The Best and Worst Celebrity Game-Show Appearances
A surprising percentage of ‘90s heartthrobs got their asses handed to them on Nickelodeon game shows.
Norm Macdonald: ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’
Regis Philbin got in Norm’s head and cost sick children half a million dollars. The million dollar question was “During the Cold War, the U.S. government built a bunker to house Congress under what golf resort?” Macdonald was going to answer The Greenbrier, which was correct, but Regis interrupted and gave him cold feet. Macdonald walked away, thinking he was reading the room, and cost Paul Newman’s charity a cool half mil.
Wolf Blitzer: ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’
Blitzer answered only 5 of the 11 questions he buzzed in for correctly, making up nonexistent words and responding “What is a crash?” to an answer that had the word “crash” in it. At the end of his stint on the show, he technically owed Alex Trebek $4,600.
Everyone But Carol Burnett: ‘Celebrity Jeopard!y’
Jason Alexander and Dan Cortese struggled mightily to figure out the 10th letter of the alphabet. It’s not L, it’s not K… it took Burnett to announce “J! It’s Jay!” after time was up.
Vanna White: ‘The Price Is Right’
In 1980, two years before landing her job on Wheel of Fortune, White made an underwhelming performance on Bob Barker’s show. She got to come on down, but struggled a bit and never made it up on stage. Barker razzed her pretty good: “You know, you’re so busy looking at yourself in the monitor, you don’t know what’s going on.”
Erik Estrada: ‘Pictionary’
Estrada got so jacked up trying to guess a clue about a tree, he pumped his fist in the air and punched a guy in the nose, knocking him to the ground.
AJ McLean: ‘Nickelodeon Guts’
As a kid, the future Backstreet Boy started out strong, posterizing the competition in the bungee basketball event, but things evened out over the ensuing rounds and he ultimately shit the bed on the Aggro Crag.
Joey Fatone: ‘Nick Arcade’
Shortly before N*SYNC took off, a young “Joseph” Fatone appeared on Nick Arcade. He blew his chances of facing the wizard when he confidently guessed that Abraham Lincoln was a Democrat.
Burt Reynolds: ‘Hollywood Squares’
When asked, “What is that small, cute thing just below Cher’s waist?” Reynolds took a moment to gauge how much trouble he wanted to get in, and replied “Sonny Bono.”
Simon Cowell: ‘Sale of the Century’
Cowell’s television debut was technically on a weird call-in show in 1987 where viewers could complain about TV programming. But in 1990 he got on this British bargain-hunting game show, twice, but only walked away with about 20 quid worth of kitchen utensils.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: ‘Jeopardy!’
His prompt was “The five movie ratings in the U.S. are NC-17, R, PG, PG-13 and this one.” He, suspiciously quickly, answered “What is X?”
Patricia Heaton: ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’
Heaton’s $50,000 question was “If a euro is worth $1.50, five euros is worth what?” The options were all in different denominations of American coinage, which is super annoying, in her defense. She phoned a friend, but reading the prompt took so long there wasn’t enough time left for the guy to fart, let alone do all that math. Regis walked her through it, and she eventually made the right choice, to the audible relief of the audience.
Emily Hampshire: ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’
Instead of correctly guessing “cowboy,” the Schitt’s Creek star guessed “aloha,” evidently because the prompt had the word “Hawaii” in it. She also appeared to guess that stars were only discovered in the 1960s on her way to a -$2,000 performance.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: ‘The Dating Game’
A pre-fame Arnold excruciatingly missed a series of come-ons when he made an appearance on The Dating Game. He explained that he was new to the country and asked his potential date, “What does it mean, ‘hanky panky’?” She explained that it meant “playing around,” and offered to explain it to him in person for an extended period of time. He questioned her further: “Playing around with what?”
Betty White: ‘Super Password’
In 1989, White freaked out when her partner couldn’t guess the word “shrewd,” tore up the clue and hurled the clue dispensing device across the stage. Twice.
