Sale of the Century premiered in September 1969 on NBC and spanned five successful seasons before coming to an end in July 1973. The same year, a weekly syndicated series was launched but only ran for one season. The game show was then revived with yet another syndicated version in 1983, with Jim Perry taking the helm as the host. Now, while Sale of The Century has been through many iterations, the format has always followed contestants as they answer trivia questions to earn points. At the end of each episode, the contestant with the highest number of points was the winner. But there was a catch! The points in the game also doubled as currency that could be used to purchase a range of prizes.
This added an element of surprise to the trivia game and kept the fans guessing who the winner would be till the very end. At any given point in the show, the contestants are given offers to win items such as household appliances, kitchen gadgets, and even cash. They could then choose to accept or decline the offer. At its core, the show wasn’t just about the trivia, it was more about knowing when to take an offer and when to risk everything for a better prize at the very end of the game. But while Sale of the Century had all the makings of an exciting competition, it eventually had to be taken off-air because the format just couldn’t keep up with the evolving landscape of game shows.
10 The Show’s Limited Appeal
Catered to a Niche Audience
Unlike other TV game shows such as Wheel of Fortune or The Price Is Right, Sale of the Century could never find itself a dedicated audience. When the show premiered, in 1969, the audience already had a huge variety of TV game shows to watch. Because Sale of the Century lay somewhere between a traditional trivia show and a shopping game, it didn’t really appeal to a wide range of viewers. For example, shows like Jeopardy!, and Family Feud are easy to follow for viewers of all demographics because they stick to one genre. On the other hand, Sale of the Century felt like it was trying to do too many things at once!
Additionally, the show was mainly targeted toward an adult audience that would be interested in purchasing the home goods or appliances featured as prizes on the show. The format of the show also required the audience to have a high level of investment in the contestant’s decisions. While that strategic decision-making element of Sale of the Century is what made the trivia show unique, it also made it too dull for casual viewing. If Sale of the Century were to be rebooted today, it would face the same issue of just not being universally appealing enough compared to the competitive game shows out there now.
9 The Game Lacked Risk
Predictable Choices and Low Stakes
While Sale of the Century did have an element of strategy, the show lacked the overall depth it needed to make the game engaging for the audience along with the contestants. Sure, the contestants had to be strategic about when to use their points and grab a good offer versus saving their points to get to the big prize at the end. But this choice was pretty straightforward with every round. This meant that after a few questions, it was easy to predict the decisions each contestant was going to make.
If you think about it, the stakes in the show weren’t all that high, because there was no real consequence for the contestants’ decisions. At the end of the day, they either walked away with a grand prize at the very end, or they ended up winning smaller prizes throughout the game. Not too bad for the contestants, but extremely underwhelming for the audience watching at home. Now, compare this with a show like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, where the stakes are rising with each question. The very thing that makes that game so interesting is the fact that the contestants face the possibility of walking away with nothing if they make one wrong move. With Sale of the Century? The contestant almost always went home with some kind of win.
Competition Outshined Its Appeal
The format of Sale of the Century was definitely fresh back when it premiered in 1969. In fact, that’s what helped the show gain enough popularity to be rebooted in 1983. But by the time the show was revived in the 80s, it had lost all relevance because other TV game shows had found creative ways to blend trivia with different prize-winning opportunities. When Sale of the Century made a comeback, the audience had developed a taste for fast-paced, high-stakes game shows.
For example, you had Family Feud where teams competed head-to-head for points as they worked towards the final round. Other shows such as The Price is Right, which premiered in 1972 and Let’s Make a Deal, which premiered in 1963, had perfected the concept of offering contestants a range of prizes with much more engaging gameplay. These shows introduced elements of audience participation, auction-style bidding and prize reveals, which brought a whole new level of excitement. This made Sale of the Century feel a little outdated with its steady and more traditional trivia battles. And all of that holds true, even to this day.
7 The Prizes
They Were Underwhelming and Lacked Glamour
Modern TV game shows are all about high-ticket prizes. Think luxury vacations, life-changing cash prizes, and designer goods. These shows are entertaining to watch specifically because you’re rooting for the contestants to win big. Shows like The Price Is Right and Wheel of Fortune have mastered the art of offering rewards that generate genuine excitement not just for the contestants, but also for the viewers. It makes you feel like all that gameplay is worth it in the end. But Sale of the Century failed to do that. The game show originally premiered during a time when technology was still in its early stages. But by the time it was revived, prizes such as blenders, juicers, and refrigerators just didn’t hold the same kind of prestige as they once did. The audience had become used to expecting much more glamorous rewards.
Even when the show offered big prizes, such as vacations or cars, the contestants had to buy them using their points. So, this shopping aspect that once made Sale of the Century stand out from the crowd is what eventually made the whole thing feel anticlimactic. Not to mention that these grand prizes were often positioned as something that the contestants could only purchase with a large amount of points at the end of the game. Unfortunately, the premise of the show just wasn’t interesting enough for the viewers to keep watching till the end. That element of instant gratification that TV game shows thrive on today was eventually completely missing from Sale of the Century.
