/she would look at the screen or if the celebrity would. The other player would then stand with his/her back to the screen.

The round began when Goen gave the category for the first subject and the subject itself in order to aid the screen viewer in deciding how many clues would be needed to correctly guess the subject. Up to six clues would be displayed on the screen one at a time. At any point, the player watching the screen could yell out "solve it" if he/she felt there was enough information displayed. Once he/she did, the other player turned to face the screen and offered a guess. The round continued for a total of seventy seconds and if the team managed to correctly identify the five subjects needed the contestant won $10,000. If not, $250 was given for each one guessed correctly.

Contestants remained on the show until they were defeated or have won five matches.

Set

Blackout was taped in Studio 33 at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California.

Broadcast history

Blackout debuted at 10:00 AM on January 4, 1988, replacing The $25,000 Pyramid. Unfortunately, it faced both competition from Sale of the Century on NBC (ABC had never programmed in the 10:00 AM slot) and the wrath of viewers who believed CBS canceled Pyramid too quickly. As such, Blackout never found an audience, and as a result, after 13 weeks and 65 episodes, CBS canceled it and returned Pyramid to its former timeslot. Pyramid aired for an additional 13 weeks, until July 1, 1988, and made way for a previously-planned revival of Family Feud that debuted three days later.

A brief clip of the Robb Weller-hosted pilot episode was seen in the background during the opening sequence of the ABC miniseries The Stand in 1994.

Blackout has not been seen on television since its cancellation by CBS, but a few episodes have circulated on YouTube through private collectors.

International versions

Country	Local Name	Host	Network	Year Aired
Netherlands	Blackout	Bert van Leeuwen	Evangelische Omroep	1991-92

External links

American version

• Blackout at IMDb
• Blackout at TV.com

International versions

• Article on the Dutch version of the show