Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak (Hot Streak) debuted on January 6, 1986. Some
people say that it was used mostly for a quick replacement for the then
recently canceled Family Feud. Sadly, this show was only on the air for
13 weeks. At 65 episodes total, the show was canceled on April 4, 1986.
When Bruce hosted the show, he really seemed to enjoy himself. He did a
good job interacting with the contestants, and helping them along when a
problem occured. Before the show debuted, a pilot that Bruce hosted was
recorded. Also, prior to that, Gene Rayburn hosted a pilot called "Party
Line", which was this shows presuccessor. But when they took the chance and
put it on the air, it unfortunately didn't work.
Hot Streak consisted of 2 teams of 5 players each. It was made very known
that it was the classic battle of the men versus the women. The concept of
the game was very simple, yet challenging. A coin toss backstage determined
who got to pick a word first. They were given the choice of 2 words. (The
other team got stuck with the word the team declined.) All you had to do was
get the person behind you to say the secret word. All the players wore
headphones with piped music so they couldn't hear what was going on until
it was there turn to answer. It made it more difficult, because you were
not allowed to repeat a major word or phrase. And since you didn't hear what
the players prior to the one that gave you clues were, it was a combination of
luck and skill and quick thinking. And to top it off, you only had 40 seconds
to do it in. For every correct exchange without a repeat, the team got $100. If
a phrase was repeated, the game stopped right there, and the team got their value.
This end game was
the same for three rounds. The team with the most money at the end of the game got
the chance to go to the bonus round to win up to $10,000. In the event of a tie
(as shown in the pic to your left), the team that caused the tie got a choice to
make. Bruce would show them a word, and they had the option to play or pass. If
they played they had to send the word down the line of contestants without making a
mistake. If they did, they won. If not, the other team won. However if they passed,
it was the other way around, of course. ;-) Like I said a moment ago, the team that
made the most money got to go the bonus round. And it was just as fast paced as the
maingame.
In the bonus game, Bruce would give the team leader a word or phrase. The leader would
then give Bruce the four most obvious or natural words or phrases that were associated
with the word Bruce mentioned. (The other contestants are isolated and cannot hear them
talking). Then after that, the remaining four players are brought back out. The word that
Bruce mentioned is now known, and the players have to say the other words or phrases that
the leader said. (Hopefully their minds are on the same track, and it would be easy to do).
However, each player has only 5 seconds each to do it in (a total of 20 seconds per bonus
round). Everytime a match occured, they got $200 each for the first round, $300 for each
in the second round. On the third round, if they got all 4 words matched, they won five
times the amount that they won previously. So if the team answered 3 correctly the first
round ($600) and 2 in
the second round ($600), they had a total of $1200. If they got all
4 the final round they won $6000. The maximum they could win in the bonus round would thus
be $10,000. The winning team got to return to the show the next day to play again.
Well, hopefully that should be enough for you to want to see Hot Streak for yourself. But
if it isn't, let me just say one final thing. Laura Chambers was an Associate Producer of
the show. (And we all know about Laura Chambers, and how wonderful she was to the game show
community... :)
