Sale
of the Century is the most successful game show ever produced
and shown on Australian television. The series began on the Nine
Network early in 1980 and apart from the short four week summer
break each year, has been transmitted in the same prime-time access
slot of 7:00 P.M. five nights a week ever since. Apart from the
historical ratings dominance of the Nine Network in the Australian
television market place, the reasons for the success of Sale
have much to do with the format of the program, its pace and its
prizes. The game of the program consists of three rounds in which
three contestants compete for the right to buy luxury prizes at
low prices. The first to sound a buzzer gains the opportunity to
answer a general knowledge question. Each contestant begins with
a bankroll of $25, receiving $5 for a correct answer and losing
$5 for an incorrect.
At
the end of each round, the contestant with the highest score is
offered the opportunity to buy a luxury item such as a colour TV
set with some of the points. At the end of the program, the overall
winner goes to a panel where he or she tries to guess the location
of a particular prize behind a set of panels. Whether lucky or not,
the contestant returns to the next episode of Sale. From time to
time the producers have varied the format as Celebrity Sale of
the Century using television personalities and other celebrities
as contestants, playing either for home viewers or charity.
The
program succeeds because it is a successful blend of general knowledge,
luck and handsome prizes. The question-and-answer format combined
with the time factor draws in the home viewer while guesses at the
panels and whether to buy items offered by the compere involve luck
and risk. This combination gives Sale of the Century a pace
and interest that makes it a bright attractive game show.
Sale
of the Century originally ran on NBC, the American television
network, from 1969 to 1973. The Australian-based Grundy Organisation
had since 1961 been a very frequent licensee/producer of American
game show formats but it had decided in the early 1970s to develop
or buy-in formats of its own. Grundy bought the format for Sale
of the Century in 1979 and later the same year sold the program
to the Australian Nine Network. By this time, the Grundy Organisation
was the biggest program packager in Australian television and had
decided that the only way to continue to expand was to internationalise
its operation. However because of differing licensing arrangements,
Grundy was aware that many of the American game show format licence
rights were not available to the company in other territories--hence
the decision to buy format copyrights on programs such as Sale.
The outstanding rating success of Sale in the Australian
television market made it easier to sell the format elsewhere. Thus
since 1982 the company has re-versioned Sale of the Century
in five other territories: Hong Kong (RTV, 1982); United States
(NBC, 1982/1988); United Kingdom (Sky, 1989/1991); New Zealand (TVNZ,
1989/1993); and Germany (Telos/DSP, 1990/1993).
Some
of the program's hosts in different countries have included Tony
Barber (Australia), Joe Garagiola (U.S.), Jack Kelly (U.S.), Steve
Parr (New Zealand), Nicholas Parsons (U.K.), Jim Perry (U.S.), and
Glen Ridge (Australia).
-Albert
Moran
