History Main / GameShowWinningsCap

** Creator/{{NBC}} put a limit on the number of games a returning champion could play, but did not cap winnings (and numerous shows took advantage of this.). For instance, starting in 1973 ''Series/ThreeOnAMatch'' instituted a seven-game limit. Several game shows took full advantage of this, particularly the 1980s version of ''Series/SaleOfTheCentury'' (which, accounting for top-end Cadillacs and opulent trips as prizes plus cash jackpots of $50,000 or more, could net a contestant well over $100,000) and ''Series/DreamHouse'' (which ran for 15 months during 1983-84, where a couple could [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin win a house]]; with the value of the house and other prizes added in, big winners came away with $125,000 or more during their stay).

Returning champion caps, however, are still present, as most remaining game shows are one-and-done while ''Series/FamilyFeud'' continues to hold onto the same five-game limit it has had since 2002. Further, contestants may not participate on more than one game show within a one-year period, or three in ten years.[[note]]This last point applies specifically to American game shows; limits may vary between countries.[[/note]]

** Creator/{{NBC}} put a limit on the number of games a returning champion could play, but did not cap winnings (and numerous shows took advantage of this.). An exception to this was ''Series/ThreeOnAMatch'' (1971-74), which eradicated championship limits entirely in mid-1973. Several game shows took full advantage of this, particularly the 1980s version of ''Series/SaleOfTheCentury'' (which, accounting for top-end Cadillacs and opulent trips as prizes plus cash jackpots of $50,000 or more, could net a contestant well over $100,000) and ''Series/DreamHouse'' (which ran for 15 months during 1983-84, where a couple could [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin win a house]]; with the value of the house and other prizes added in, big winners came away with $125,000 or more during their stay).

* Considering that they were the ones who rigged game shows in the first place, Creator/JackBarry and Dan Enright Productions didn't limit returning champions on their flagship shows ''Series/TicTacDough'' and ''Series/TheJokersWild'' -- you could literally stay on as long as you kept winning. In 1980, Thom [=McKee=] (the most famous contestant on ''Tic Tac Dough'') won $312,000 in cash and prizes. However, starting in 1981, the shows imposed winnings caps (at the CBS owned-and-operated stations' insistence). As such, Joe Dunn, the biggest non-tournament winner ever on ''The Joker's Wild'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn7NH0R3syU was retired as an undefeated champion in 1983 and kept $50,000 in cash and prizes (raised from $35,000).]] The remaining $16,200 in cash and prizes was donated to the United Cerebral Palsy Association.
** Meanwhile, on ''Tic Tac Dough'', [[https://youtu.be/sZwv3wCLZDU?t=255 Joan Diaz gave her excess $7,850 to Operation Head Start]] upon losing. There was one other contestant that hit over $50K during the '83-'84 season.
** The versions that ran on CBS had the $25,000 limit (although nobody on the CBS version of ''TTD'' reached the limit- mainly because it only ran from July to September of 1978).

* Similarly, ''Wheel of Fortune'' placed a $100,000 cap (later $125,000 and still later, $200,000) on winnings during the early 1990s, which is also the point that the show switched from one-and-done to allowing champions to stay on for up to three days. The winnings cap stayed at $200,000 when the show reverted to one-and-done contestants, but even with the addition of a $100,000 prize in the BonusRound in 2002, the $200,000 cap proved unreachable. ''Wheel'' eliminated the cap in 2008 with the addition of a $1,000,000 prize in the bonus round, which has been won three times.

** As a matter of fact, the only way to win the top prize on ''[[Series/{{Pyramid}} The $20,000 Pyramid]]'' is to blow the first two bonus rounds.
* In the United Kingdom, the Independent Television Authority imposed a per-episode cap following the 1950s rigging scandals in the US. For at least two decades, this limit was fixed at £6,000 with no adjustment for inflation. Eventual successor the Independent Television Commission would eventually remove the cap in 1994.
** There was a revival of ''The $64,000 Question'' (and yes, it was titled in dollars) which offered a top prize of £6,400, but they got around this by alternating contestants so that the top prize would not be won twice in a row - once contestants reached £1,600 they would effectively tackle their remaining questions at a rate of one per episode. They eventually persuaded the ITC to increase the limit to £6,400.

** To ensure the combined value of cash and prizes didn't get over the limit, ''Series/FamilyFortunes'' originally awarded only a fixed prize for Big Money, regardless of whatever points had been scored beforehand. Like ''The $64,000 Question'', the Big Money prize was £1500 for the first episode of the series, and in any episode where the prize had been won the week before, and £3000 in any week where the prize had not been won.
*** In the post-cap revival, the Big Money prize was £3000 plus points, later joined by a bonus of a [[FlawlessVictory car for tendering all five top answers]].
** ''Series/SaleOfTheCentury''[='s=] derisory prizes became such a joke that successful contestants were invited to play the Australian ''Sale'' for bigger prizes.

* Japan has a nationwide cap set at 2 million yen (currently around $13,492 / £10,676 as of November 2023) per person and 10 million yen total for a prize split among five or more players (about $67,460 / £53,380). As a result, even single-player shows like ''Millionaire'' have the contestant bring along four friends and/or family members with whom to split the prize.

* Downplayed on WebVideo/WipeoutRoblox, but anyone who makes it to round 3 is not allowed to compete in the next episode.

* Japan has a nationwide cap set at 2 million yen (currently around $18,455 / £12,755 as of May 2016) per person and 10 million yen total for a prize split among five or more players (about $92,277 / £63,888). As a result, even single-player shows like ''Millionaire'' have the contestant bring along four friends and/or family members with whom to split the prize.

** Creator/{{CBS}} imposed a cap on game show winnings. Initially, contestants on CBS-affiliated shows were retired after winning $25,000, and could not keep any winnings over that limit (although sometime in the mid-to-late 1970s, a contestant could keep up to $10,000 more than the limit, for a $35,000 maximum payout). The cap increased to $50,000 in 1984, $75,000 by 1986, then $125,000 in the early 1990s. By 2006, with ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' having long since been the only CBS original game show (although a new incarnation of ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'' joined it in 2009), the winnings cap was done away with entirely.

** ''Family Feud'' retired families at $25,000 (later over $30,000 in the final season of the Richard Dawson version)