6 The Show Could Never Nail the Bonus Round
Failed Attempts to Build Suspense
A lot of TV game shows rely on bonus rounds to keep the audience and the contestants on their toes. That’s what Sale of the Century tried to do with its bonus round. Initially, the bonus round simply allowed the winning contestant to pick something from a wide range of prizes and purchase them using the points they had collected by the end of the main game. Then again, the stakes here were extremely low because, once again, the contestants would use their points to shop for the prizes that were arranged in ascending order. Overall, the whole ordeal was slow and underwhelming, which defeated the purpose of a bonus round.
Thankfully, the producers realized this and tried to switch up the bonus round many times throughout the course of the show. For example, in 1984, the bonus round featured a board of 20 squares, with all kinds of prizes hidden behind them. This version incorporated the bonus round after every match and added suspense to the show as the contestants chose squares to reveal what lay behind them. However, since the audience had no control over what they were winning, the bonus round felt pretty random and more like a game of luck rather than strategy.
In 1997, the bonus round was redesigned, and the contestants had to solve different puzzles in a certain amount of time to win prizes, with a car being the final one. Now, while this new format was definitely faster and more engaging than before, it still featured eight prize levels that focused heavily on trivia-solving skills instead of a high-stakes payoff required to stimulate and hook the audience.
5 No Successful Reboots
A Reboot Was Canceled
In 2007, Sale of the Century was rebooted under the title Temptation: The New Sale of the Generation . The idea was to take the format of the original show and tweak it for a modern audience.Temptation: The New Sale of the Generation was loosely based on the American and Australian versions of Sale of the Century. However, the reboot attempted to add a twist to the gameplay with new mini-games that were designed to raise the stakes and speed up the pace of the game.
The reboot also featured a segment called Instant Cash, where contestants could increase their winnings by gambling their lead. With Rossi Morreale taking on hosting duties, Temptations was supposed to fix all the gaps in the original format of Sale of the Century. But despite the show’s modern prizes and engaging rounds, it failed to make a mark in the saturated landscape of TV game shows. The show was canceled after one seasondue to low ratings because the new rounds weren’t enough to make up for its overall underwhelming premise.
Not to mention that Temptations attempted to target the female demographic by only allowing female contestants to take part in the game. However, this restricted their audience base and perpetuated outdated stereotypes about gender and consumerism. All of that, combined with the decision to use a stock applause track rather than having a live studio audience contributed to the show feeling flat and plain boring.
4 There’s Not Enough Nostalgia Associated With the Show
Lack of Signature Moments
The reason why game shows like Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy! are still on air in 2024 is because the audience has developed an emotional connection with them. Unfortunately, Sale of the Century, despite being on air for a decent time, couldn’t find its place in American pop culture. While the 1983 revival of the show definitely resonated with the audience back in the day, it just didn’t experience enough success.
The show couldn’t generate any standout moments, unlike most other successful game shows. For example, you have the Final Jeopardy round in Jeopardy!, which has become a staple in every episode of the show. There’s also the iconic million-dollar question in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Sale of the Century, however, doesn’t have a signature moment that can be associated with the show. So partially, that’s also what led to the ultimate downfall of the show.
3 No Appropriate Host To Serve As the Host
Jim Perry Passed Away in 2015
While Sale of the Century has had multiple hosts, the late Jim Perry’s name became synonymous with the show when he took over during the 1983 revival. Thanks to Perry’s charming personality and his ability to hook the contestants, Sale of the Century hit the peak of its popularity back in the 80s. Even though the revival was short-lived, Perry became the face of the show.
If I’m being completely honest, his hosting was the one thing that made up for the show’s weak format and gameplay. Without Perry, any reboot of Sale of the Century would be destined to fail, just like Temptations did. So, unless you’re a particularly ambitious host reading this who wants to prove me wrong, the audience will have absolutely no reason to watch the show.
E-Commerce Renders the Format Obsolete
Back when Sale of the Century was airing, television served as the primary form of entertainment and information. So, the show was a great way for the audience to find out about new gadgets and keep up with the technology of the time. For a lot of people, the show was their way of window-shopping for items that were considered high-end back then. This shopping element of the show kept many people coming back for more.
However, today, when online shopping is the new normal, a show like Sale of the Century becomes irrelevant. People have the freedom to use their phones to access all kinds of shopping platforms and discover new products. There are countless videos on social media or TikTok shops to scroll through, and the products are just bizarre. Nobody wants to see people raking up points on a game show to win a lousy prize.
1 The Essence of the Show Can’t Be Replicated
It’s The Memories, Not the Show Format
All things considered, a Sale of the Century reboot would require a lot of the game show’s original elements to be reworked.The bonus rounds to the prize offerings and even the trivia questions need to be updated to keep up with the current landscape of TV game shows. But you have to wonder whether all of that will be worth it in the end. If any fan of the original thinks that a reboot could be a good idea, with the same format, it’s probably because you have memories attached to the show.
The truth is that some things are better left in the past. Part of what made Sale of the Century fun to watch was the fact that it was perfect for its time. Back in the day, having access to new technology by answering trivia questions made perfect sense. The same concept could never be as fun in the modern age.
