ABC is trimming down its lineup of summer game shows: The network has cancelled its Match Game reboot hosted by Alec Baldwin, according to our sister site Variety, along with Card Sharks, The Celebrity Dating Game and The Hustler. (A source confirms to TVLine that the four shows are unlikely to return.)
Based on the classic ’70s hit, Match Game asked contestants to fill in a blank in a sentence, trying to match the answers of a panel of celebrity guests. Baldwin served as host, with a rotating panel of celebs including Niecy Nash, Jack McBrayer and Cheryl Hines. It debuted in 2016 and ran for a total of five seasons, with Season 5 debuting in May 2020.
Baldwin, of course, was in the headlines last fall after a tragic incident on the set of the film Rust where he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. But Match Game‘s cancellation was not connected to that incident, Variety reports; in fact, the show hadn’t been in production since the COVID pandemic shut down all film and TV production in March 2020.
Card Sharks was a remake of the ’70s and ’80s game show, hosted by Joel McHale, with players answering questions to control a board of playing cards and guessing if the next card is higher or lower. It premiered in 2019, airing two seasons.
Its sophomore run (which wrapped in July) averaged 2.3 million total viewers and a 0.3 demo ratings (in Live+Same Day), down 33 and 45 percent from its freshman season.
The Celebrity Dating Game, hosted by Zooey Deschanel and Michael Bolton, paired up single celebrities with civilians eager to date them, in a fresh take on the classic dating show. Its first and only season aired last summer, averaging 2.1 million viewers and a 0.4 rating.
On The Hustler, five contestants were asked a series of trivia questions to amass a cash prize while one of them has secretly been given all the answers, with Craig Ferguson serving as host. Its second season ran last summer into early fall and averaged 1.7 mil and a 0.3, down 41 and 44 percent from its freshman run.
Celebrity Family Feud, Press Your Luck and The $100,000 Pyramid, however, are expected to return, Variety notes.
Which of these summer game shows will you miss the most? Hit the comments to share your thoughts.
Will I miss any of these game shows?___________!
The Hustler. I’ll watch Craig Ferguson on anything. Although, The Hustler did not give him that much chance to he funny. He did what he could. Come back Craig!
DONT WATCH ABC . They are probably the number one network that cancels after a season or doesn’t even
allow the show to complete one season .
These are ALWAYS GREAT shows and fans begging for these to continue.
BEWARE
So is Netflix the ABC of Streaming now? Or is ABC the Netflix of Network TV?
Neither. Some people just forget that networks are businesses and make decisions based on the financial cost to themselves.
Amen
Viewers are never satisfied on everything and I like card sharks and daytime and Primetime shows needs a lot of improvements!
I will miss Card Sharks also Joel was so funny.
You cant blame ABC for canceling shows people don’t watch in sufficient numbers to make the network money. I’m sure they dont want to be doing constant make goods to advertisers on underperforming shows and lose money in the process.
Isn’t ABC the network that decides which shows get accepted? Therefore they are responsible for picking bad shows to aire in the first place.
Also, the other reason that shows dont typically do well on Abc is because of how politically biased they are! I dont watch a lot of shows on abc because of this fact! Again, abc’s fault.
I enjoyed The Hustler. Too bad a show that makes the audience thinks gets cancelled.
The Hustler was great!
I too love that Hustler AND CraigF. Will miss them…
I am so bummed it will not be on again! I blame the time slot and lack of promotion for the low numbers of viewers. I had to stay on top of things just to remember it was on.
We lived the hustler. It was fun trying to guess. Oh well another good one gone.
I also loved the hustler!! It was fun to play along and I love Craig Ferguson!!! Always the good ones gone and the bad ones stay.
Ferguson was brilliant on that show. The show was great. Gonna miss it.
I agree, that was a favorite. Craig Ferguson was great as the host and it was fun trying to answer the questions and figure out who the hustler was. Oh well.
I agree it was a mind challenging show. Probably why it was pulled.
Agree. I loved The Hustler! So disappointed!!!
Agree!
I will miss the hustler. It was intriguing and Craig Ferguson was great. It was fun to try to determine who was the hustler
I liked The Hustler also. I was just getting good at guessing who the hustler was so of course its cancelled. *sigh*
I’ll miss it. Craig was an excellent fit and also what first drew me to the show
I agree. I guess they just don’t want any shows where people have to think. I noticed though that ABC isn’t cancelling Press Your Luck, easily my least favorite game show ever.
Amen Brian. It’s probably the main reason…Lol
Never watched ‘Match Game’ but not sorry to see it go. Mr. Baldwin still has a cloud
above his head. He still needs to answer for the tragedy that occurred on the set of ‘Rust’.
And what happened to “innocent until proven guilty?”
The left chucked that during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
No, that’s for criminal trials, not TV shows. And I bet you’re proud of the way the right is handling the Jackson hearings…
It’s not about guilt, it’s about responsibility. Nobody needs to prove he was one of the producers of Rust, it’s a fact.
I agree it was a mind challenging show. Probably why it was pulled.
Excellent response.
Nothing on Supermarket Sweep?
