Chain Reaction is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart, in which players compete to form chains composed of two-word phrases.
The show has been revived four times. Bill Cullen hosted the original series on NBC from January 14, 1980 to June 20, 1980. The second version aired on the USA Network from September 29, 1986 to December 27, 1991, and was hosted first by Blake Emmons and later by Geoff Edwards (who also subbed for Cullen for two weeks on the NBC version). A third version aired on Game Show Network from August 1, 2006 to June 9, 2007, hosted by Dylan Lane. A fourth version also on Game Show Network was announced on January 26, 2015, with Vincent Rubino as executive producer and hosted by Mike Catherwood. Forty episodes were ordered for Catherwood's version, which aired from July 16, 2015 to January 29, 2016. The most recent version, also on Game Show Network, was announced in November 2020, with Mike Richards as executive producer, Ed Egan as showrunner and Lane returning as host, it aired from February 22, 2021 to June 20, 2022.
Overview The game is centered around solving a word-chain puzzle. In 1980, the chain comprised eight words. From 1986 to 2016, it comprised seven words, and in 2021, it comprised six words for the first three rounds and seven in the fourth. The words in the chain are linguistically or logically connected, with both the word at the top and the word at the bottom revealed at the outset.
By making inferences based on the revealed words and the revealed letters in incomplete words, contestants try to fill in the word chains to score points (dollars on Game Show Network). From 1980 to 1991, the team/player that reached the point goal first won the game. Since 2006, the team with the highest money total after the fourth round wins the game. A team can also win the game if at any time their opponents' money total is reduced to zero during the fourth round. Except from 1990 to 1991, the winning team/player then played the bonus round, which varied depending on the series.
NBC The first version of Chain Reaction aired for 23 weeks from January 14 to June 20, 1980 on NBC, and was hosted by Bill Cullen, except for two weeks when Geoff Edwards hosted while Cullen was filling in for Allen Ludden on Password Plus. (At that time, Edwards was also hosting Barry-Enright's Play the Percentages). The announcer was Johnny Gilbert.
This version aired at 12:00 noon ET/11:00 AM CT/MT/PT, facing out CBS' The Young and the Restless for the first three weeks, and ABC's The $20,000 Pyramid. However, many affiliates aired local news at that time slot, preempting Chain Reaction. The show was one of three game shows, the others being High Rollers and Hollywood Squares, which were canceled in June 1980 to make room for the 90-minute talk show The David Letterman Show.
Repeats of this version aired for several years on cable, first on CBN Cable from March 29, 1982, to May 4, 1984, then later on the USA Network from September 30, 1985 to the debut of the new version that originated in Canada. Game Show Network aired reruns of this version from October 1997 to April 1998.
Main game Two teams of three competed in each game. A team consisted of one contestant and two celebrity guests. The teams were shown the beginning and ending words of an eight-word chain. Each word is related to the word above it and below it, the connection could be either a word association or a phrase. A sample chain could look like this:
TWISTANKLEBRACELETCHAINGANGWARSTRATEGYCHESS
The challenging team began the game. When two new players competed, a coin toss determined which team went first. Usually, the challengers were the blue team and the champions were the gold team.
As the game continued, the words would be revealed one letter at a time. A player's turn consisted of calling for a letter in the next word above or below one of the already revealed words and then guessing the word (note that the last letter of each word is not revealed). A correct response won one point for each letter in the word (two if the word had a '+' mark next to it) and that team kept control of the board. If the player in control was incorrect or gave no guess, control went back to the other team. The game continued until either one team scored 50 points, or the chain was finished. If that happened, another chain was put up and the game continued until one team reached the goal of 50 points, any letters exceeding 50 points are not included in the player's score. That team's contestant won the game, $250 (later dropped when the final version of the bonus round was introduced) and the right to play for $10,000 in the bonus round. The losing player received $5 a point for playing (changed to parting gifts with the third bonus round).
Instant Reaction In the bonus round, the two celebrities from the winning team attempted to get the contestant to guess a series of words or phrases by constructing a question one word at a time. The celebrities alternated giving words to construct the question, then hit a bell signaling the contestant to respond. Cash was awarded to the contestant for every correct response.
In the first format (which only lasted the first week of the series), the team was staked with $1 and had a 60-second time limit. Each correct response added one half of a zero behind the $1, meaning that after two correct responses, the player would win $10, after four the player would win $100, and so on up to the $10,000 maximum.
For the next four weeks, the time limit was increased to 90 seconds, and the first correct response was worth $1, with the next three each adding a zero behind it. At that point, the contestant's winnings would be $1,000 and the next four correct responses each added $1,000 to their total. The ninth overall correct response augmented their total to $10,000.
