History GameBreaker / GameShow

* ''Series/TicTacDough'' had several "red box" categories which allowed a contestant to gain an overwhelming upper hand almost immediately, if played correctly. The most notable of these were...

* Michael Larson, a contestant on the game show ''Series/PressYourLuck''. He ''memorized'' the patterns that the board revolves around ahead of time, and became the biggest winner in the show's history by a huge margin ($110,237 in cash and prizes). Immediately after this, the patterns were changed to prevent another such incident, and CBS refused to allow anyone to air the episodes (yes, his taping actually took so long they had to edit it into a two-parter) on TV for nearly 20 years. To put this into perspective, that was the most anyone had won on U.S. TV in a single game until ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' debuted in 1999.
* Until 2003, ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' champions could win up to five games before being retired. Starting in the 2003-04 season, the producers instituted a "sky's the limit" rule where champions could go on and on winning until being defeated. Towards the season's end, Ken Jennings came along and went on a 74-game winning streak [[GoneHorriblyRight that lasted into the next season]].

** '''Dice Game''': Averted early in the game's history, when – despite the fact that a die has no numbers higher than six on it – there ''could'' be numbers in the car's price higher than six. Went away once the game settled into its normal rules.

** '''Hole in One … or Two''': An unintentional dent in the course once caused a contestant to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight win!]]'' See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMUpLqcM2g here:]]
** '''Lucky Seven''': Zeros are never in the price of the car. [[NintendoHard Not exactly a game breaker though]].

** '''Pay the Rent''': The least-expensive item of the six grocery items ''never'' goes on the lowest platform (i.e., "in the mailbox").

** '''Safe Crackers''': The lock tumblers always include a "0," and that zero is intended as the last number, essentially giving the contestant an either-or pick (e.g., $570 or $750?).

** '''10 Chances''': The prices always end in 0, or 5 if there is no 0 pick from.
** '''That's Too Much!''': The correct answer is neither the first- nor 10th-given price. [[note]]For a short time during the 2008-2009 season, the right answer was almost always the second or ninth price, which skewed a Roger Dobkowitz-era rule that the correct answer almost always fell between slots 3 and 8; the production staff let up when fans complained.[[/note]]

*** The Free Play itself has become a major game-breaker. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBAX_M6t-6o One guy landed on the space 5 times in a row]] [[LoopholeAbuse and used it to steal all 5 vowels]], and even besides that, when a player lands on it, [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome they will always immediately jump on the vowels]] without any regard for the possibility of an extra $500 for a consonant.

* For the final round of ''Series/MatchGame'', contestants chose one panelist to work with. Richard Dawson was so good at matching that nearly everyone picked him, so the fed-up producers added the Star Wheel in June 1978.

** '''Hole in One … or Two''': An unintentional dent in the course once caused a contestant to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight win!]]'' See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMUpLqcM2g here:]] [[note]]...Could it be that WesternAnimation/BugsBunny [[EpilepticTrees held a magnet under the golf ball course and drug the ball to the hole]], a la ''Film/SpaceJam?''[[/note]]

** "Bonus Category", which immediately allowed the contestant another turn if s/he answered a three-part question correctly. The thing was the category board shuffled, and invariably the "Bonus Category" would appear in an adjacent box or in a space that allowed him/her to set up and/or complete a tic-tac-toe. There were several instances where, when this category appeared, the opponent never got to play the game (although they were always invited back to play the next game). Eventually, in the interest of fair play, the category was retired.
** "Double-or-Nothing", a modified "ExtraTurn" category which added an element of risk — take the box or select another box and lose them both on an incorrect answer. The category board didn't shuffle with this category, allowing the opposing player a chance to play.
* ''Series/TheJokersWild'': Spinning three Jokers on a single spin automatically won the game for that contestant, provided s/he correctly answered a question. More than once, this happened on the first spin, but only once — the first time it happened, in early 1973 — did it result in the opponent not getting a chance to play; the second and all subsequent times it occurred, the opponent was always given at least one opportunity to "catch up" (by continuing to answer questions until they either caught up, won by surpassing the opponent's score or answering incorrectly).
** Additionally, like ''Tic-Tac-Dough'', the 1978-86 syndicated version had a number of special scoring categories which contestants could use to either win immediately, catch up or, in the very least, build a huge advantage and pressure their opponent. Most notable were:

* ''Series/SaleOfTheCentury'': Had a form of this with the Money Cards on the Fame Game board. Choosing the $25 card late in the game often put the game away for the leading contestant, even with the introduction of the 60-second SpeedRound.
* Michael Larson, a contestant on the game show ''Series/PressYourLuck''. He ''memorized'' the patterns that the board revolves around ahead of time, and became the biggest winner in the show's history by a huge margin ($110,237 in cash and prizes). Immediately after this, the patterns were changed to prevent another such incident, and CBS refused to allow anyone to air the episodes (yes, his taping actually took so long they had to edit it into a two-parter) on TV for nearly 20 years.
** To put it into perspective, this was the most anyone had won on U.S. TV in a single game until ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' debuted.

