History Main / CelebrityEdition

* ''[[Series/TheApprentice The Celebrity Apprentice]]'' is an {{JustForFun/egregious}} case, as one of the first edition's "celebrities" was Omarosa What's-Her-Name, whose main claim to fame was...competing on ''The Apprentice''. In the second edition, one celebrity was a briefcase model from ''Series/DealOrNoDeal''.

** The Hip-Hop episode of the NBC run — Young MC shamelessly flirting with Anne, Nate Dogg laying waste to geography questions and mocking Da Brat at every turn, Reverend Run's hat...what more do you need?

When it's a game show, usually the winnings are donated to charity rather than kept by the contestants, as it's hard for the audience to get worked up over celebrities winning even ''more'' money than they already have...unless they're has-beens who really don't have any money anymore. Alternatively, the celebs will compete on behalf of home viewers, or audience members in some cases.

* All but one Japanese game show (''Series/PanelQuizAttack25'') use Japanese celebrities due to [[GameShowWinningsCap TV prize laws limiting civilian prizes]] to 2 million yen [[note]](about $18,455 / £12,755 as of May 2016)[[/note]] per person and 10 million yen total [[note]](about $92,277 / £63,888)[[/note]].

* ''Series/TradingSpaces'' had several episodes where neighboring celebrities swapped homes, donned smocks, and got spattered with paint under the guidance of a pair of interior designers. [[note]]Mind you, this doesn't count the episode where Slash of Guns 'n' Roses just wandered in (because he was a friend of one of the couples) and got put to work sewing curtains.[[/note]]

* ''Series/BigBreak'' did theirs on Christmas, and with different {{Cosplay}} themes every year, such as ''Literature/PeterPan'', ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', and even comic strips (''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'', ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK'', etc.).

* ''Series/UniversityChallenge'' runs a celebrity tournament, ''Christmas University Challenge'' over Christmas / New Year, with teams of celebrity graduates representing their former universities. It's LighterAndSofter than the usual series and befitting the time of year, tends to include a significant proportion of questions with a Christmas theme.

* ''Series/FunHouse'': The 1990-1991 season, which aired as part of Creator/FoxKids' first Saturday morning lineup, paired each kid with a child or young teen celebrity from a popular TV series.

** The Hip-Hop episode of the NBC run — Young MC shamelessly flirting with Anne, Nate Dogg laying waste to geography questions and mocking Da Brat at every turn, Reverend Run's NiceHat...what more do you need?

* ''Series/DontForgetTheLyrics''

* ''Series/FunHouse'': The 1990-1991 season, which aired as part of Creator/FoxKids' firstSaturday morning lineup, paired each kid with a child or young teen celebrity from a popular TV series.

* ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' gave us Celebrity ''Series/WhatsMyLine'', where the panellists were asked to guess what Dame Judi Dench did for a living.

* During the 1990s, ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' played this straight. (Creator/DaveBarry wrote a column about his appearance.) In the 2000s, they occasionally tried a variant where each team consisted of a celebrity ''and'' a contestant; the game was played normally, with the contestant earning cash and trips as usual while the celeb had an identical amount donated to a charity. Celebrities have not played on ''Wheel'' since late 2007, however.

* ''Series/StreetSmarts'' had many eps with celebrity contestants playing for charity, with some eps attached to theme weeks.

* The ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' version of ''Celebrity Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', where the celebs were TooDumbToLive, completely disinterested in the game, or downright sadistic towards Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell). The categories started off normal, but quickly turned into [[EasierThanEasy childish and blatantly easy stuff]] like "Colors That End In 'Urple'" and "Famous Kareem Abdul-Jabbars"[[note]] Norm [=MacDonald=] came up with this as a way to mock how the real game's questions tended to be much more simplistic than the standard version of ''Jeopardy''[[/note]], and categories with no clues whatsoever like "Automatic Points" and "I Have a Chardonnay" (the latter additionally allowing Trebek to [[INeedAFreakingDrink have a glass of wine]]". This didn't stop the celebs from racking up insane halftime totals of -$50,000 or more. Recurring characters besides Trebek included apathetic {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Burt Reynolds (played by Norm [=MacDonald=]) and Trebek's sadistic arch-nemesis Sean Connery (played by Darryl Hammond), who also had a tendency to intentionally misread categories as sexually-suggestive phrases and [[YourMom insult Trebek's mother]].

* Done every few weeks/months on ''Series/TheChase'', and usually shown on a Sunday rather than a weekday like the normal episodes.

* In several cases, the producers want to bring a RealityTV franchise to their own countries but know that the premise will be controversial in their own countries. So to avoid controversies, instead of using ordinary people they use celebrities who are very used to public ridicule and scrutiny as contestants thus making this a TropesAreNotBad case.

* In a small case, the producers want to bring a RealityTV franchise to their own countries but know that the premise will be controversial. So to avoid controversies, they use celebrities who are very used to public ridicule and scrutiny as contestants thus making this a TropesAreNotBad case.

* When the Bill Cullen edition of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' did a ChannelHop from NBC to ABC in 1963, a celebrity was employed to play for members of the studio audience. Recently on the current show with Drew Carey, celebrities were used on special shows to help contestants win their pricing game.

* ''Big Break'' did theirs on Christmas, and with different {{Cosplay}} themes every year, such as ''Literature/PeterPan'', ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', and even comic strips (''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'', ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK'', etc.).

* The original ''Series/{{Concentration}}'' had an annual Christmas episode where two celebrities, both dressed as Santa, would match dollar amounts for charity.
* Done every few weeks/months on ''Series/TheChase'', and usually shown on a Sunday rather than a weekday like the normal episodes.
* When the Bill Cullen edition of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' did a ChannelHop from NBC to ABC in 1963, a celebrity was employed to play for members of the studio audience. Recently on the current show with Drew Carey, celebrities were used on special shows to help contestants win their pricing game.

* ''Series/TheGreatBritishBakeOff'': Runs in January for Comic/Sport Relief. The first series featured three 'heats' with the winners of each progressing to the final, whilst the second and third's episodes were each standalone competitions, with the third also having different substitute hosts for each episode as well.

* ''Series/{{Pointless}}'' has a regular celebrity edition, ''Pointless Celebrities'' ([[DontExplainTheJoke pun intended]]). The regular show is stripped Monday to Friday, and the celebrity show usually airs on Saturday.