The third format had the same time limit, but each of the first nine correct responses was now worth $100, and the tenth correct response increased the contestant's winnings to $10,000. After two weeks, the format was slightly modified so that the contestant was staked with $100 at the start of the round, thus reducing the number of correct answers needed for a $10,000 win to nine.
If at any point a contestant provided an incorrect response, a celebrity gave two words in succession, accidentally gave part of the answer, or passed on the word, the word was removed from play and game play continued to the next word.
Champions remained on the show until they were defeated or until they won ten matches.
Stewart later developed and expanded the bonus round of Chain Reaction into the game show Go.
"Instant Reaction" would later be revived as the bonus round on the first Dylan Lane-hosted version of Chain Reaction.
USA/Global
The second version of Chain Reaction premiered in 1986, airing on the Global Television Network in Canada and the USA Network in the United States. Blake Emmons hosted the show for a few weeks before being replaced by Geoff Edwards (although USA started the season by airing several weeks of Edwards episodes, then showing Emmons' reign, Edwards has had experience having hosted two weeks of the NBC version, subbing for then-regular host Bill Cullen). Rod Charlebois served as co-host/announcer, who presented the "home game" for the viewing audience (Emmons presented the home game by himself during his time as host). Charlebois was a local radio and television personality at CFCF radio and CFCF-TV in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the USA version was taped. Charlebois was given an on-air role for most of the show's run, due to Cancon laws which required American shows taping in Canada to feature at least one Canadian personality on-air. Global aired reruns of this version through the mid-1990s, while Game Show Network aired reruns for a brief period in late 1997.
What was originated of the version was originally developed in early 1983 when Bob Stewart Productions entered into a partnership with Dick Clark Productions (a production company owned by the host of Pyramid, Dick Clark) and Syndicast Services to develop a 90-minute game show block consisting of revivals of old Stewart properties Eye Guess, Three on a Match and Chain Reaction, and attempted to delay to 1984-1985, but none of which got into the ground with Geoff Edwards intended to host the version.
Reruns of neither this version nor the NBC version have aired since the premiere of Dylan Lane's first version in 2006.
Main game Each chain comprised seven words. The teams were reduced to two civilian players each and each was given one responsibility. One teammate was the letter giver and decided whether to give a letter to his or her partner or the other team's word guesser. As before, a correct response was worth points and control of the board. In round one, each word guessed was worth 10 points, but the final word guessed in that chain was worth 20 (changed to 15 in season two). In round two, these values escalated to 20 points each and 40 points for the final word. If a fourth chain was needed to decide the game, the point values were 40 points per word and 80 for the final word. The first team to score 200 points won the game. That team played the bonus game and returned to the next show.
During the run, two methods of earning bonus money were used. In the first season, the middle word of the second chain was also a bonus word (designated first by an asterisk, then by a dollar sign) worth CA$250 for the team that guessed it. For seasons two to four, the players played a Missing Link. The team in the lead would be shown the first and last words of a three-word chain. If they could guess the word in between with no letters revealed, the team received CA$500. Every wrong guess added a letter while taking away CA$100 from the potential payoff.
For seasons three and four, only solo players participated and a score of 300 won the game. The players now had to decide whether to take a letter for themselves or give one to their opponent.
Champions remained on the show until they were defeated or held their title for five consecutive days. During the first season, any team that retired undefeated received a CA$5,000 bonus.
Bonus chain The winning team/player could collect a cash jackpot by completing one last word chain. The team/player was shown the first word in a chain and the initial letter of the other words. One at a time, the player(s) would guess at the next word in the chain. For each wrong guess, the next letter would be filled in and a letter deducted from their account. If the team could finish the chain before running out of letters the team won the cash jackpot. If not, they (or he/she) won CA$100 per word, including the one at the top. The jackpot began at CA$3,000 ($2,000 with the solo players) and CA$1,000 was added each day it was not claimed. The highest pot was CA$16,000. While Emmons was host the account was nine letters. When Geoff Edwards took over it was lowered to seven. During season one, if there was extra time afterward, another bonus round was played, this time worth CA$1,000 for the team's favorite charity.
The bonus chain was removed late in season four because the end of the season had an elimination tournament of champions, where the sixteen top winners of seasons three and four returned in a tournament format (sixteen players reduced to eight, then down to four, and then down to two). The winner of the final game won CA$20,000 and the runner-up won CA$2,000. Games were all played to 500 points.
The $40,000 Chain Reaction