** '''Clock Game''': The game often uses multiples of 100 or figures ending in 99. Many contestants have gone right to an $x99 price and gotten it right on the first guess.

** '''Hole in One … or Two''': An unintentional dent in the course once caused a contestant to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight win!]]'' See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMUpLqcM2g here:]]
*** ...Could it be that WesternAnimation/BugsBunny [[EpilepticTrees held a magnet under the golf ball course and drug the ball to the hole]], a la ''Film/SpaceJam?''

* ''TheJokersWild'': Spinning three Jokers on a single spin automatically won the game for that contestant, provided s/he correctly answered a question. More than once, this happened on the first spin, but only once — the first time it happened, in early 1973 — did it result in the opponent not getting a chance to play; the second and all subsequent times it occurred, the opponent was always given at least one opportunity to "catch up" (by continuing to answer questions until they either caught up, won by surpassing the opponent's score or answering incorrectly).

* Michael Larson, a contestant on the game show ''PressYourLuck''. He ''memorized'' the patterns that the board revolves around ahead of time, and became the biggest winner in the show's history by a huge margin ($110,237 in cash and prizes). Immediately after this, the patterns were changed to prevent another such incident, and CBS refused to allow anyone to air the episodes (yes, his taping actually took so long they had to edit it into a two-parter) on TV for nearly 20 years.
** To put it into perspective, this was the most anyone had won on U.S. TV in a single game until ''WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' debuted.

* ''ThePriceIsRight'': Many pricing games have unwritten tricks or rules that can be easily broken. Note that several of these games didn't actually have these unstated rules until about the very end of the 1970s or very early 1980s, and are never stated outright, but faithful viewers of the show have picked up on these recurring quirks. Examples:

** '''That's Too Much!''': The correct answer is neither the first- nor 10th-given price. [[note]]For a short time during the 2008-2009 season, the right answer was almost always the second or ninth price, which skewed a Robert Dobkowitz-era rule that the correct answer almost always fell between slots 3 and 8; the production staff let up when fans complained.[[/note]]

* Any Flemish (and perhaps every single one, since the Flemish ones were organized by Endemol) phone-in game show ever that relied on counting. Due to the fact that the answers rely all on the exact same calculation pattern (which always involved an addition) that could always be identified with a counting key. With only the calculation process units being different each time (with obscure Chinese units for instance being a real thing there) one only has to see a certain number of answers (which were always given at the end of the show) in order to have access to a code that solves every single answer for you. With only one out of six answers being wrong due to calculation errors by the very company that makes those shows one only has to know what the counting key looks like in order to win literally five out of six Flemish phone-in game shows involving counting until the company catches up on the facts and makes a new one. Due to how long it takes for those companies to realize that one only needs to participate in every single phone-in game show ever solving every single puzzle with the counting key in your hand and finish when the counting key changes with 1 million euro's in your pocket. Flemish investigative journalism series ''Basta'' noted that when they aired the episode ''De mol in het belspel'' and [[http://www.een.be/files/extra/programmas/basta/basta_110117_telsleutel.pdf published the counting key that was used in Flanders from 2009 until the death of the phone-in game show in Flanders]], but be warned since you need to understand Dutch in order to read it. They ended up with proving that the theory that was true by participating in a counting game show and winning the big prize after 2 guesses.

* Any Flemish (and perhaps every single one, since the Flemish ones were organized by Endemol) phone-in game show ever that relied on counting. Due to the fact that the answers rely all on the exact same calculation pattern (Remember that the thing is always an addition. Counting "!" as a factorial may be optional.) with only the units being different (with obscure Chinese units being a real thing) one only has to see a certain number of answers (which were always given at the end of the show) in order to have access to a code that solves every single answer for you.

