''Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak'' is an American television game show that aired on ABC from January 6 to April 4, 1986. British television personality

Bruce Forsyth Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series ''Sunday Nigh ...

hosted the series, the only time he hosted a series outside of his native United Kingdom.

Gene Wood Eugene Edward Wood (October 20, 1925 – May 21, 2004) was an American television personality, known primarily for his work as an announcer on various game shows. From the 1950s to the 1990s, he announced many game shows, primarily Mark Goodso ...

and

Marc Summers Marc Summers (born Marc Berkowitz; November 11, 1951) is an American television personality, comedian, game show host, producer, and talk show host. He is best known for hosting '' Double Dare'' for Nickelodeon, and '' Unwrapped'' for Food Netw ...

took turns as announcers every week. The show originated as a 1983 pilot called ''Party Line'', hosted by

Gene Rayburn Gene Rayburn (born Eugene Peter Jeljenic; December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the American television game show ''Match Game'' for over tw ...

. The show was picked up with a few minor changes, mainly Forsyth replacing Rayburn as host and the show title changed.

Reg Grundy Productions Reg Grundy Organisation (founded as Reg Grundy Enterprises, later known as both Reg Grundy Productions and Grundy Television and known informally as Grundy's) was an Australian-based multinational mass media company, primarily involved in tele ...

produced ''Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak'', which was the first daytime series the Grundy company produced for a network other than NBC. It was also only Grundy's fourth series he attempted in America, after ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left ...

'', ''

Time Machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

'', and daytime and syndicated editions of ''

Sale of the Century ''Sale of the Century'' (stylized as ''$ale of the Century'') is an American television game show that originally debuted on September 29, 1969, on NBC daytime. It was one of three NBC game shows to premiere on that date, the other two being th ...

''. To that point, the daytime ''Sale'' and ''Scrabble'' had been hits while ''Time Machine'' and the syndicated ''Sale'' were relatively short lived. ''Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak'' was also the last American production for the Grundy Organisation to premiere until 1993.

Gameplay

Two gender-specific teams of five contestants, one of which was a returning champion, each competed in a game of word association. The challengers, or winners of a coin toss in the case of two new teams, played first. In round one, the captain of the team in control chose one of two words presented by the host. The other four team members wore headphones to ensure they could not hear the word. Once a word was chosen, the team was given 40 seconds to communicate the word down the line. The team captain described the word to the second team member, who, after guessing the word, then did the same for the third team member. The process continued down the line until the team completed the transition down the line, time ran out, the team gave an illegal clue, repeated a key word, gestured or said the word (or a form of the word). The opposing team played the other word in the round. In the second round, the next players in line became the captains and the team trailing after round one chose the first word. In rounds one and two, each successful transition was worth $100, for a maximum of $400 per round. The third and final round started with the trailing team, and each correct transition was worth $200, for a possible $800. The maximum grand total for a game was $1,600. The team with the most money won the game, kept their winnings, and advanced to the bonus round. The losing team received parting gifts, plus their previous winnings if they were returning champions. If the game ended in a tie, the captain of the champion team (or the captain of the team who lost the coin toss, if there were two new teams) was given one final word and opted to play or pass. The team that played the tie-breaker had to communicate the word down the line without faltering to win. If they were unable to do so, the other team won.

Bonus round

The bonus round involved the members of the winning team trying to come up with words to describe certain people, places, or things. For each subject, Forsyth would show the team captain the subject while his/her teammates were placed in isolation with headphones so they could not hear. The captain then came up with four words that he/she thought best described the subject. Once the captain came up with those four words, the rest of the team came out of isolation and were told the subject. Each of the other four players was given five seconds to guess them (twenty seconds in all). Each time the team came up with a word, it was worth $200. After the twenty seconds was up, a second subject was played for $300 per correct guess. Finally, a third subject was played and if the team came up with all four words their winnings were multiplied by five, for a potential $10,000. If the team could not come up with all four words for the third subject, they kept what they had won in the first two parts of the round.

Broadcast history

The show originated as an unsold pilot in 1983 hosted by

called ''Party Line''. The show was picked up by ABC with a few minor changes, mainly Forsyth replacing Rayburn as host (Rayburn had committed to '' Break the Bank'' by this time) and the show title changed from ''Party Line'' to ''Hot Streak.'' The game play for the most part remained unchanged. A pilot hosted by Forsyth was produced in 1984 with

Rod Roddy Robert Ray Roddy (September 28, 1937 – October 27, 2003) was an American radio and television announcer. He was primarily known for his role as an offstage announcer on game shows. Among the shows that he announced are the CBS game shows '' Whe ...

serving as the announcer. ''Hot Streak'' was placed in ABC's 11:00 am Eastern/10:00 am Central time slot that was already home to two hit daytime game shows, CBS's ''

The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also in ...

'' and NBC's '' Wheel of Fortune''. Consequently, ''Hot Streak'' was routinely beaten in the ratings and came in a distant third to both shows and ABC decided not to renew the show when its thirteen-week order ended.

International versions

These were some of the international versions of the ''(Bruce Forsyth's) Hot Streak'' format produced:

References

External links

* (US)
"Hot Streak" @ pearsontv

Information about the "Passe à ton voisin" 1997
(France)

(Germany)

(Germany) * (Germany) * {{IMDb title, 01369630, Rouk Zouk (Greece) 1986 American television series debuts 1986 American television series endings 1980s American game shows American game shows American Broadcasting Company original programming English-language television shows Television series by Reg Grundy Productions Television series by Fremantle (company)