< Sale of the Century

Sale of the Century/YMMV


  • Adaptation Displacement: The Australian version and the Jim Perry version were both much more successful and more well-known than the first iteration (although it did run for five years).
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: In 2007, Temptation held a special "Battle of the Network Shows" week, and in one of the shows, Ed Philips and Livinia Nixon competed against Dr. Andrew Rochford and Giaan Rooney from What's Good For You?. Taking Ed and Livinia's place as host and hostess for this episode--the original Sale host Tony Barber, and long-time hostess Alyce Platt. By the way, Ed and Livinia lost the game at the last second.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Several times.
    • The switch from three "single" players to two married couples on April 16, 1973 was a last-ditch grab for ratings against CBS' Gambit. The show was canned 13 weeks later, with a syndicated attempt two months later failing after one season.
    • The 1980s version changed its shopping-based bonus round in October 1984 to the Winner's Board, where matches could be made for prizes (the syndicated run, which began in January 1985, used shopping until November). This was replaced in December 1987 with the Winner's Big Money Game, which involved word-based puzzles similar to that of All-Star Blitz.
    • The Australian version made a host of gameplay tweaks (including the addition of a fourth contestant) in 2000, renaming itself Sale of the New Century. After ratings continued to slide, both the "New" and the fourth contestant were ousted in 2001 while the show switched to a widescreen format. Still didn't work.
  • What an Idiot!: Jim Perry, and by extension the staff, in a January 1984 episode which likely caused the institution of the Speed Round that March. During the "home stretch" of the main game [1], Perry mentioned that there were two ways the champ would win the $78,000 cash she was going for — by her answering one question correctly, or by the second-place contestant (exactly $15 behind) getting one wrong. Upon his reading the first question, however, the third-place contestant (who was irrelevant score-wise) buzzed-in...which by the rules immediately meant game over, champ wins $78,000. Only problem is, nobody realized until after the second question, and only because the second-place contestant had missed it.
  • What Could Have Been: Two notable examples in 1984.
    • David Rogers won a record $109,000 Cash Jackpot. Had he decided to continue, he could have possibly broken the all-time daytime game show winnings record set by Barbara Phillips one year earlier (that record would ultimately be broken by Tom O'Brien in 1987).
    • Bill Fogel won a $61,000 Cash Jackpot after winning his game with a score of $145[2]. He could have gone all the way if he wanted to, seeing that he only needed THIRTY-NINE DOLLARS to win the Lot.
    • Not to mention all the other people who simply bought the Cash Jackpot in the daytime version...
  1. ↑ (three questions, each worth $5 and discarded after a buzz-in; oddly, these were asked regardless of how large the player's lead was)
  2. ↑ (The record for highest one-day score in American "Sale".)
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