*** ...Could it be that BugsBunny [[EpilepticTrees held a magnet under the golf ball course and drug the ball to the hole]], a la ''Film/SpaceJam?''

*** The "Bid" category: The player decided in advance how many questions he wanted to answer; if he got all of them right, he won the total amount (e.g., three questions at $100 each earned $300). An incorrect answer gave the opponent a chance to answer just one question to win the money. Played successfully, the "Bid" category put pressure on the opponent, but it could also backfire: late in the run, a contestant on her first spin got a natural triple with the category (also awarding a growing jackpot), bid five questions at $200 each (for $1,000, more than enough to win), got the first question wrong, and the champion immediately cashed in with a single correct answer to win the game. BillCullen, the host, basically said afterward the contestant's "quick kill" strategy wasn't a very good one, and unlike other quickly defeated contestants on Barry-Enright shows, she wasn't invited back.
* ''{{Concentration}}'': Rarely did it happen, but when a contestant was able to solve the puzzle immediately upon making the first match of the game on the game's first turn, never allowing the opponent a chance to play. ''Classic'' averted this after it instituted a best-of-three (and later, two-losses-and-done) format, while the 1973-78 syndicated version had both players play two matches...but on the original NBC series (and early in the ''Classic'' run), it was *tsk tsk* too bad for the unfortunately blitzed contestant.

** '''Lucky Seven''': Zeros are never in the price of the car.

** '''Now....or Then''': There are always four products that have correct answers of "now", with the remaining two "then."

** '''That's Too Much!''': The correct answer is neither the first- nor 10th-given price. [[note]]For a short time, it was almost always the second or ninth price, which skewed a Robert Dobkowitz-era rule that the correct answer almost always fell between slots 3 and 8; the production staff let up when fans complained.[[/note]]

** '''That's Too Much!''': The correct answer is neither the first- nor 10th-given price.

* ''ThePriceIsRight'': Many pricing games have unwritten tricks or rules that can be easily broken. Note that several of these games didn't actually have these unstated rules until about the very end of the 1970s or very early 1980s, and are never stated outright, but faithful viewers of the show have sent these recurring quirks in the rules. Examples:

* ''ThePriceIsRight'': Many pricing games have unwritten tricks or rules that can be easily broken. Note that several of these games didn't actually have these unstated rules until about the very end of the 1970s or very early 1980s. Examples:

** '''Rat Race''': The third prize almost always has had an actual retail price of between $150 and $300, meaning that given the $100 spread either way, a bid of $200-225 can guarantee a pick of at least one rat.

** Clock Game often uses multiples of 100 or figures ending in 99. Many contestants have gone right to an $x99 price and gotten it right on the first guess.
** Cliff Hangers: The game can almost always be won with guesses of $20-$30-$40 or $25-$35-$45.
** Dice Game: Averted early in the game's history, when – despite the fact that a die has no numbers higher than six on it – there ''could'' be numbers in the car's price higher than six. Went away once the game settled into its normal rules.
** Golden Road: In the final prize, none of the digits repeat. For instance, the contestant is shown $75,_49, and has 1, 4, 6 and 9 to choose from to fill in the blank; based on the unwritten rule, the contestant has essentially an either-or decision (either the 1 or 6).
** Hole in One … or Two: An unintentional dent in the course once caused a contestant to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight win!]]'' See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMUpLqcM2g here:]]

** Lucky Seven: Zeros are never in the price of the car.
** Now....or Then: There are always four products that have correct answers of "now", with the remaining two "then."
** Pay the Rent: The least-expensive item of the six grocery items ''never'' goes on the lowest platform (i.e., "in the mailbox").
** Safe Crackers always has a 0 as one of the digits, and the zero is the last number, essentially giving the contestant an either-or pick (e.g., $570 or $750?).
** Temptation: The prices in the prizes always have two unique digits (e.g., $828 or $1551), giving the contestant an either-or pick for each spot in the price of the car.
** 10 Chances: The prices always end in 0, or 5 if there is no 0 pick from.
** That's Too Much!: The correct answer is neither the first- nor 10th-given price.

* Many pricing games on ''ThePriceIsRight'' can be easily broken:

** Cliff Hangers can almost always be won with guesses of $20-$30-$40 or $25-$35-$45.
** The prices in 10 Chances always end in 0, or 5 if there is no 0 pick from.
** Now....or Then always has four "now"s and two "then"s.
** An unintentional dent in the Hole in One course once caused a contestant to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight win!]]'' See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMUpLqcM2g here:]]

** Now....or Then always has four "now"s and two "then"s. Any product with a "new" on its label is a guaranteed "Now" (because it ''didn't exist'' during the "Then" period).

