History Main / CelebrityEdition

* It may be a RatingsStunt, typically done during the months of November, February, and May when commercial rates are determined (and, in May, the television season generally ends).

* ''[[BigBrother Celebrity Big Brother]]''

* ''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. 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.

* A PoliticalCartoon in ''PrivateEye'' said that due to the UsefulNotes/GulfWar's blanket TV coverage, it would be followed by a Celebrity Gulf War.
* The ''SaturdayNightLive'' version of ''Celebrity Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', where the celebs were TooDumbToLive or downright sadistic towards Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell). The categories were hilarious easy stuff like "Automatic Points", "How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?", "[[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Current Black Presidents]]", and "Colors That End In -Urple"...but that didn't stop the celebs from racking up insane halftime totals of -$50,000 or more. Recurring characters besides Trebek included {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Burt Reynolds (played by Norm [=MacDonald=]) and Trebek's sadistic arch-nemesis Sean Connery (played by Darryl Hammond).

** Spectacularly subverted with the Dutch version of ''The Mole'', however: it switched from a civilian to an all-celebrity format after Season 4 and has been going on for at least ''eight'' seasons since then. This might be due to the majority of its celebrities ''not'' being pompous famewhores and clearly being in this for the fun.

* During the 1990s, ''WheelOfFortune'' played this straight. 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, and no reason has been given for this.

* The ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' sketch "World Forum" had famous Communists Creator/KarlMarx, UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, UsefulNotes/CheGuevara and UsefulNotes/MaoZedong as contestants on a QuizShow about football teams.‎

* The original ''{{Concentration}}'' had an annual Christmas episode where two celebrities, both dressed as Santa, would match dollar amounts for charity.

* The ''SaturdayNightLive'' version of ''Celebrity Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', where the celebs were TooDumbToLive or downright sadistic towards Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell). The categories were hilarious easy stuff like "Automatic Points", "How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?", "[[BarackObama Current Black Presidents]]", and "Colors That End In -Urple"...but that didn't stop the celebs from racking up insane halftime totals of -$50,000 or more. Recurring characters besides Trebek included {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Burt Reynolds (played by Norm [=MacDonald=]) and Trebek's sadistic arch-nemesis Sean Connery (played by Darryl Hammond).

* ''BullseyeUS'' changed on December 7, 1981 to ''Celebrity Bullseye'', which added a best-of-three format to the front game (leading to more straddling than there was prior to this point) and removed the prize package from Bonus Island. Interestingly, the show continued having returning champs, resulting in such celebs as Loanne Bishop and Ernest Borgnine racking up well over $30,000.

* The ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episode "Game Over" had a celebrity version of "Homonym" (a game show mentioned as a cutaway gag in a previous episode) with John [=McEnroe=] failing to
distinguish "racket" and "racquet".

* The ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episode "Game Over" had a celebrity version of "Homonym" (a game show mentioned as a cutaway gag in a previous episode) with John [=McEnroe=] failing to distinguish "racket" and "racquet".

* Inverted with ''{{Definition}}'', as the teams were originally celebrity-civilian and switched to civilians-only on December 16, 1985.

* Subverted by ''{{Distraction}}'', which used former ''BigBrother'' contestants.

Speaking of which, this is separate from the numerous game shows popular in the 1970s in which contestants had a celebrity teammate...and, of course, the PanelGame. It also doesn't count if a celeb appears on a game show before becoming famous; that's a case of RetroactiveRecognition.

* All but one Japanese game show (''Panel Quiz Attack 25'') use Japanese celebrities due to TV prize laws [[GameShowWinningsCap limiting civilian prizes to 2 million JPY (about US$25,000) per person and 10 million JPY total.]]
* ''BullseyeUS'' changed sometime during the 1981-82 season (various sources claim September, November, or January) to ''Celebrity Bullseye'', although it continued with returning champions and straddling matches.

** It should be noted that there was an all-celebrity week during the first part of the show's run, but it was Miss Americas vs. "All-American Sportsmen", and hence kept to the three-of-a-kind format.
* ''Celebrity Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' Andy Richter once talked about his appearance with Creator/ConanOBrien.
-->'''Andy''': The questions were easier than regular ''Jeopardy!''.\\
'''Conan''': Oh, because it's for charity.\\
'''Andy''': Oh... I thought it was (''laughing'') because we're celebrities. We're the little dumb show ponies.

** Spectacularly subverted with the Dutch version of ''The Mole'', however: it switched from a civilian to an all-celebrity format after its fourth season and has been going on for at least ''eight'' seasons since then. This might be due to the majority of its celebrities ''not'' being pompous famewhores and clearly being in this for the fun.

* ''Power Of 10'' had an interesting example, bringing in two players from the concurrent season of ''Big Brother'' to play. Host Drew Carey brought them up to speed on what had happened while they were in the house, although none of these statements were true... well, except the last, which was "I'm the host of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight''".

** 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?

** The WWE-themed episode in the US, which was hilarious because almost everyone remained completely [[{{Kayfabe}} in character]] for the entire show, leading to such brilliant moments as HHH refusing to vote out Stephanie who was at the time (in the strictest sense) his boss (as well as his wife) and the Big Show towering over Ann when he was eliminated.
*** The other WWE episode was just as hilarious if not more so. At one point Stone Cold Steve Austin refused to vote out Debra, saying he couldn't vote out his wife. Later that episode, Bubba Ray Dudley cited the same reason for refusing to vote out his tag team partner D-Von.
** One episode had cast members from the various series of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' as the players.
* During the 1990s, ''WheelOfFortune'' played this straight. 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 celebrity had an identical amount donated to a charity. These have not happened since 2007.