Season 2 just aired this fall. –Mgmt.
Supermarket Sweep is not a summer show so that is exempt from this list.
You could see it as good news in all honesty. If it was a sure thing cancelation it would have been buried along with these other shows on bad new Fridays press releases.
Loved The Hustler! Such a great show. I hate that. Would love to see Hulu pick that up, if possible.
It is fun and different. That is rare these days it seems.
I will miss Match Game.
I would have liked Match Game more if the contestants were just regular folk, not overexcited people playing a hyper version of themselves.
Its not the 1970’s though. I highly suggest you check out a lot of British shows. I Literally Just Told You is a new fave. Episode 2 is a riot. You want regular folk? Then Episode 2 of I Literally Just Told You will literally make you regret that decision.
The whole reason producers get overly excited people is so the show becomes rapid fire. Something that is pretty synonymous of doing versus say British television.
Personally, I prefer that MatchGame to end for now. Baldwin should definitely be sunset as host. I’d say let it come back with a different host in 2023 or 2024.
I liked Match Game also, but I think until they decide it wasn’t Alec fault over that horrific accident
Well that explains why neither Card Sharks or The Hustler are streaming any more. I missed a lot shows last year cause of my work schedule and was hoping to catch up on their second seasons.
Match Game was hysterical!
I watched for the panel of celebrities more than the contestants; they made me laugh each episode and they always looked like they were enjoying themselves.
.
These game shows always seem to come back around at some point. I won’t be surprised when this does with a new host and celebrity panel.
That show was never about the contestants, as there really isn’t much gameplay. The entertainment value from them came from some of the dumb answers they’d givbe.
Awww, I love game shows so sad to see Match Game and Card Sharks go.
Liked The Hustler, especially for the host Craig Ferguson. He was fun and snarky. It was different than your usual game shows. Thusly, figured it wouldn’t be long for this world.
It was fun and I liked it too though I’d say I was only 50-50 at figuring out who The Hustler was.
My mom loved “The Hustler.” She just asked me was it renewed or not. : (
I liked The Match Game. It was a hoot.
Press Your Luck is funny. Elizabeth Banks is fantastic as the host.
Glad they didn’t cancel that one!! :)
Good,Baldwin was such a letch on that game.
I Really enjoyed the Hustler and Craig Ferguson hosting
I love Craig too, but I enjoyed him more on Celebrity Name Game. For me, The Hustler was just annoying.
Love Alec on the Match Hame. I’m disappointed the show is canceled.
I always loved MATCH GAME! I really wish it wouldn’t be canceled. I remembered the original show and sometimes watch it on my TV and Movie apps for a laugh and you can see the evolution of what you could and couldn’t say back then. It makes it even funnier listening to them talk. I’m going to miss MATCH GAME. Alec Baldwins version was funny and we’d all sit down and participate from the house.
Pretty sad about losing The Hustler.
Dang it, stop canceling Craig Ferguson! I really liked The Hustler.
I am very sorry to hear that The Hustler is being cancelled. My friends and I love the show and Craig Ferguson is fantastic.
Mark Burnett, Andy Cohen, and Mike Fleiss should be horsewhipped for making the TV landscape more of a garbage dump than ever before. Burnette gave us a lump of coal dressed up as a legitimate gem with Donald Trump. Though he apologized for the pretense, he is not forgiven. If not for the lie to present Trump as a legitimate figure (rather than the reported sle@ze, thief (stealing $2 million and receiving a court order to repay it), con man who voluntarily forfeited $25 MILLION to make the class action lawsuit against him – FOR FRAUD – disappear. and so much worse.
Cohen replaced legitimate programming such as The Actors Studio with the scripted, nonsensical train wrecks – The Housewives from all over the place. Though we have housewives that broke the law, were drunk as skunks out in public, and purposely acted as trash – all in the name of entertainment. All pretense at class and legitimacy. Money Can’t Buy You Class. The warbler of that song, housewife Lesseps knows it. She knew it the first time she was arrested for being drunk and disorderly. And she knew it the next time she was arrested for the same thing. Welfare fraud, cheats and more – all in the name of entertainment. Housewife Giudice knows that as well.
We’ll give Fleiss a mention as well for assembling casts of women who have belittled themselves for 25 years while they go all out trying to get that final rose.
I miss Inside the Actor’s Studio with James Lipton. Lipton knew things the actors had completely forgotten and the actors were always interesting.
Yeah, pretty much. “The Apprentice” being called “reality” was fraud/false advertising. Ppl can say “but we *all know* reality tv means unscripted not REAL” but a lot of people DID NOT know that, and formed their opinions based on that lie.
And I don’t believe whatever apologies Burnett has made because he hasn’t released the full tapes of everything from that show; he should have done so long ago…
I so agree
Celebrity Dating Game was awful. I did enjoy The Hustler though.
Now they just need to get rid of Leslie Jones in Supermarket Sweep
Amen. She does nothing but screetch at the top of her lungs for 23 minutes or so. I will miss March Game. It was a hoot.
Her screeching gives me a headache. Glad it isn’t just me that is bothered by it. I still like the show though.