Celebrity Sweepstakes is an American television game show that aired on NBC's daytime schedule from April 1, 1974, to October 1, 1976. The show also had two separate weekly syndicated runs from September 9, 1974, to September 1975 and again from September 20, 1976, to September 1977.
Jim McKrell hosted the show. Bill Armstrong was the main announcer, with Dick Tufeld, Charlie O'Donnell and John Harlan substituting. Joey Bishop and Carol Wayne were the regulars who appeared most often. Other panelists included Clifton Davis, Buddy Hackett, George Hamilton, JoAnn Pflug and Freddie Prinze. CS was produced jointly by Ralph Andrews and Burt Sugarman. The first theme song was composed by Stan Worth, and the second by Alan Thicke.
Gameplay
The game used a horse racing motif as its premise. Two contestants (originally three in the early weeks) competed for the entire show, and started the game with $20 (sometimes $50) each, trying to predict which of six celebrities could correctly answer questions posed by the host. As stated by McKrell at the beginning of the show, the celebrities did not receive the questions in advance of the taping. However, the questions were based on biographical information that had been taken from the celebrities. This information (strengths and weaknesses) was provided to the audience and contestants via tip sheets, akin to actual horse racing forms.
Round 1
McKrell read a question and people in the studio audience then voted for the celebrity they believed could answer the question correctly. After the voting took place, a totalizator set odds on each celebrity. The celebrity who had the greatest vote of confidence from the audience was dubbed the "favorite" and had the lowest odds, frequently 1:1 (even money) or 2:1. A celebrity who had few or no audience votes was dubbed the "long shot" and had the highest odds, up to 99:1. The contestant in control that round then placed a bet on who he or she thought would answer correctly, as "$10 on Nipsey Russell".
In the show's last 13 weeks, the audience was told the category of the question before selecting celebrities.
Contestants could bet $2, $5, or $10 (unless he or she had $10 or less, at which point the bet defaulted automatically to $2) or up to $100, if he or she bet on the favorite. Near the end of the show's run, contestants could not bet more than $10 less than their total when doing this.
A correct answer added the value of the bet multiplied by that celebrity's odds to the contestant's score (a $10 bet on a celebrity with the right answer and his/her odds are at 5:1 would win $50). A wrong answer lost the value of the bet and the opponent could then make a bet of his or her own on that same question. If no celebrity had the correct answer, the question would be thrown out (known as a "scratch" and indicated by a loud horn) and replaced. If either player dropped down to less than the minimum $2 bet, both players were given $2 (or $1 if that player already had $1). The first round lasted for an unspecified time limit.
Near the end of the show's run, the celebrities no longer wrote down answers. This made the game run quicker, and made it more likely that a question would be answered, since if the current player's celebrity got the answer wrong the other celebrities now knew that it was a wrong answer.
Homestretch
In round two, called the Home Stretch round, contestants had the opportunity to double their bets by picking a second celebrity with the correct answer. In the earliest and latest parts of the run, the contestant would lose any money won on the first celebrity if the second celebrity got it wrong, but the contestant had the option of not choosing a second celebrity. If only one celebrity had the correct answer, a bell dubbed the "ice cream bell" (as it sounded like something an old-fashioned ice cream salesman would ring when going around the neighborhood) would ring; selecting the correct celebrity would automatically double the payout.
The All or Nothing Question
The odds for each celebrity were determined by how well they had performed during the show for the final question of the game. The odds were calculated based upon the number of incorrect answers given by a celebrity, so that a celebrity missing two questions was given 2:1 odds, four misses resulted in 4:1 odds, and so on; odds for celebrities who didn't miss any questions were given at even money (1:1). Later in the run, the audience set the odds one more time; at first, the maximum odds were 8:1, but by the end of the run this changed to 5:1. The two players secretly and simultaneously selected their celebrities, as well as whether to bet everything they had or none of it.