Top 20 Biggest Game Show Fails of All Time
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most hilarious moments in which game show contestants crashed and burned, regardless of whether they ended up winning or not. Did you watch any of these game show fails live? Let us know in the comments below.
#20: A Slip of the Carpet
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“The Price Is Right” (1972-)
There’s something about guessing correctly on “The Price Is Right” that sends contestants into an immediate frenzy. While that reaction is now commonplace, few contestants have matched the enthusiasm of Kalyn Allen from Arvin, California. After correctly guessing the price of a set of paddleboards, Allen joyfully sprints towards announcer George Gray with her arms outstretched. However, her trip takes an unexpected turn when she slips on the carpet and falls face-first into Gray’s crotch, sending him right into a set of flat screen TVs. Model Chrissy Teigen then adds to the chaos by pretending to give Gray CPR. By this point, host Drew Carey is in a fit of giggles, struggling to even complete his sentences.
#19: Turkey, Turkey, Turkey
“Family Fortunes” (1980-)
They say a team is only as strong as its weakest link. One contestant on the UK’s “Family Fortunes” exemplified this during the ‘Big Money’ round in this classic 1983 episode. The contestant, Bob Johnson, had apparently overheard the word “chicken” as the correct answer to the third question and confidently assumed that “turkey” would also be right. While his assumption eventually proved true, Johnson, unfortunately, had no idea which specific question warranted the response. This resulted in him answering “turkey” three times in a row, causing the audience to erupt in laughter. We’re not sure what exactly is funny. We never go to the beach without our trusted turkey.
#18: Pass on the Win
“Catch 21” (2008-20)
While “Catch 21” isn’t one of the most popular game shows out there, that doesn’t make this fail any less epic. Contestants who correctly answer a trivia question are dealt a card that they must decide to keep or pass on to one of their opponents. Just like in blackjack, the goal, ultimately, is to reach 21 - a detail that this contestant, Robin, certainly was aware of. However, after she correctly answered her question and was dealt a 7, which would’ve put her over 21, Robin decided to pass the card over to her opponent, Paul. This inadvertently landed him right on the target, securing him the win and leaving Robin to say her goodbyes.
#17: A Brilliant Choice
Top 10 Game Show Fails of All Time
“Countdown” (1982-)
When forced to come up with the longest word he could with a jumble of nine letters, one contestant offered the word “hentai.” The nervous way he gave the response showed he wasn’t sure judges would accept it, but surprisingly, they did! Susie Dent, “Countdown’s” lexicographer, made it sound like “hentai” was a perfectly normal word, going on to define the word as a “subgenre” of manga, and not mentioning its sexually explicit nature, begging the question if she knew what hentai really was. But perhaps most surreal, “hentai” ended up winning the round, because the longest word the other contestant could come up with was “patty,” which was five letters and not nearly as fun.
#16: Seagulls’ Night at Chuck E. Cheese
“Match Game” (1962-2021)
Competing on a nationally televised game show is undeniably intense. Add a panel of celebrities to the mix and the pressure likely becomes overwhelming. That must be the only explanation behind this monumental fail. Host Alec Baldwin reads out the clue, about singles’ night at Chuck E. Cheese, and proceeds to explain it to the celebrity guests. Nevertheless, it all seems to go over the head of the contestant, Barry, who confidently responds with “fish”. Turns out Barry had misheard the clue as “seagulls’ night”. By the time he realizes his mistake, it’s a little too late. His only consolation are a series of sympathetic hugs from the celebrities and, of course, Alec Baldwin’s album.
#15: The Month of September
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“Family Feud” (1976-)
Despite the many ridiculous answers given during the original run of “Family Feud,” host Richard Dawson somehow always maintained his composure. That is, until Cathy Trejo came along. In the ‘Fast Money’ round, Dawson asks Cathy what month of pregnancy a woman begins to show. Naturally, she responds with “September”. While we’re sure many pregnant women indeed start showing in the month of September, that wasn’t quite the answer Dawson was looking for. The host manages to keep it together for the remainder of the first round. However, when he has to repeat the question to the next contestant, he nearly loses the battle to a fit of laughter.
