Blackout - TV.com

Blackout: Summary

Airs Next:CBS at Weekdays 10:00 AM (30 min.)
Status:Ended
Premiered:January 4, 1988
Last Aired:April 1, 1988
Show Categories:Game Shows

Two contestants (one a returning champion), each paired with a celebrity partner, compete in Blackout. Here's the uncensored rules description:

The two teams are shown a pun with four blanks in it. One of the words is revealed to the celebrity paired with the challenger. While the contestant puts on a set of earphones, the celebrity is given 20 seconds to define the word. After the 20 seconds expire, the player can hear the recorded description ...

... with the catch being that the opponent's celebrity (having heard the entire spiel) can use the "Blackout Button" to censor up to seven seconds of the playback, with extra censoring time awarded for repetition. If the player was able to guess the word correctly, the word was placed in the pun and he/she got a chance to guess the subject the pun was referring to. If unable to guess or they were wrong, the opponent (who heard the entire playback) got to guess. If both teams were wrong or the celebrity accidentally uttered the answer, the word was simply placed in the pun and no one got to guess.

The first team to guess the pun's subject won the round. In round two, the players read the descriptions to the words and the celebrities had to guess what they were referring to.

The first team to guess the subject of two puns won $500 and that player was champion.

In the Blackout bonus round, the contestant faced a video screen while the celebrity has his back turned. A category is shown, with up to six clues appearing on-screen (at the rate of one every two seconds). When the contestant believes enough information has been provided to allow the celebrity to answer, he/she beckons "Solve it!" The celebrity then used the provided information to guess the subject. Each correct answer was worth $200, but getting six within a 70-second time limit won the player $10,000.

The celebrities played for the entire week, while returning champions (who were paired with the other celebrity the next day) could return for up to five shows (with a theoretical maximum possible of $51,000).

While quite a lot of fun and it had a lot of potential, Blackout never caught on with viewers. The show had the honor of replacing The $25,000 Pyramid and being replaced by (guess what) The $25,000 Pyramid! It was the second game show to have that happen. The first was an ABC game called Blankety Blanks which replaced and got replaced by The Brady Bunch reruns. Two contestants (one a returning champion), each paired with a celebrity partner, compete in Blackout. Here's the uncensored rules description:

The two teams are shown a pun with four blanks in it. One of the words is revealed to the celebrity paired with the challenger. While the contestant puts on a set of earphones, the celebrity is given 20 seconds to define...

April 1, 1988

Aired: Friday April 1, 1988

Crystal Bernard and a contestant compete against Pat Harrington Jr. and a contestant.

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Sorry there is no news for Blackout at this time.

Bob GoenHost
Johnny GilbertAnnouncer [Jan. 4 - Mar. 25 1988]
Jay StewartAnnouncer [Mar. 28 - Apr. 1 1988]

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jmorri02
member since: Jun 15, 2005
The Bottom Line: "Underappreciated"
Two contestants play with celebrities describing words to a puzzle to each other. The partner can't hear the description and while it's played back the opponent can "blackout" a portion of the description. The first team to solve 2 puzzles wins. ...Continue »
07/27/06 06:59pm | report abuse