Game Show Production
How important is the set design on game shows?
The set design is a very important part of the game show puzzle. I don't think it is the most important part, I think the most important part is the game. But certainly the look and the feel of the show, which extends beyond the set, to the music and to the graphics is very important, particularly today to an audience that has perhaps a shorter attention span and certainly many more choices of shows to watch on television. So if you are flipping around and you see a game show that has a very rich look to it and it catches your eye that's a show that will probably be successful. So, set design is an important part.
How has the set design on game shows changed through the years?
When game shows first transferred from radio to television, their look was not all that spectacular, because television was a new medium, and there wasn't a lot of effort put into the actual design of the show. As television got more mature and more advanced in the fifties and sixties, the design became more important. With the crazy psychedelic sixties, the game show took on a look of sort of a circus, and there were flashing lights everywhere, and major effects. This was before video effects really were as sophisticated as they are today, but there were all kinds of angles and wipes and effects that they used in a very primitive form to make the shows look snazzy and dazzling. As time went on, the look became more contemporary and more dramatic, and that's the turn of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" in 1999, which really put the game show set into a different class. Now it wasn't about the flashing lights and the turntables and the largess of it. It was about the drama. It was about the dramatic lighting, the dramatic music, the graphics, the look and feel, the tension that was created by all of these elements together, that made that show so ground-breaking, even though its format was very derivative.
Who comes up with the rules on game shows?
Game shows are typically created by a producer who has the core of an idea and the notion of what a game should be about. Then, there is a creative team that comes into play that helps to flesh out all of the rules and the structures and create the basic shell script for a show, which changes every day because the game changes every day. The basic structure of a game has many different twists and turns and tentacles, because you just never know how it's going to run. If this player gets this question right then you go to this rule, and if the other player gets it right then it's a tie and you have to go to that rule, if there's a three way tie that you have to go to a whole different rule. Maybe you have to throw the question out because you weren't ready for the rule that you created and on and on and on. There are people who are called in to help work out the rules, not only initially but in the course of run-throughs, and development to make sure they all make sense and they are all ironclad.
Who comes up with the questions on game shows?
Many game shows have writers who prepare the questions. Some of them are called writers, some of them are called segment producers or editorial content providers or whatever title you want to give them. Taking the style of the show into account, this will create material that is relevant to that show. The best questions on the best shows are the one's that have a style relevant and specific to that show. There are elements to a good Jeopardy question or Jeopardy answer that are different than a good Millionaire question or a good Greed question or a good Power of 10 question. There really is a style and a talent to coming up with those questions.
What's a typical day in production on a game show?
Most game shows tape multiple episodes in a day, partly for financial reasons and partly for production reasons. The standard in the classic days of game show production was doing 5 half-hours in a day, which would be a Monday through Friday strip version for either network daytime or syndication. That number varies. Many shows are an hour in length, so a typical show might tape as many as 6 shows or 7 shows in a day (half-hours). An hour show might tape two or three shows in a day. The standard is an 8 or 9 o'clock start to the production day, engineering set-up, and then either some rehearsal or not, depending on the type of show and the length of time it's been in production. The tape usually rolls in the late morning or early afternoon, and they do a number of episodes and take a break, or lunch or set-up or something, and then do the remainder of shows.
Are game shows edited before they air?
Most game shows are edited by post-production, but some are more rigorous than others. A show like The Price is Right has very little or no editing. It's done essentially live to tape, and put on the air except for some fixes. Other shows have heavy editing. But what is not allowed to be edited, and is therefore not edited, is portions that affect the outcome of the game. So you may take out thinking time, for instance, if a contestant can't come up with an answer for two or three minutes. When that reaches air, it might be twenty or thirty seconds, but they never would take out a contestant giving a correct answer, who gave a correct answer.
How many cameras are used on game shows?
The production set up of game show is, is a vastly differently and individual, am some much to be game show used as few as four or five cameras some use for to ten cams and it really depend on the budget, and depend to the director and it depends to the type of game, and how much needs to be covered and how much post production that they want to do.