** Now....or Then always has four "now"s and two "then"s. Any product with a "new" on its label ''used'' to be a guaranteed "Now" (because it ''didn't exist'' during the "Then" period), [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything but the producers have since defied this trick by calculating reverse-inflation on the "new" products to get a "Then" price]].

*** The Free Play itself has become a major game-breaker. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBAX_M6t-6o One guy landed on the space 5 times in a row]] [[LoopholeAbuse and used it to steal all 5 vowels]], and even besides that, when a player lands on it, they will always immediately jump on the vowels without any regard for an extra $500 for a consonant.

* ''TicTacDough'' had several "red box" categories which allowed a contestant to gain an overwhelming upper hand almost immediately, if played correctly. The most notable of these were...

* For the final round of ''MatchGame'', contestants chose one panelist to work with. Richard Dawson was so good at matching that nearly everyone picked him, so the fed-up producers added the Star Wheel in June 1978.

*** The Free Play itself has become a major game-breaker. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBAX_M6t-6o One guy landed on the space 5 times in a row]] [[LoopholeAbuse and used it to steal all 5 vowels]], and even besides that, 9 times out of 10 when a player lands on it, they immediately jump on the vowels without any regard for an extra $500 for a consonant.

* Certain ''WheelOfFortune'' puzzles are guaranteed to have certain letters in them:
** Obviously, if the category denotes a plural, start with an S.
** Star & Role always has the word AS in it.
** Originally, contestants would always call B and Y first if the category was Song/Artist or Title/Author, because those always have the word BY in them. This practice seems to have all but disappeared, however.
** Initially, Same Name always contained the word "AND". After literally every contestant started the round with N-D-A, they changed it so that an ampersand (&) would be in place of the word AND. Oddly, they sometimes revert to spelling out AND.

** In a non puzzle-related example, there used to be a Free Spin wedge on the Wheel. Countless contestants ended up banking large numbers of Free Spins due to hitting the wedge repeatedly, thus ensuring greater chances of keeping the Wheel out of their opponents' hands (a Summer 1986 daytime episode had the yellow contestant rack up ''five'' Free Spins and use them in Round 2, resulting in Round 3 beginning as a Speed-Up for $2,000/consonant — and the '''blue''' player won without ever spinning!). This was finally circumvented by reducing Free Spin to a single disc placed over a dollar amount. It was later retired for Free ''Play'', a wedge which allows the contestant to make any move without penalty, or the chance at one free vowel.

** The Prize Puzzle is often this, as merely solving the puzzle awards a trip of some sort that's usually north of $6,000. And on many occasions, the winner of the game has a score that, if one takes away said trip's value, drops down to second or third place; fans tend to criticize this because, as you can probably guess, such winners only did so through a guaranteed prize rather than their own skill — and also because quite a few of these players also stink up the Bonus Round.

*** The Free Play itself has become a major game-breaker. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBAX_M6t-6o One guy landed on the space 5 times in a row]] [[LoopholeAbuse and used it to steal all 5 vowels]], and even besides that, 9 times out of 10 when a player lands on it, they immediately jump on the vowels.

* ''SaleOfTheCentury'': Had a form of this with the Money Cards on the Fame Game board. Choosing the $25 card late in the game often put the game away for the leading contestant, even with the introduction of the 60-second SpeedRound.

** In a non puzzle-related example, there used to be a Free Spin wedge on the Wheel. Countless contestants ended up banking large numbers of Free Spins due to hitting the wedge repeatedly, thus ensuring greater chances of keeping the Wheel out of their opponents' hands (one daytime episode had the yellow contestant rack up ''five'' Free Spins and use them in Round 2, which resulted in Round 3 beginning as a Speed-Up for $2,000/consonant — and the '''blue''' player won without ever spinning!). This was finally circumvented by reducing Free Spin to a single disc placed over a dollar amount. It was later retired for Free ''Play'', a wedge which allows the contestant to make any move without penalty, or the chance at one free vowel.

** The Prize Puzzle is often this, as merely solving the puzzle awards a trip of some sort that's usually north of $6,000. And on many occasions, the winner of the game has a score that, if one takes away the trip's value, drops down to second or third place; fans tend to criticize this because, as you can probably guess, such winners only did so through a guaranteed prize rather than their own skill.