* ''WifeSwap'' is being revamped with a "Celebrity" edition, with "celebrities" such as Flava Flav, Meatloaf, and Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who in 2006 admitted to being with a gay prostitute and using meth. That last bit is probably the only thing anybody knows about him.

* ''[[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook Numberwang]]'' did this for UsefulNotes/ComicRelief with Creator/ChannelFour's head of numbers [[{{Countdown}} Carol Vorderman]] and Music/FatboySlim's famous father-in-law JohnnyBall.

** 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?
** One of the more memorable in the UK was the 2007 ''Series/DoctorWho'' edition where the contestants included John Barrowman (Captain Jack), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Nicholas Briggs (voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, among others), and the K-9 prop, [[CharacterAsHimself credited as himself]] and the first voted off due to worries about the machine's stability. The Anne Droid from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E12BadWolf Bad Wolf]]" (2005) appeared at the beginning, reciting the opening spiel before the real Anne unplugged it.

* The ''[[RhythmGame Karaoke Revolution]]'' series had a number of its more recent installments branded as ''Series/AmericanIdol'' versions.

* The original ''FearFactor'' did it to the point where every episode was a Celebrity Edition to keep the show going amidst sagging ratings. As you'd expect, it only made the ratings fall faster and the show quickly canned.

* ''FamilyFeud'' had several of these over its various incarnations, but of particular note is the "almost celebrity" editions which had teams of celebrity lookalikes playing each other. Oddly enough, they still had to donate their winnings to charity, even though they weren't actually celebrities.
** The British version, ''FamilyFortunes'', currently only runs as a celebrity version somewhat oxymoronically titled ''All-Star Family Fortunes'', despite only two (usually) out of the ten contestants actually being stars...and even then, the "stars" are usually nothing more than average soap actors.

* The ''SaturdayNightLive'' version of ''Celebrity Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', where the celebs were TooDumbToLive or downright sadistic towards Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell). The categories were hilarious easy stuff like "Automatic Points", "How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?", "[[BarackObama Current Black Presidents]]", and "Colors That End In -Urple"...but that didn't stop the celebs from racking up insane halftime totals of -$50,000. Recurring characters besides Trebek included {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Burt Reynolds (played by Norm [=MacDonald=]) and Trebek's sadistic arch-nemesis Sean Connery (played by Darryl Hammond).
* And a brilliant performance of Jeff Goldblum by David Duchovny.

* A PoliticalCartoon in ''PrivateEye'' said that due to the GulfWar's blanket TV coverage, it would be followed by a Celebrity Gulf War.

'''Note To Producers:''' If your game is typically played by civilians, do ''not'' switch to "All celebrities, all the time!" It doesn't matter if you're a veteran or a newbie, because your show ''will'' die within a year...at most. To be more blunt, '''''it has never worked.'''''

* ''{{Password}}'' played it straight pretty much all the time except in mid-1974, when ''ABC'' began falling into Type 3 rather frequently in what appeared to be a last grab for ratings before the debut of ''All-Stars''. In February 1975, the show overhauled its format to bring back civilians and offer more money, only dipping very briefly into Type 2 on the series finale.
* ''Power Of 10'' had an interesting example, bringing in two players from the concurrent season of ''Big Brother'' to play. Host Drew Carey brought them up to speed on what had happened while they were in the house, although none of these statements were true...well, except the last, which was "I'm the host of ''ThePriceIsRight''".

* ''TheWeakestLink'' has had a few of these in (at least) both the UK and US versions.

** The WWE-themed episode in the US, which was hilarious because almost everyone remained completely in character for the entire show, leading to such brilliant moments as HHH refusing to vote out Stephanie who was at the time (in the strictest sense) his boss (as well as his wife) and the Big Show towering over Ann when he was eliminated.

** The British version, ''Family Fortunes'', currently only runs as a celebrity version somewhat oxymoronically titled ''All-Star Family Fortunes'', despite only two (usually) out of the ten contestants actually being stars...and even then, the "stars" are usually nothing more than average soap actors.

* A bunch of special episodes in Season 4 of ''Robot Wars'' included a celebrity edition where celebrities were added to roboteer teams from that season, the celebrities had to operate the robot for a whole minute before having the option of handing it over to the actual team.

* ''WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'': One of the reasons the Creator/{{ABC}} version fell down in its final season (2001-02) was about half the episodes being celebrity oriented. The French version took it a step further by '''completely ceasing to cast non-celebrities''' and allegedly giving the cash to charity (much like ''FortBoyard'' years earlier). The UK version has now gone down this route as well.
** In 2002, the Brazilian version once had Presidential Candidates.

* The ''[[RhythmGame Karaoke Revolution]]'' series had a number of its more recent installments branded as ''AmericanIdol'' versions.

* All but one Japanese game show (''Panel Quiz Attack 25'') use Japanese celebrities due to TV prize laws [[GameShowWinningsCap limiting civilian prizes to 2 million JPY (about US$25,000) per person and 10 million JPY total.]] Due to this key difference, the above warning about killing one's game show by doing this does not apply there.