Card Sharks - Broadcast History

Broadcast History

The original Card Sharks aired on NBC from April 24, 1978 to October 23, 1981. From its debut until June 20, 1980, Card Sharks aired at 10:00 (ET)/9:00 (CT/MT/PT). The series was one of the few respectable daytime performers on NBC under Fred Silverman's tenure as network president, which at the time was struggling to gain ratings in both daytime and primetime. After a scheduling shuffle necessitated by the debut of The David Letterman Show on June 23, 1980, Card Sharks moved to Noon/11:00, a timeslot where it faced the top-rated game show in daytime, Family Feud on ABC; the first half of The Young and the Restless in certain markets on CBS; and pre-emptions on local affiliates due to many stations electing to air local newscasts, talk shows, or other syndicated programming in the Noon hour. Card Sharks remained in the Noon/11:00 slot until its cancellation.

The CBS revival of Card Sharks debuted at 10:30/9:30 on January 6, 1986, in place of Press Your Luck, and stayed in that timeslot for its entire run; Press Your Luck relocated to Body Language's old 4:00/3:00 slot. Until January 1987, Card Sharks faced off against its original host Jim Perry's game show Sale of the Century on NBC in the time slot. Blockbusters (with the then-host of the syndicated Card Sharks, Bill Rafferty) and then Alex Trebek's Classic Concentration followed as competition for Card Sharks. The revival ended its run on March 31, 1989, and was replaced by a short-lived revival of Now You See It.

The 1986 Bill Rafferty-hosted syndicated series debuted on September 8, 1986. For the first half of the season this syndicated Card Sharks series had fairly decent clearances, but this changed due to the show's ratings struggles in an overcrowded syndicated game show market. At the midseason point the syndication Card Sharks disappeared from quite a few of its markets, and many of the stations that continued to air the series moved it to a very undesirable timeslot such as the late-night or early morning hours. The series continued to air until June 7, 1987, in the markets that kept it, with reruns airing until September 4, 1987.

The most recent regular Card Sharks series, the Pat Bullard-hosted 2001 series, debuted on September 17, 2001 and aired new episodes until December 14, 2001. Four weeks of reruns aired following that, and the series was cancelled altogether on January 11, 2002. In most of its markets the 2001 Card Sharks was either paired with or aired on the same station as one or both of the Pearson Television-produced shows that were airing at the time, To Tell the Truth or Family Feud.

On June 15, 2006 the series was the fifth of seven game shows used in the CBS series Gameshow Marathon hosted by Ricki Lake. The set was modeled after the Perry version and also used its theme, opening sequence and logo; the use of "audience poll" questions and the car game were taken from the Eubanks/Rafferty versions.

Gene Wood was the primary announcer on both the original and 1980s Card Sharks versions. Johnny Olson was the announcer for the 1978 pilots. Bob Hilton substituted for Wood on different occasions on all three versions. In addition to Hilton, on the NBC version, Olson, Jack Narz, Charlie O'Donnell, and Jay Stewart substituted for Wood on different occasions. On the CBS version, O'Donnell, Johnny Gilbert, and Rod Roddy also substituted for Wood on occasion. Gary Kroeger was the announcer for the 2001 version, and Rich Fields was the announcer of the Gameshow Marathon version.