Press Your Luck/Episode Guide/1986

This is the 1986 section of the Press Your Luck episode guide. 1986 was when Press Your Luck's ratings were in decline, after moving the show to the 4:00 PM ET "death slot", replacing Body Language and Card Sharks took PYL's spot. Although there were some great moments in 1986 (including a $33,000+ win after getting three whammies in Round 1, and Annemarie Carrera becoming the second-highest winner behind Michael Larson), the loss of affiliates was too much for the show to bear. By the summer, more and more affiliates dropped the show to air syndicated programming. Reruns from the spring of 1985 (starting with College Week) started airing on July 29 and continued until August 29. CBS's decision to cancel the show was finalized in August 1986, and the final four weeks of first-run episodes started airing on September 1, 1986. Press Your Luck aired on CBS in daytime for the last time on September 26, 1986, thus prompting CBS to surrender the 4:00 PM ET slot to the local affiliates to air syndicated programming as of September 29.

Shortly after, local stations aired reruns of the show. And then, the following year, it began a long life (in reruns of course) on the USA Network.

The finale supposedly aired on September 26, 1986, but this episode guide only goes as far as May 29, 1986, since that was as far as GSN has gone as of July 2016. If GSN or Buzzr acquires the final months of the series someday, the episode guide will continue from where it left off.

NOTE: Press Your Luck did not air on January 1 due to the Tournament of Roses Parade coverage. It was also pre-empted on January 28 due to coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.