History Horrible / GameShow

* '''''Series/PakDePoenDeShowVan1Miljoen''''' is fondly remembered as one of the most spectacular flops in the history of [[UsefulNotes/FlemishTVStations Belgian television]]. Offering up to 20 million Belgian francs (around $667,000 US) in conjunction with the postcode lottery, up to 1 million (around $33,500 US) in a BonusRound for the winning contestant, and hosted by the stars of one of the most critically-acclaimed sitcoms in Belgian history, one wonders what could possibly go wrong. For the premiere, it was ''everything'': The hosting was so overly formal that it [[PoesLaw bordered on parody]], the trivia rounds had glitchy buzzers and inconsistent judging that would make [[Series/BallsOfSteel Alex Zane]] proud, the phone for a home game segment didn't work, and the final challenge to determine who would play for the million francs - an RC car race across the set - had a car that wouldn't move. Even worse was the irony that a random audience member ''[[DisproportionateReward could win 20 times more cash than what the winning contestant would have had if they answered all the questions of the final round correctly]]''. The interval acts, that were filled with SugarWiki/SoCoolItsAwesome performances, saved the program as a whole from being a total trainwreck, though. The program was ultimately retooled with new hosts as the ''Pak De Poen Show''; it was an improvement in comparison to the "premiere", but the lingering karma led to poor viewership, and it was cancelled after two episodes.

* In '''''Who's Your Daddy?''''', a person who had been adopted as an infant is forced to pick out his/her biological father from a group of 25 men. Picking the right man won $100,000, but otherwise the "impostor" got the money. In other words, a UsefulNotes/PrimeTime version of the {{Daddy DNA Test}}s on ''Series/{{Maury}}''. After being hit with poor ratings, massive public backlash, and the Raleigh-Durham affiliate (WRAZ, the same station that refused to air ''Married by America'') refusing to broadcast the show, Fox canned it after one episode, quietly burning off the other five episodes they had filmed on the (now-defunct) Fox Reality cable channel.

* The 2001 [[UsefulNotes/{{Syndication}} syndicated]] version of '''''Series/CardSharks''''' is frequently considered one of the worst game show revivals of all-time, and it's not hard to see why. It featured unusual changes to the classic gameplay, such as removing the survey questions in favor of an out-of-place mechanic known as "Clip Chips", where contestants could guess the outcome of a CandidCameraPrank to switch the card. By far the most flawed change was that there was only a single row of seven cards shared by both players, rather than individual rows for each. This meant that a player [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing could win without making a single guess]] if their opponent swept the first six cards but made an incorrect call on the last. The atrocious hosting of Pat Bullard (who had already proved his incompetence on a short-lived revival of ''Series/LoveConnection'' three years prior and the also-pretty-lousy ''Hold Everything!'' in 1990) and the ugly-looking set didn't really help matters either, and neither did the fact that promotional efforts for the series were hampered by the 9/11 attacks the Tuesday before; local stations were rightfully focused on trying to report on the local impact of the attacks rather than promoting some cheesy game show revamp on their Fall lineups. It would only last four months before it got thrown in the trash. Fans have referred to this revival as "Card Guppies" or "[[FunWithAcronyms CASINO]]" ("'''''Ca'''rd '''S'''harks'' '''[[InNameOnly I]]'''[[InNameOnly n]] '''[[InNameOnly N]]'''[[InNameOnly ame]] '''[[InNameOnly O]]'''[[InNameOnly nly]]"). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJxejRnCsa4 Here]] is an episode, if you dare. [[FranchiseKiller It took 17 years for another revival attempt to be made]], this time for Creator/{{ABC}} in primetime (which, as with their other recent game show revivals, is more faithful to the format of the classic 1970's version). Notably, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZs_Sk0KmP0 2000 pilot]] had a format that was less broken than it was in the series, which suggests that the finished product was a result of last-minute ExecutiveMeddling.

