# Match Game
**Match Game** is an American television panel game show in which contestants try to match the answers of a celebrity panel to fill-in-the-blank questions. It premiered on NBC on December 31, 1962, was hosted for most of its run by [Gene Rayburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-rayburn), and has been revived repeatedly over six decades[1](https://www.gameshows.com/match-game/moments-and-trivia) • [2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game). The 1970s CBS version, with its bawdy humor and a recurring panel led by [Charles Nelson Reilly](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-nelson-reilly), Brett Somers, and [Richard Dawson](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-dawson), became one of the defining game shows of its era[3](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-match25nov25-story.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First premiere | December 31, 1962, on NBC, hosted by Gene Rayburn[1](https://www.gameshows.com/match-game/moments-and-trivia) |
| Landmark revival | *Match Game '73* on CBS, premiering July 2, 1973, ran through 1982[1](https://www.gameshows.com/match-game/moments-and-trivia) |
| Core scoring | One point for each of six celebrities whose answer matches the contestant's, up to six points[2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game) |
| Signature panel | Charles Nelson Reilly holds the record for appearances; Brett Somers is the second most frequent panelist[1](https://www.gameshows.com/match-game/moments-and-trivia) |
| CBS run | Canceled in 1979 after roughly 1,445 to 1,455 episodes, continuing in daily syndication until 1982[4](https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Match_Game) • [2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game) |
| Offspring | The Audience Match round inspired *Family Feud*, which premiered in July 1976[5](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/lets-play-the-feud/) |
| Recent revival | ABC's version, hosted by Martin Short, premiered July 23, 2025, with four contestants competing for $25,000[6](https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/match-game-release-date-host-and-everything-we-know-about-the-game-show) • [7](https://abc.com/shows/match-game/about-the-show/1000) |
## Gameplay
Two contestants compete to match the answers of six celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank statements. A contestant earns one point for each celebrity who writes down the same answer, or a reasonably similar one as judged by the show's judges; for example, "rear end" matched "bottom" or a similar euphemism. The maximum is six points for matching the entire panel[2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game). On the CBS version the champion sat in the upstage red-circle seat and the challenger in the downstage green-triangle seat; syndicated versions, which had no returning champions, assigned seats by backstage coin toss[2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game).
The main game was played in two rounds, three on *Match Game PM* after its first season[2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game). The questions were written to invite double entendre; a typical example ran, "Did you see that girl at the corner? She has the biggest (fill in the blank)[8](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/ken-footes-radiotv-files-remembering-the-match-game/)." The show's own fan documentation stresses that there are no right or wrong answers, only answers that match or do not, and that spelling does not count[9](https://matchgame.info/about.html).
The bonus round, the Super Match, included an Audience Match in which the contestant tried to match one of the three most popular answers given in a survey of a previous studio audience[5](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/lets-play-the-feud/). In the 1970s those audience answers had to be stenciled and painted onto large poster boards by the CBS graphics department well before taping[5](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/lets-play-the-feud/).
## The original NBC version, 1962 to 1969
The first *Match Game* was a considerably more demure affair than its later revival, running on NBC daytime from 1962 to 1969 with Gene Rayburn as host[8](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/ken-footes-radiotv-files-remembering-the-match-game/) • [10](https://www.ultraswank.net/television/the-match-game/). Announcer [Johnny Olson](https://www.edgepedia.org/johnny-olson) opened each episode with "Get ready to match wits with the stars," read the panel's names, and introduced "the star studded, big money, Match Game" and Rayburn, who worked a long stick microphone[8](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/ken-footes-radiotv-files-remembering-the-match-game/).
## The CBS revival, 1973 to 1982
After the success of the revived *The New Price Is Right* on CBS, producers [Mark Goodson](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-goodson) and Bill Todman rebooted *Match Game* with a panel of six celebrities, at first asking mundane questions that soon gave way to the suggestive ones the show became known for[11](https://www.tvparty.com/70-match-game2.html). *Match Game '73* premiered on CBS on July 2, 1973, and transformed the show into a pop culture phenomenon[1](https://www.gameshows.com/match-game/moments-and-trivia); one television encyclopedia dates the premiere to June 25, 1973[12](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/Complete-Encyclopedia-of-Televison-Programs-1947-1976-2.pdf). The Los Angeles Times described the format as ostensibly a straightforward word game that served as an excuse for 1970s television personalities to joke around on a split-level celebrity set, capturing the lifestyle of the period more vividly, the paper suggested, than any [Joan Didion](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-didion) novel or [Robert Altman](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-altman) film[3](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-match25nov25-story.html).
By the mid-1970s the CBS show was the most popular program on daytime television[5](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/lets-play-the-feud/). CBS canceled it on April 20, 1979, after six years; one count gives 1,445 shows, while the Television Academy's production listing records 1,455 episodes of *Match Game '7x* with 16 unaired[4](https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Match_Game) • [2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game). The show continued in daily syndication until 1982, simply titled *Match Game*[4](https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Match_Game). A weekly prime-time companion, *Match Game PM*, produced 230 self-contained episodes with two new contestants each week[2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game).
