CBS Plans Password Revival

The password is … midseason 2008. The answer, though it is more than one word, is Million Dollar Password, which CBS and FremantleMedia North America are prepping for midseason.

With shows like Deal or No Deal and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader showing a viewer appetite for primetime games, CBS ordered six episodes of the FremantleMedia North America-produced show, an update of the classic game, with Regis Philbin -- a veteran of the last huge primetime game hit, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire -- hosting.

The original version, from the prolific game stables of Goodman/Todman and a staple of boomer-generation daytime TV fans, was hosted by the late Allen Ludden, whose wife, Betty White (Boston Legal, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls), was one of its top players.

The game features two teams, a celebrity and a contestant, pitted against each other in a word-guessing game featuring one-word clues.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.