* In 2021, amid the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, Creator/GordonRamsay spent some time outside of the kitchen by hosting a game show produced by his studio, '''''Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance'''''. The core idea had potential, but the execution made the game [[NintendoHard extremely difficult]] and borderline {{Calvinball}}: a couple randomly selected one of 12 "zones" on a pyramid-like balance board, and had 60 seconds to alternate giving correct answers to a list question from a chosen category. Each correct answer allowed them to place a bar from a chosen "stack" on the zone. Each stack had one to five bars, with stacks of three or more being worth £9,000, £16,000, and £25,000 respectively, for a top prize of up to £100,000. Answering incorrectly or running out of time causes the stack to lose its value and turn red (via LED lights in the blocks), and also requires the contestant to add an extra "penalty block" to the zone. The entire game was AllOrNothing with little room for error; if they survived all twelve stacks (spoiler: no one did), the team could claim their winnings. If any block fell over, the game ended immediately and the team left with nothing, unless they had "banked" a stack with a [[{{Lifelines}} lifeline]] (unlocked after the sixth stack) as a safety net. Ramsay was out of his usual element, and his [[ConsummateProfessional no-nonsense attitude]] made the strict time limits even more unforgiving. The show also suffered from poor camerawork and direction, making it difficult to follow the action (or lack there of). A writer for ''The Guardian'' remarked that ''Bank Balance'' was trying to be ''Series/TippingPoint'', "that one where [Ramsay] shouts at Gino D'Acampo", and "people balancing things in a prison of mild peril" all at once, but succeeded at neither. The BBC stripped the episodes three nights a week for three weeks, and its viewership didn't take long to topple over-- resulting in its cancellation. It was also voted the worst new game show format of 2021 on the Bother's Bar/[=UKGameshows.com=] "Poll of the Year".

* '''''Cheap Cheap Cheap''''' (2017) was intended by Creator/{{Channel 4}} as a vehicle for Noel Edmonds post-''Series/DealOrNoDeal''; set in a general store, the contestants were presented with three grocery items, and asked to guess which of them was the cheapest. Each correct answer moved them up a money ladder towards a top prize of £25,000. There were three "[[{{Lifelines}} tools]]", which could be used to reveal one of the prices, reveal the most-expensive item, or preview the items for the next round before choosing to go on. The format was shallow, it was difficult enough that the payouts were quite low, and its 45-minute timeslot was padded out by a ''Series/NoelsHouseParty''-esque ShowWithinAShow involving the store's employees that came off as flat and surreal. Channel 4 was seemingly lacking confidence for the show, burying it in a daytime graveyard slot over the summer with little promotion (and, in turn, little viewership).

* In 2021, amid the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, Creator/GordonRamsay spent some time outside of the kitchen by hosting a game show produced by his studio, '''''Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance'''''. The core idea had potential, but the execution made the game [[NintendoHard extremely difficult]] and borderline {{Calvinball}}: a couple randomly selected one of 12 "zones" on a pyramid-like balance board, and had 60 seconds to alternate giving correct answers to a list question. Each correct answer allowed them to place a bar from a chosen "stack" on the zone. Each stack had one to five bars, with stacks of three or more being worth £9,000, £16,000, and £25,000 respectively, for a top prize of up to £100,000. Answering incorrectly or running out of time causes the stack to lose its value and turn red (via LED lights in the blocks), and also requires the contestant to add an extra "penalty block" to the zone. The entire game was AllOrNothing with little room for error; if they survived all twelve stacks (spoiler: no one did), the team could claim their winnings. If any block fell over, the game ended immediately and the team left with nothing, unless they had "banked" a stack with a [[{{Lifelines}} lifeline]] (unlocked after the sixth stack) as a safety net. Ramsay was out of his usual element, and his [[ConsummateProfessional no-nonsense attitude]] made the strict time limits even more unforgiving. The show also suffered from poor camerawork and direction, making it difficult to follow the action (or lack there of). A writer for ''The Guardian'' remarked that ''Bank Balance'' was trying to be ''Series/TippingPoint'', "that one where [Ramsay] shouts at Gino D'Acampo", and "people balancing things in a prison of mild peril" all at once, but succeeded at neither. The BBC stripped the episodes three nights a week for three weeks, and its viewership didn't take long to topple over-- resulting in its cancellation. It was also voted the worst new game show format of 2021 on the Bother's Bar/[=UKGameshows.com=] "Poll of the Year".

