Celebrity Name Game

Celebrity Name Game is a game show where it pairs celebrities with contestants in order to identify famous names of actors, singers, pop culture figures etc.

Premise
Two teams, each consisting of two civilian players and two celebrities attempt to identify celebrities and fictional characters in a race to see who could get to $3,000 first and then play for $20,000.

Rounds 1 & 2
Each team is presented with two categories, each containing ten names. One partner will give clues, trying to get the other partners to guess the names. The players must say the whole entire answer or else it doesn't count. Successful conveyments won money. An illegal clue voids that name. Each turn lasts for 45 seconds.


 * The players that have to guess the name cannot turn around to see the answer behind them.
 * The clue giver cannot blurt out part of the answer (unless the partner says it first), say the number of letters in a word, what the answer rhymes with nor spell out the word.

In Round 1, the celebrity gives while commuting back & forth between contestants, and each answer is worth $100 for a maximum of $1,000. In Round 2, the celebrities switch teams, a civilian gives while commuting back & forth between players, and each answer is worth $200 for a maximum of $2,000. Also the 2nd round, the celebrity gets a turn to receive.

Round 3
The civilians go head to head at a Family Feud-like podium and Craig himself gives the clues to names under one more category, usually in a comedic way of sorts. The contestants buzz in to make a guess. A right answer won more money, a wrong answer gives the money to the opponent. The first answer is worth $100 and future names increase the value by that amount. The first team to reach $3,000 wins the game, keeps the cash and goes on to play for the $20,000. If no one reaches $3,000 when time is called, the team in the lead at the end of the round wins the game. If both teams are tied at the end of the round, one final name is played; the first team to buzz in with a correct answer wins the game, but buzzing in with an incorrect answer results in a win for the other team.

Should one team play the first two rounds perfectly (that is, get $1,000 in the first round and $2,000 in the second), the third round isn't played due to the team reaching the goal of $3,000 or more.

Bonus Round
In the bonus round (which plays similarly to the "Fast Film/Picture Round" from The Hollywood Game), there is no category, all names are generic. The names are hidden behind ten squares numbered one through ten. Some of them hide pictures of the names. The civilians take turns giving the clues to both celebrities. One civilian is placed in a soundproof booth while the other gives. The current giver starts describing when a name or picture is exposed. If the celebrity receivers get it right, the name stays revealed and passing on a name re-conceals it. This round lasts for a total of 75 seconds, with the first civilian being given 45 seconds and the second player, 30 seconds, should the first player not get all ten. The second part of the bonus round is not played if the celebrity gets all ten names in the first part of the round. Any illegal clue given by the first player throws that name out and gets replaced by another for player #2. Any illegal clue given by the second player ends the bonus round immediately. Getting all ten augments the front game score to $20,000; no consolation prize is given for less than ten.

Board Game
A board game based on the show featuring a smirking Craig Ferguson on the cover of the box was recently released by Playmonster (formerly Patch) in 2016.

BUZZR Version
Since 2015, an online version on YouTube featuring various internet stars as contestants was hosted by Damian Washington.

Portugese Version
In 2016, a Portuguese version called Duelo das Estrelas "Duel of the Stars" airs on MundoFox, hosted by Silvio Nascimento.

Trivia

 * Originally, in June 2011, it was reported that actors Courteney Cox and David Arquette's Coquette Productions were preparing to pilot a new, hour long game show for CBS' primetime lineup known as Identity Crisis based on a board game of the same name produced by Out and About Productions. However, plans fell through at the last minute.
 * Fellow comedian/game show host Frank Nicotero is the warm-up man for this program.
 * Before Celebrity Name Game, host Craig Ferguson hosted an April Fools Day episode of The Price is Right in 2014.
 * Additionally, Craig Ferguson won a Daytime Emmy Award for best game show host (because of CNG) in 2015.
 * On Hollywood Game Night, their bonus round also called Celebrity Name Game shares its same name with this show.
 * Despite having a three-seasoned run, this was the third most successful "board-game-turned-game-show" in history, the first was Scrabble (1984-90 version) hosted by Chuck Woolery and the second was Family Game Night hosted by Todd Newton. Additionally, this was the second "game-show-based-on-a-board-game" that was distributed by its company Debmar-Mercury, the first was the short-lived Trivial Pursuit: America Plays hosted by Christopher Knight (a.k.a Peter Brady of The Brady Bunch fame) in 2008.
 * The podiums used for the celebrities and contestants looks similar to that of the Dawson version of Family Feud.
 * A fade-in transition effect was in use when the game show premiered. Later on in the series, the fade-in transition drops out and now the names sharply pop up much like "Jeopardy!" when a clue was exposed.
 * When the 2nd season premiered, there were 4 new features. The first round had a choice of 2 letters much like what happened when the scores are tied on the Pyramid game shows. The 2nd one is a combination of 2 real live celebrities squished together known as the double take. Other episodes show a morphed photograph of a famous celebrity or a fictional character. And some episodes is a twitter user sending a clue. The 3rd one is a few letters will randomly appear about 2 at a time which is much like doing the toss up round in "Wheel of Fortune". And the 4th new feature is there is no extra information for the category above it.
 * Example: If the category is "Come on Down" the extra information would be "Famous names who have appeared on The Price is Right". But if the category was "Bens", the extra information would say "Famous Bens" even though it doesn't say so.
 * The pictures of real people and fictional characters discontinued after the 1st season due to the fact that some of the clue givers accidently say out part of the name when describing who it is.
 * On December 2, 2016, it was announced that the series will end on March 1, 2017 and won't be returning to air a 4th season.
 * On February 21, 2017, when Craig Ferguson said he will be the clue giver for the 3rd round, the 1988-1994 theme of "Family Feud" plays.

Music
Tim Mosher & Stoker

Inventor
Based on the board game Identity Crisis.

Additional Pages
Celebrity Name Game/Catchphrases

Celebrity Name Game/Celebrity Guests

Links
Official Website

Official Facebook Page

Official Twitter Page

Official Youtube Channel

Official page of the board game by Playmonster (formerly Patch)