#14: Self-Potato
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“Wheel of Fortune” (1975-)
Look, we all have our moments. It’s just that our most embarrassing errors don’t happen in front of a live audience and millions of viewers, let alone become a viral sensation. Sadly, 5th grade teacher and huge “Wheel of Fortune” fan Lolita McAuley had a massive brain cramp at the worst possible moment. Faced with a puzzle whose fairly obvious answer was “self-portrait,” McAuley chose instead to go with, well . . . “self-potato”. Yeah, we don’t know what she was thinking either. Hopefully, her class of students got a good-natured laugh or two out of her self-potatoing.
#13: $7,000 for a Hammock
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“The Price Is Right” (1972-)
You know your answer is way off when even your opponent calls it into question. In this October 2014 episode of “The Price Is Right,” the contestants were tasked with estimating the cost of a lovely hammock. While the others threw in reasonable offers, Corey Sims opted for an outrageous bid of $7,000. The usually lively audience was so stunned by the response, they immediately fell silent. Unsurprisingly, Sims was incredibly wrong, as the actual cost of the hammock was only $880. He may have lost out on the bid, but this moment eventually went viral, landing him an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” where he got one last opportunity to redeem himself.
#12: Planet Moon
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“Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” (2007-09; 2009-11; 2015; 2019)
The titular question posed in the game show “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” may seem rhetorical. But in some cases, such as with this contestant, the answer is an unequivocal “no”. When asked what planet takes the shortest time to orbit the sun, the lady takes her time to break down her thought process. Then, she arrives at what she believes to be the only logical answer: the moon. What’s that? The moon is NOT a planet? Well, you could’ve fooled us there. The only accurate observation this contestant makes is that she knows nothing about astronomy. On that point, ma’am, we wholeheartedly agree.
#11: Pork… upine!
“Family Feud” (1976-)
This answer isn’t just incorrect, but it’s arguably the most creatively incorrect answer ever given on “Family Feud”. The question is simple: name something that follows the word ‘pork’. Despite an abundance of reasonable options like chop, pie and wood, this contestant decides to go for the most out of left field choice: upine! You know, as in, pork… upine. To top it off, he confidently asserts that not only is it right, but it would be the number one answer on the board. Unsurprisingly, it isn’t. In fact, it isn’t anywhere close to the board. That is a response that could have come from one person and one person only.
#10: Consenting to Fail
“Jeopardy!” (1964-)
On a 2015 episode of “Jeopardy!,” a clue was given about a term marking adulthood in common law as 14 for boys and 12 for girls. One contestant, Tom, gave the answer, “age of consent,” which made viewers recoil, as the answer was not only wrong, but uncomfortably wrong. For the record, the right answer was “puberty.” In all fairness, the question wasn’t easy, but any answer would have been better than “age of consent” - even no answer at all. Unfortunately for Tom, he offered up this unfortunate answer in the age of social media, and so the embarrassment, criticism and judgment extended beyond the show in the form of online comments.
#9: Kellie Pickler
“Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” (2007-09; 2009-11; 2015; 2019)
Kellie Pickler’s debut album, “Small Town Girl”, sold close to 900,000 copies. That’s less than 5% of the number of people who have watched her appearance on “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” on YouTube. When asked to name the European country of which Budapest is the capital city, Pickler exclaimed that she thought Europe was a country. She tosses the idea of France around in her mind, because they speak French there, but is also unsure of whether or not France is a country. Thank goodness she had an elementary student to copy from.
#8: Regis and Kelly
“Wheel of Fortune” (1975-)
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa were a popular morning show duo that most would call household names, but, as this contestant reminds us, the operative word there is “most”. During a tumultuous round of “Wheel,” all three contestants failed at different times to properly pronounce Regis or Kelly’s full names to correctly solve the puzzle. One guessed “Regis Philbern” and “Regis Philman,” and another contestant pronounced Kelly Ripa’s last name as “Reepa.” The third contestant looked like he was going to solve the puzzle when it was spelled out for him, but he also mispronounced Ripa’s last name as “Ryepa.” Clearly none of these contestants were morning people.