The panel's chemistry drove the show's appeal. Charles Nelson Reilly made more appearances than any other panelist, with [Brett Somers](https://www.edgepedia.org/brett-somers) second; together they formed what one game-show archive calls the most iconic duo in game show panel history[1](https://www.gameshows.com/match-game/moments-and-trivia). Regulars and frequent guests included Richard Dawson of *Hogan's Heroes*, Betty White, Fannie Flagg, Marcia Wallace, Dick Martin, and [Jack Klugman](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-klugman)[8](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/ken-footes-radiotv-files-remembering-the-match-game/) • [10](https://www.ultraswank.net/television/the-match-game/).
## Later versions
The format was revived repeatedly. NBC ran a combined *Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour* from 1983 to 1984. Two further revivals were unsuccessful: ABC from July 16, 1990, to July 12, 1991, hosted by Ross Shafer, and a syndicated 1998–99 season hosted by Michael Burger[4](https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Match_Game) • [2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game). In 2006, CBS's seven-episode *Gameshow Marathon* special included a *Match Game* episode hosted by [Ricki Lake](https://www.edgepedia.org/ricki-lake)[2](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game) • [13](https://gameshows.fandom.com/wiki/Match_Game).
ABC returned the show to prime time in 2016 with [Alec Baldwin](https://www.edgepedia.org/alec-baldwin) as host, launching alongside its *$100,000 Pyramid* reboot on June 26, 2016. The revival kept the fill-in-the-blank format and its capacity for bawdy answers, restored period touches such as shag carpeting and a wand-like microphone, and ran through 2021[14](https://www.tvline.com/news/match-game-100000-pyramid-abc-game-show-reboots-727571/) • [13](https://gameshows.fandom.com/wiki/Match_Game). A new ABC version hosted by [Martin Short](https://www.edgepedia.org/martin-short), who also serves as an executive producer, premiered on July 23, 2025; each hour-long episode contains two games, four contestants compete for a $25,000 top prize, and episodes stream on Hulu the day after broadcast[6](https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/match-game-release-date-host-and-everything-we-know-about-the-game-show) • [7](https://abc.com/shows/match-game/about-the-show/1000). Short joins a host list that also includes Gene Rayburn, Bert Convy, Charlene Tilton, Ricki Lake, and Alec Baldwin[6](https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/match-game-release-date-host-and-everything-we-know-about-the-game-show).
## Legacy
The show's most durable contribution to the genre came from its own bonus round. Goodson-Todman staffers began developing the Audience Match concept as a standalone show, an idea credited in one account to set designer Ted Cooper, and the result was *Family Feud*, which premiered in July 1976 with Richard Dawson, *Match Game*'s most frequent male panelist of the 1970s, as host[5](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/lets-play-the-feud/).
The 1973–82 run also sustained a long afterlife. Twenty-four years after its cancellation, the Los Angeles Times reported a cult following with numerous tribute websites and daily airings on the [Game Show Network](https://www.edgepedia.org/game-show-network), and GSN broadcast an hour-long documentary, *The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank*, narrated by [Jamie Farr](https://www.edgepedia.org/jamie-farr), on November 26, 2006[3](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-match25nov25-story.html) • [11](https://www.tvparty.com/70-match-game2.html). The format has been adapted internationally; the Australian *Blankety Blanks* with Graham Kennedy was based on *Match Game*[15](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/blankety-blanks-graham-kennedy).
## References
1. [Moments & Trivia — Match Game, GameShows.com](https://www.gameshows.com/match-game/moments-and-trivia)
2. [Match Game, Television Academy Interviews](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/match-game)
3. [Filling in the once-bawdy blank, Los Angeles Times (2006)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-match25nov25-story.html)
4. [Match Game, Academic Kids encyclopedia](https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Match_Game)
5. [Celebrating 50 Years: "Let's Play the Feud," The Strong National Museum of Play](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/lets-play-the-feud/)
6. [Match Game: release date, host and everything we know, WhatToWatch](https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/match-game-release-date-host-and-everything-we-know-about-the-game-show)
7. [About Match Game, ABC.com](https://abc.com/shows/match-game/about-the-show/1000)
8. [Remembering "The Match Game," CBS Texas (2013)](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/ken-footes-radiotv-files-remembering-the-match-game/)
9. [About Match Game Info](https://matchgame.info/about.html)
10. [Television: The Match Game, Ultra Swank](https://www.ultraswank.net/television/the-match-game/)
11. [The Many Attempts To Revive Match Game, TVparty!](https://www.tvparty.com/70-match-game2.html)
12. [The Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs 1947–1976, Vol. 2 (Terrace)](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/Complete-Encyclopedia-of-Televison-Programs-1947-1976-2.pdf)
13. [Match Game, Game Shows Wiki](https://gameshows.fandom.com/wiki/Match_Game)
14. [Match Game Vs. $100,000 Pyramid: Which ABC Reboot Is Most Faithful?, TVLine (2016)](https://www.tvline.com/news/match-game-100000-pyramid-abc-game-show-reboots-727571/)
15. [Blankety Blanks with Graham Kennedy, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia](https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/blankety-blanks-graham-kennedy)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Reality and competition franchise editions › Reality and competition franchises — overview and format history*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license