Blackout

Blackout
Format	Game show
Created by	Jay Wolpert
Written by	Joel Hecht Jay Wolpert Jon Field Meredith Kornfeld
Directed by	John Dorsey
Presented by	Bob Goen
Narrated by	Johnny Gilbert Jay Stewart
Theme music composer	Middle "C" Productions
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	65
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jay Wolpert
Producer(s)	Joel Hecht Randy Neece
Location(s)	CBS Television City, Studio 33
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	January 4, 1988 – April 1, 1988

Blackout was an American game show that aired on CBS from January 4 to April 1, 1988. The pilot was hosted by former Entertainment Tonight anchor Robb Weller, but when the series was picked up he was replaced by Bob Goen, himself a former anchor on Entertainment Tonight. Johnny Gilbert announced until the final two weeks, when Jay Stewart (his final announcing job) took over. The show was a Jay Wolpert Production.

Blackout debuted in the 10:00 AM slot previously held by The $25,000 Pyramid. After Blackout was cancelled, CBS put The $25,000 Pyramid back into the same slot.

Gameplay

Two teams, consisting of one celebrity and one contestant each, competed. A sentence with four blanks was shown to the teams. The first team to play would have the celebrity record a 20-second description of the word, while the contestant was not allowed to listen. Once the twenty seconds were up, the player would listen to a playback of the recording. However, the opposing celebrity got a chance to use a plunger called a "blackout button", which effectively acted as a "mute" button, silencing the playback as it was pressed. The celebrity was able to black out up to seven seconds of their opposing team's description (with an additional second given each time the first team's celebrity repeated a key word in their description).

If the player was able to guess the word anyway, the team won $100 and the first shot at solving the puzzle. If not, the opponent, who had heard the entire description, would get a guess. The process would alternate back and forth until the puzzle was solved. If neither player identified a word, it was posted on the board but neither team got to guess. If a celebrity accidentally said the word or part of the word itself during the description, the opponents automatically won $100 and a chance to guess. If neither team solved the last word, Goen read a pre-written description of the word and both players had to hit a buzzer to guess. A correct answer won the word, but an incorrect guess gave the opposing player the full description.

A second puzzle was played in the same manner, with celebrities and contestants switching roles of give and guesser. The first team to solve two puzzles won the game and advanced to the Clue Screen bonus round.

If the game ended in a tie, one last word would be played. The contestant with more money (or the winner of a coin toss, in case of a tie) was shown a word and chose between giving a description to that word for ten seconds while the other team "blacked out" three seconds of the description. If the partner of the describer got it right, his team won; if he was wrong (or if the describer said the word itself or part of it), the opposing team won. Both teams kept their money.

Viewers were encouraged to send in their own puzzles, and if one was used on the show, the home viewer received $100.^{[citation needed]}

Clue Screen

In the Clue Screen round, one player faced a video screen while his/her partner faced away from it. The team was given 70 seconds (1:10) to try to solve five subjects based on clues that were displayed on the screen. The player would look at the screen, and when he/she had determined that there were enough clues to solve, he/she would yell out "Solve it!", at which point the list of clues was frozen and the teammate would turn around and guess. A correct guess earned $250. If five subjects were solved before time ran out, the contestant won $10,000.

External links

• Blackout at the Internet Movie Database
• Blackout at TV.com