#7: Grandma
“Family Feud” (1976-)
When asked to name something a “burglar would not want to see when he breaks into a house,” one contestant responded enthusiastically with “Naked Grandma.” The answer was so oddly specific and disturbingly graphic that Steve Harvey couldn’t help but give the guy grief for making such a strange choice. However, everyone had to admit that it was something no burglar would want to see. In the end, the joke was on Steve, because “Naked Grandma” did technically wind up as an answer on the board because it could be interpreted as “Occupant.” Though that’s the only time “Naked Grandma” is ever going to be the right answer to anything.
#6: Grand Slam Fail
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“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (1999-2021)
During a college week on “Millionaire,” one student from Harvard didn’t exactly make her school proud. At the $4,000 question, the young woman was asked which Denny’s menu item was named after a sports term. Any red blooded American should have known the answer was “Grand Slam” without so much as a second thought, but this contestant got mixed up and made “Slam Dunk” her final answer. Only once the answer was locked in did she realize her mistake. After such a horrific blunder, she probably never wants to step into another Denny’s again. And that’s why you should always take a second to reflect before uttering the words “final answer”.
#5: What Does ‘Urban’ Mean?
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“The Newlywed Game”(1966-2013)
We don’t know the origins of the “dumb blonde” stereotype, but this contestant certainly fits the bill. When asked if her new husband was more urban or rural, Kathy looked completely dazed, before admitting she was unsure what either term meant. She decided that her husband was urban and, to the delight of both the host and the audience, answered several questions about her husband’s urban problem that required the attention of a doctor. Host Bob Eubanks leads the oblivious lady down the rabbit hole of questions that get more uncomfortable as they progress. By the end, the audience is in stitches, and Eubanks isn’t too far off himself.
#4: Toronto in the U.S.A
“Jeopardy!” (1964-)
Back in 2011, before the rise of self-driving cars and Chat-GPT, IBM’s supercomputer, Watson, made a notable appearance on “Jeopardy!”. Watson, which was built specifically for this purpose, faced off against two of the show’s greatest champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The supercomputer triumphed in the initial two rounds, however, when it came to Final Jeopardy!, Watson stumbled and fell. Presented with a clue about a U.S. city and its WWII-related airports, Watson was surprisingly the only contestant to get the answer wrong. Not just that, it responded with Toronto, a city obviously not in the U.S. Good to know that even supercomputers don’t know it all.
#3: “You Fool!”
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“Hollywood Squares” (1966-2004)
The late Gilbert Gottfried was widely known for his distinctive screeching voice and strong New York accent. But two lesser known things he gained recognition for were the words, “you fool!” Gottfried famously uttered the phrase during an October 1999 episode of the game show “Hollywood Squares”. The two contestants needed Gottfried’s square to win the game, but neither could accurately read his poker face to discern whether he was lying or telling the truth. As a result, they made a series of incorrect guesses, each quickly followed by Gottfried yelling “you fool!” The hilarity continued until one contestant finally made the correct guess, answering the easiest question possible and bringing the game to a close.
#2: An Animal with 3 Letters In Its Name
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“Family Feud” (1976-)
Back to the “Family Feud” ‘Fast Money’ round! They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and this father-son duo certainly proves that claim. When asked to name an animal with three letters in its name, Bob answers with “frog”. When asked the exact same question, Bob’s father, who is also named Bob, answers with “alligator”, prompting host Richard Dawson to ask if he uses narcotics. The pair somehow managed to win $415, despite younger Bob thinking that snow comes with a summer storm.
#1: Achilles
“Wheel of Fortune” (1975-)
Who would have thought that watching Brad Pitt run around with long blond hair would have been all you needed to do to win a million dollars? On this episode of “Wheel of Fortune,” all Indiana University student Julian Batts needed to do to win that sum was pronounce Achilles correctly. Instead he said… something. Later, Julian had a chance to win a car but thought the puzzle was “world’s fastest car” instead of “world’s fastest man”. Wheel of Fortune may just be this kid’s Achilles heel.
