"This is...
The game where one word leads to another!"
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Broadcast History:
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Chain Reaction was a short-lived daytime game show that aired on NBC in 1980. Veteran emcee Bill Cullen hosted the show.
Two teams, each consisting of one contestant and two celebrities, competed in a word game to solve a chain of words. The chains, such as the one seen here, consisted of eight words. The top and bottom words were always fill the chain. All words were some how connected to those above and below them.
In order to win points, contestants had the option to fill in one letter of the word below the top word or above the bottom word. If they guessed the word correctly, the received one point for every letter in the word they guessed and their team would retain control of the board. A "+" sign next to a word indicated that the point values of that word were doubled.
If a team completed a chain, a new chain would start and the game continued until one team reached 50 points. The winning team then went on to play the bonus round.
In the show's bonus round, which had little to do with the main game, the two celebrities from the winning team would sit on either side of the contestant. After both celebrities were shown a word, they had to formulate a question with each adding one word at a time. Once they completed a question, they would ring a bell and the contestant would have to come up with an answer.
This bonus format remained the same throughout the show's 6-month run, but the scoring was changed several time. Initiall, a nearly impossible half-zero scoring format gave the contestant one "half-zero" up to $10,000. The first bonus round of the show's debut, which used this format, enabled the contestant to win just $10. This format was dropped after only one week.
The second scoring format gave contestants $1 to start off with, then added a zero for each correct answer up to $1,000. After that, the next four answers were worth an additional $1,000; the next correct answer won the contestant $10,000. This format, which seemed too easy, was eventually dropped and replaced with a scoring format that gave the contestant $100 for each correct answer up to $900, with the next answer being worth $10,000.
In June 1980, Chain Reaction was cancelled after a 26-week run. The four celebrity guests on the last show played a final bonus game for charity that featured a number of humorous moments. As the series signed off for the final time, Bill Cullen read a humorous chain the producers had assembled as a send-off.
The show reappeared in reruns on cable in the early 1980s, and a low-budget revival based in Canada aired on the USA Cable Network from 1986-1991.
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