* In 2021, amid the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, Creator/GordonRamsay spent some time outside of the kitchen by hosting a game show produced by his studio, '''''Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance'''''. The core idea had potential, but the execution made the game [[NintendoHard extremely difficult]] and borderline {{Calvinball}}: a couple randomly selected a "zone" on a balance board, and had 60 seconds to alternate giving correct answers to a list question. Each correct answer allowed them to place a bar from a chosen "stack" on the zone--hoping it doesn't cause the board to topple and thus end the game. Each stack had one to five bars, with stacks of three or more being worth £9,000, £16,000, and £25,000 respectively, for a top prize of up to £100,000. Answering incorrectly or running out of time causes the stack to lose its value and turn red (via LED lights in the blocks), and also requires the contestant to add an extra "penalty block" to the zone. The entire game was AllOrNothing with no room for error, with a team only able to claim a prize if they survive all 12 stacks (spoiler: no one did), or use a [[{{Lifelines}} lifeline]] (unlocked after the sixth stack) that allowed them to "bank" a stack's value as a guaranteed prize if they were successful. Ramsay was out of his usual element, and his [[ConsummateProfessional no-nonsense attitude]] made the strict time limits even more unforgiving. The show also suffered from poor camerawork and direction, making it difficult to follow the action (or lack there of). A writer for ''The Guardian'' remarked that the show was trying to be ''Series/TippingPoint'', "that one where [Ramsay] shouts at Gino D'Acampo", and "people balancing things in a prison of mild peril" all at once, but succeeded as neither. The BBC stripped the episodes three nights a week for three weeks, and viewership cratered quickly -- resulting in its cancellation. It was also voted the worst new game show format of 2021 on the Bother's Bar/[=UKGameshows.com=] "Poll of the Year".

* In 2021, amid the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, Creator/GordonRamsay spent some time outside of the kitchen by hosting a game show produced by his studio, '''''Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance'''''. The core idea had potential, but the execution made the game [[NintendoHard extremely difficult]] and borderline {{Calvinball}}: a couple randomly selected a "zone" on a balance board, and had 60 seconds to alternate giving correct answers to a list question. Each correct answer allowed them to place a bar from a chosen "stack" on the zone--hoping it doesn't cause the board to topple and thus end the game. Each stack had one to five bars, with stacks of three or more being worth £9,000, £16,000, and £25,000 respectively, for a top prize of up to £100,000. Answering incorrectly or running out of time causes the stack to lose its value and turn red, and also requires the contestant to add an extra "penalty block" to the zone. the entire game was AllOrNothing with no room for error, with a team only able to claim a prize if they survive all 12 stacks (spoiler: no one did), or use a [[{{Lifelines}} lifeline]] (unlocked after the sixth stack) that allowed them to "bank" a stack's value as a guaranteed prize if they were successful. Ramsay was out of his usual element, and his [[ConsummateProfessional no-nonsense attitude]] made the strict time limits even more unforgiving. The show also suffered from poor camerawork, making it difficult to follow the already-confusing game. A writer for ''The Guardian'' concluded that the show tried to be ''Series/TippingPoint'', "that one where [Ramsay] shouts at Gino D'Acampo", and "people balancing things in a prison of mild peril" all at once, but succeeded as neither. The BBC stripped the episodes three nights a week for three weeks, and viewership cratered quickly -- resulting in its cancellation. It was also voted the worst new game show format of 2021 on the Bother's Bar/[=UKGameshows.com=] "Poll of the Year".

* Another oft-cited example of a terrible game show revival is the 1990s '''''Series/TicTacDough'''''. The pot reset to '''zero''' after each tie [[note]](doubling the money amount of each box with each tie supposedly helped alleviate that issue, but some players ended up winning ''less than what the previous tie game had gotten up to'')[[/note]], [[AWildRapperAppears the Dragon and Dragonslayer began rapping in the bonus round about six weeks in]], a special week in November had divorced couples playing against each other, and Music/HenryMancini [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking composed the uncharacteristically kiddie theme music]]. [[TheScrappy Patrick Wayne]] was an all-around terrible host who read the questions in monotone and explained the rules very slowly, but amped everything else up whenever a contestant blocks their opponent or wins the game, [[SuddenlyShouting shouting "YOU BLOCK!" or "YOOUU WIIIIIIINNN!"]] respectively. It would be the last game show Dan Enright would work with before his death in 1992. It didn't even last a full season before getting axed. Website/GameShowGarbage talks about it [[http://gameshowgarbage.com/ind001_patrickwayne.html here]] and [[http://gameshowgarbage.com/ind021_ttd90raps.html here]]. No further attempts at reviving the format were made until 2021, when a new version hosted by Creator/TomBergeron and executive produced by [[Series/{{Jeopardy}} Harry]] [[Series/WheelOfFortune Friedman]] was announced, and even that didn't make it past the pilot stage.

