Scattergories (game show)

Broadcast history[edit]

Scattergories and a revival of Grundy's earlier hit Scrabble joined the NBC lineup on the same day; NBC was looking to replace the soap opera Santa Barbara, which had been airing since 1984 but had recently suffered a dive in ratings thanks in part to stations becoming more prone to moving their schedules around to open the 3:00 pm slot Santa Barbara occupied for other programming such as talk shows. NBC agreed to give that time slot back to the affiliates once Santa Barbara ended, making it the first of the major American broadcast networks to do this; ABC gave the slot back in 2012, while CBS allowed flexibility to its own affiliates as to where they choose to air programming.


In exchange, NBC reclaimed the 12:00 pm slot and chose to place both of its new game shows in the noon hour. Scattergories aired at 12:30 pm, following Scrabble, for its entire run. However, most NBC affiliates would not air Scattergories at its scheduled time due to their continuing practice of airing local newscasts or other syndicated programming in the 12:00 pm hour; this resulted in some NBC stations airing the show in a different spot on their schedule while others did not air it at all, often relegating it to independent stations in some media markets. In the markets that did air Scattergories at its scheduled time, the show faced off against Loving on ABC and the first half-hour of The Young and the Restless on CBS but did not perform well enough against either soap opera. As a result, NBC cancelled Scattergories after twenty-one weeks of episodes and aired its last episode on June 11, 1993. The show was then replaced on June 14 by Caesars Challenge which began airing at 12:30 pm until December 31, 1993, then moved to 12:00 pm three days later for its last two weeks, finally ending in that slot on January 14, 1994, becoming the last new daytime game show to date.^[a]