The Newlywed Game (Johnsonverse)

The Newlywed Game is an American television game show that puts newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally created by Robert "Nick" Nicholson and E. Roger Muir (credited on-screen as Roger E. Muir) and produced by Chuck Barris, has appeared in many different versions since its 1966 debut. The show became famous for some of the arguments that couples had over incorrect answers in the form of mistaken predictions, and it even led to some divorces.
Many of The Newlywed Game's questions dealt with "making whoopee", the euphemism that producers used for sexual intercourse to circumvent network censorship. However, it became such a catchphrase of the show that its original host, Bob Eubanks, continued to use the phrase throughout the show's many runs, even in the 1980s and 1990s episodes and beyond, when he could easily have said "make love" or "have sex" during these periods without censorship.
Game Show Network's version of The Newlywed Game airs reruns throughout the week. Network Bounce TV has acquired the reruns from GSN.
In 2013, TV Guide ranked it No. 10 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.
== Broadcast history ==
The Newlywed Game debuted on the ABC television network on July 11, 1966, scheduled at 2 p.m. (1 Central). On the day it debuted, CBS preempted its popular Password to cover a news conference held by then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, which was delayed a half-hour, with the network "vamping" until he spoke. ABC opted to wait until just as the press conference began, and as a result The Newlywed Game was able to get a slight head start in the head-to-head ratings battle with the long-running Password. Over the next few months more and more viewers were tuning into The Newlywed Game and it became a hit, while Password's ratings began to fall and eventually led to the series' cancellation fourteen months later.
However, NBC debuted Days of Our Lives in late 1965 at 2/1, a soap opera that initially struggled to climb in the ratings. But by the early 1970s, Days was winning the timeslot regularly (though not always) over Newlywed and CBS' Guiding Light. Eventually, ABC determined that Newlywed had run its course on daytime and on December 20, 1974, the show concluded its initial run after nearly eight and a half years on the network. It was the longest-running game show in ABC daytime history until 1985, when Family Feud surpassed it, having run nine years at the time of its cancellation that year. The Money Maze, a game hosted by Cincinnati TV personality Nick Clooney, father of famed actor George Clooney, replaced it on the ABC schedule, but lasted only six months.
A syndicated version of the show began airing in 1977, with the same rules and set as the ABC original. Mostly successful, it nonetheless was canceled in 1980, not directly because of the show itself. In fall 1979, creator Chuck Barris had debuted something of a spin-off show, 3's a Crowd, in which a man, his wife and his secretary would compete. The controversy, driven by the implications of adultery that came with such a concept, ruined Barris's reputation and not only ended 3's a Crowd, but all three of Barris's other shows that were airing at the time: The Newlywed Game, The Dating Game and The Gong Show. This was because most local stations did not want anything to do with the controversy, fearing potential boycotts and loss of advertising that might result.
A special week-long series for Valentine's Day aired on ABC in February 1984 and was the last time the show aired on a broadcast network. The set for the week of specials would later be used for Bob Eubanks' return to The New Newlywed Game in syndication a year later.
Up until the GSN series' premiere on October 12, 2009, all subsequent editions of The Newlywed Game were seen in syndication. A revival that aired from 1985 until 1989 was referred to as The New Newlywed Game for the first three and a half years of its run. The last and most recent syndicated Newlywed Game aired new episodes from 1996 until 1999, continued in reruns for an additional season, and was sold to stations as part of an hour-long block with a revival of The Dating Game. Another new version also hosted by Leah Remini with Lora Cain as announcer has aired since September 12, 2016 on ABC, which aired the original version from 1966 to 1974.
== Format ==
Category:Johnsonverse