* '''''Series/IWannaMarryHarry''''', from 2014, is without a doubt one of the most tasteless and downright awful ideas for a dating show ever thought up: A bunch of women are flown to London, and are led to believe that they are competing for the affection of Prince Harry (while not outright being told that it's Prince Harry until the 5th episode). The Prince Harry impersonator in question (Matthew Hicks, an environmental consultant) is always surrounded by helicopters and high security everywhere he goes and the women are only to refer to him as "sir". Several of the contestants confirmed in a 2020 interview that few of them were actually fooled, thanks to them never being allowed a good close-up look at "Harry" and still being able to tell it wasn't him. This forced the show's crew to resort to increasingly creepy {{Gaslighting}} to keep them going, including the contestants being forbidden any contact with each other off camera and a member of the production team ''pretending to be a therapist'' designated to speak with the skeptics. The show was horribly received from both critics and audiences, with many reviewers noting its blatant ripping off of one of Fox's own older shows (''Joe Millionaire''), and also going so far as to slam its lack of shame from deceiving these poor women, and its apparent enjoyment of their foolishness. The show was a bomb in the ratings department and was pulled after four episodes (though all the remaining episodes would be released on Hulu and the series was shown in full in the UK and Australia, but suffered awful ratings there as well). Four years later, the real Prince Harry married American actress Creator/MeghanMarkle, a commoner whose former roles include [[Series/DealOrNoDeal a game show,]] making the show HilariousInHindsight.

* The 2001 [[UsefulNotes/{{Syndication}} syndicated]] version of '''''Series/CardSharks''''' is frequently considered one of the worst game show revivals of all-time, and it's not hard to see why. It featured unusual changes to the classic gameplay, such as removing the survey questions in favor of an out-of-place mechanic known as "Clip Chips", where contestants could guess the outcome of a CandidCameraPrank to switch the card. By far the most flawed change was that there was only a single row of seven cards shared by both players, rather than individual rows for each. This meant that a player [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing could win without making a single guess]] if their opponent swept the first six cards but made an incorrect call on the last. The atrocious hosting of Pat Bullard (who had already proved his incompetence on a short-lived revival of ''Series/LoveConnection'' three years prior and the also-pretty-lousy ''Hold Everything!'' in 1990) and the ugly-looking set didn't really help matters either, and neither did the fact that promotional efforts for the series were hampered by the 9/11 attacks the Tuesday before; local stations were rightfully focused on trying to report on the local impact of the attacks rather than promoting some cheesy game show revamp on their Fall lineups. It would only last four months before it got thrown in the trash. Fans have referred to this revival as "Card Guppies" or "[[FunWithAcronyms CASINO]]" ("'''''Ca'''rd '''S'''harks'' '''[[InNameOnly I]]'''[[InNameOnly n]] '''[[InNameOnly N]]'''[[InNameOnly ame]] '''[[InNameOnly O]]'''[[InNameOnly nly]]"). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJxejRnCsa4 Here]] is an episode, if you dare. [[FranchiseKiller It took 17 years for another revival attempt to be made]], this time for Creator/{{ABC}} in primetime (which, as with their other recent game show revivals, is more faithful to the format of the classic 1970's version). Notably, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZs_Sk0KmP0 2000 pilot]]--while still bogged down by Pat Bullard--had a format that was less broken than it was in the series.

# To ensure that the work is judged with a clear mind and the hatred isn't just a knee-jerk reaction, as well as to allow opinions to properly form, '''[[Administrivia/NoRecentExamplesPlease examples should not be added until at least one month after release]]'''.

