The success of Family Feud prompted ABC to commission another survey-based game show from Mark Goodson & Bill Todman.
Unfortunately, The Better Sex lasted six months (July 1977-January 1978), trapped in the lunch hour death slot due to ABC opting for reruns of Happy Days or other primetime shows at 11 am (ET). Country singer Bill Anderson was partnered with Sarah Purcell, introduced together by announcer Gene Wood, unlike Wheel of Fortune over on NBC, where original host Chuck Woolery introduced letter-turner Susan Stafford, who was perceived more as a sidekick, not a co-host. In Albany, the local stations began shuffling network affiliations 2 months into Better Sex's run, which didn't help matters at all.
Let's take a look at one of the pilots:
As you probably know, Sarah Purcell went on to greater success in primetime with Real People (previously reviewed). Bill Anderson was given one more game show, but not on broadcast television. Anderson was hired to host Fandango for the nascent Nashville Network (the original version, known now as Spike TV) in the early 80's. We'll look at Fandango another time.
No rating.
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