The American version of the game show Deal or No Deal debuted on NBC on December 19, 2005 and was a pretty big hit, sometimes airing twice a week and offering all sorts of special episodes and gimmicks. When you have a hit like that, someone's going to copy it and, sure enough, there were a lot of big money prime-time game shows soon, some of which didn't last too long. The one that was closest to the template of Deal or No Deal was probably Show Me The Money, hosted awkwardly by William Shatner. Every time I see Mr. Shatner in anything, I'm reminded of a line directed at Sammy Davis Jr. in one of those Dean Martin roasts. I forget who said it but I remember the line. It was, "You know, Sammy, you're allowed to turn things down."
Show Me The Money debuted on ABC on November 14, 2006. They made seven episodes but ABC only aired five of them, the last of which was broadcast on December 13, 2006. You weren't watching and neither was anyone else.
Why didn't it go? Well, Shatner's discomfort in the role of Game Show Host was probably a reason but I think, first of all, America was getting tired of shows that looked like this. Secondly, I think the game itself was kind of forced and clumsy and it got buried under all the pizazz and neon and an audience that was programmed to love every second of everything that happened on that stage.
You can see that in the episode below. You can also count all the ways it was trying to be like Deal or No Deal…
The following intrigues me: On most game shows, the release that contestants sign has a clause that says, in essence, that you don't receive the prizes if the show doesn't air. This goes back to the time when the prizes were all furnished to some extent in exchange for the on-air plugs. I knew someone who, on tape day, won big on the 1975 revival of You Don't Say! with Tom Kennedy. He was ecstatic but the program was abruptly canceled and the last week or two — including his episode — never aired and he didn't receive his winnings.
The last two episodes taped of Show Me The Money! didn't air on ABC. Game Show Network picked up the rights to air all seven episodes but — well, here: I'll let you read for yourself what Wikipedia says about it…
The first episode aired [on GSN] on June 12, 2007, and the second episode aired on June 19, 2007. However, on June 26, 2007, GSN replaced the series with an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It is known that GSN pulled the show due to bad ratings for the first two weeks and it was replaced by Dog Eat Dog on the Tuesday nights for the remainder of July 2007. There is no indication that GSN will air the show again, thus the two episodes not broadcast by ABC remain unaired.
GSN's webpage for the show included a photo from one of the two unaired episodes. The photo depicted Bob Glouberman, the contestant whose game was in progress at the end of the last episode aired by ABC, and a winnings total of $890,000 displayed on the scoreboard. Glouberman completed his game with that total in his bank and was paid, even though the episode showing his victory never aired on ABC.
So I'm wondering if the last two episodes didn't air because it wouldn't have been cost-effective if they had to pay some big winner who was not seen, as Mr. Glouberman was, in the shows that did air on ABC. I know a few game show experts who follow this site. Maybe one of them knows.
And I can just imagine how awful it would be to win a six-figures amount — what they call "life-changing money" — on a game show, then find out weeks later that you weren't getting it. That fellow I knew who didn't get the money from You Don't Say! charged a lot of purchases he thought he could afford before he found out that he couldn't.