The horrible part came when they introduced three other "interactive" shows in '94 - '''''Boggle'', ''Jumble'', and ''Shuffle'''''; all three shows aired as part of the same block as ''Trivial Pursuit'' and were just as bare-bones, [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks with nearly the same format and mechanics]] as ''Trivial Pursuit'' (designed for use on a touch-tone phone, hence making them glorified tutorials for the Playbreak segments [-(give us your money)-] yet again), and little variation (same scoring system based on response time, no bonus round or returning champions, and a lot of PropRecycling between them). Even worse, the contestants did not speak ''at all'', playing the game solely via the keypads. This meant they did nothing but stand there for 29 minutes (commercials included) as a silent, question-answering robot. That is unless they won, however, which gave them permission to briefly express an emotion to Wink about the sub-$3,000 trip they just won. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DV_nNAyPu0 Here]] is Website/GameShowGarbage detailing all of them.

* After losing the rights to veteran game show ''Pasapalabra'' in October 2019 as a result of a legal dispute with ITV Studios, Telecinco enlisted its legal team to work on a replacement format. You read that right. The network decided to devise a new game show with the same host as ''Pasapalabra'', Christian Gálvez, and a roster of former ''Pasapalabra'' champions as contestants, working around the court sentence that prevented them from airing ''Pasapalabra''. The result was '''''El Tirón''''', a segment of its talk show ''Sálvame'' whose gameplay tried and failed to recreate the tension of ''Pasapalabra'''s iconic final round by challenging contestants to answer twelve consecutive questions correctly. It showed that it was rushed into production, premiering less than three weeks after the court order that forced Telecinco to stop airing ''Pasapalabra'' was released, and being filmed on the set of a different show with barely any additional dressing. The unexciting gameplay, dirt-poor production values, and the advent of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic ended up knocking ''El Tirón'' off Telecinco's lineup in March 2020, two months before ''Pasapalabra'' finally returned... on rival network Antena 3.

* '''''Series/YoureInThePicture''''' is almost a byword for bad ideas executed badly - or it would be if it was better known. It was a 1961 Creator/{{CBS}} game hosted by Jackie Gleason, in which a four-celebrity panel (in the one episode that aired, the panel consisted of Pat Harrington Jr., Pat Carroll, Jan Sterling, and Arthur Treacher) stuck their heads through pictorial cut-outs and tried to guess what picture they were in. Within five minutes of the January 20 premiere, it was clear that the game was nigh-impossible and far from interesting; even the ''prize'' was lame - 100 CARE packages donated in that celeb's name (if nobody guessed correctly, they were donated in Gleason's name). Critics at the time absolutely slammed the show, and to this day it's still regarded as one of the worst and most embarrassing TV spectacles in history, making it to #4 on ''Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory''. Famously, the following week's "show" on January 27 consisted entirely of Gleason on an empty stage, chugging coffee (which, according to one account, an audience member had poured some booze into) and [[CreatorBacklash apologizing to everyone who watched the premiere, chalking up its failure to "the intangibles of show business"]], sharing memories of other failures he was involved in, and [[SelfDeprecation making fun of a format]] that ''seemed'' like a winner when it was being thought up. Gleason fulfilled the remainder of ''Picture's'' commitment by producing an interview series (''The Jackie Gleason Show'') in its place.

* '''''3's A Crowd''''', a 1979 syndicated show created by Creator/ChuckBarris (best known for creating ''Series/TheNewlywedGame'', ''Series/TheDatingGame'', and ''Series/TheGongShow'', the last of which he also hosted). In it, host Jim Peck asked probing questions of a male contestant, then asked the same questions of both his wife and secretary, to determine which of the two knew him better. The show drew outrage from MoralGuardians and from women's organizations, leading to ''all four'' shows being cancelled. Outside a couple syndicated revivals of ''Newlywed'' and ''Dating'', the show proved to be more-or-less a CreatorKiller for Barris; he never got another original show on the air before he retired to France at the end of TheEighties. ''Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory'' ranked it at #94.

** ''La Trituradora'' was based on a 1998 British game show titled ''Beat the Crusher'', featuring Melinda Messenger and Freddie Starr. It's a wonder why they even decided to export it, considering the original version was only very slightly more successful (it aired on [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky One]] for a single season of 10 episodes)