Pyramid is the collective name of a series of American television
game shows in which contestants tried to guess a series of words or phrases, based on descriptions that were given to them by their teammates. The title refers to the show's game board, featuring six categories arranged in a triangular fashion. Most different versions of the show included the various dollar values of their top prize in their titles, e.g.,
The $100,000 Pyramid. As a whole, the series won nine
Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show, second only to
Jeopardy!, which has won 11.
Dick Clark is the host most commonly associated with the show, having hosted most incarnations of it from 1973-1988;
Bill Cullen hosted a 1974-1979 syndicated version of
The $25,000 Pyramid, while
John Davidson hosted a 1991 revival of
The $100,000 Pyramid and the most recent revival (simply titled
Pyramid) ran from 2002-2004 with
Donny Osmond as host.
Two pilots for a new version of the format, hosted by
Dean Cain and
Tim Vincent, were taped in summer 2009 for CBS as a possible replacement for the canceled
Guiding Light. In this version, the top prize was to be raised to $1,000,000. CBS passed on the two pilots and opted to move forward with a revival of
Let's Make a Deal hosted by
Wayne Brady.
