Knockout

A short-lived game show where contestants have to find out which answer in a group of four does not belong.

Broadcast
NBC - October 3, 1977 – April 21, 1978

Packager
Ralph Edwards Productions

Host
Arte Johnson

Announcers
Jay Stewart John Harlan

Gameplay
The object of the game was to find one thing from a list of four items that was not related to the other three. For example:


 * New York Yankees
 * Tampa Bay Devil Rays
 * Miami Dolphins
 * Texas Rangers

The players would be shown a question with the possible answers (like shown above) and the first player to buzz-in would try to figure out what did not belong (the answer for the example would be "Miami Dolphins"). A correct answer earned a player a letter in the word "KNOCKOUT" which was displayed on his or her podium.

In addition to the letter, the player with the correct answer had a chance to earn more letters by figuring out the common category of the remaining three words (which, in this case, would be baseball teams) or by daring one of his or her opponents to answer. If the contestant answered correctly or the dare was successful, he or she earned two letters. If the dared player identified the bond, he or she earned two letters for himself or herself.

If the dare was successful the contestant could dare the third player for another two letters or just give the answer for only one letter. If the contestant scored a "6-letter play" by successfully daring both opponents and then solving the category he or she also won a $300 bonus.

The first player to light up his or her word (lighting up all 8 letters in the word KNOCKOUT) won the game and a chance to play for up to $5,000 in the bonus round.

Bonus round
The Knockout bonus round was played in two parts. In the first part, three items with a common category were revealed to the winning contestant, one at a time. The contestant tried to identify the category. If the contestant did so on the first word, it was worth $500. The contestant won $300 for doing so on the second word, and if it took all three words, the contestant won $100.

In the second part, the contestant played for 10 times what they had won in the first half of the bonus game. The contestant chose the top line, second line or bottom line, after which a clue to a new category was revealed. Using the clue he or she chose, the winning contestant had to identify the subject. Doing so won the money.

A player could stay on for five days or until losing twice. All five-time champions won a car.

Broadcast History
Succeeding Monty Hall's short-lived It's Anybody's Guess, Knockout marked Ralph Edwards' third attempt at a daytime game on NBC in three years. After failing with two different short-lived versions of Name That Tune, which had become a major hit off network, he banked on the appeal of former Laugh-In star Johnson who had, in the intervening years since that show's cancellation, become a regular panelist on games like Hollywood Squares and Gong Show.

Johnson's popularity, however, was no match for ABC's Family Feud, which was on its way to becoming daytime's most popular game at 11:30 a.m./10:30 Central. Knockout got only a six-month run before NBC replaced it with a revamped High Rollers. As for Edwards, he would never again attempt a daytime network show, preferring to stick to syndication for Tune and later shows like The People's Court.

Episode status
It is unclear how many episodes of Knockout have survived since their original airings, but it is believed that the entirety of the series has been destroyed as per NBC standards of the time. Three episodes have been unearthed. One is a tape-recorded episode from the original airing that has circulated among private collectors. A second with an unknown airdate exists at The Paley Center for Media in New York. A 1978 episode, the last of the series' fifteenth week, is held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Trivia
A British version of the show, called Odd One Out, aired from 1982-1985

Link
Knockout @ tv-gameshows.com (archived)