Editing Match Game (section)

===Format===
Two contestants competed on each episode. On the CBS version, the champion was seated in the upstage (red circle) seat and the challenger (opponent) was seated in the downstage (green triangle) seat. On the syndicated versions, which had no returning champions, positions were determined by a backstage coin toss. The object was to match the answers of the six celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank statements.

The main game was played in two rounds (three on ''Match Game PM'' after the first season). The opponent was given a choice of two statements labeled either "A" or "B". Rayburn read the statement, and the six celebrities wrote their answers on index cards. After they finished, the contestant verbally gave an answer. Rayburn then asked the celebrities, one at a time beginning in the upper left-hand corner of the panel, to respond with their answers.

While early questions were similar to those from the NBC version (e.g., "Every morning, John puts [blank] on his cereal"), the questions quickly became more humorous and risqué. Comedy writer [[Dick DeBartolo]] (who stayed in New York), who had participated in the 1960s ''Match Game'', contributed broader and saucier questions. Frequently, the statements were written with bawdy, [[double entendre]] answers in mind. One example was, "Did you catch a glimpse of that girl on the corner? She has the world's biggest [blank]."

Frequently, the audience responded appropriately as Rayburn critiqued the contestant's answer. For the "world's biggest" question, Rayburn might show disdain to an answer such as "fingers" or "bag" and compliment an answer such as "rear end" or "boobs", often also commenting on the audience's approving or disapproving response. The audience usually groaned or booed when a contestant or celebrity gave a bad or inappropriate answer, whereas they cheered and applauded in approval of a good answer. Sometimes, they howled at a risqué answer. At other times, their reaction was deliberately inappropriate, such as howling at a good answer or applauding a risqué answer, to perverse effect.

The contestant earned one point for each celebrity who wrote down the same answer (or a reasonably similar one as determined by the judges; for example, "rear end" matched "bottom" or a similar euphemism), up to six points for matching everyone on the celebrity panel. After one contestant played, the second contestant played the other question.

A handful of potential answers were prohibited, the most notable being any synonym for [[Sex organ|genitalia]].<ref>{{cite AV media | title=The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank | publisher=[[Game Show Network]] | date=November 26, 2006 | medium=television film}}</ref> In instances where a celebrity gave the censorable answer, the word "Oops!" was superimposed over the index card and the celebrity's mouth, accompanied by a slide whistle masking the spoken response.<ref>{{Cite episode |series=Match Game PM|network=CBS |number=91 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite episode |series=Match Game |network=CBS |number=1074 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite episode |series=Match Game |network=CBS |number=1125 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite episode |series=Match Game |network=CBS |number=1245 |language=en}}</ref>

Popular questions featured a character named "[[Dumb Dora]]" or "Dumb Donald." These questions often began, "Dumb Dora/Donald is ''so'' dumb..." To this, in a routine taken from ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]],'' the audience responded en masse, "How dumb ''is'' she/he?" This expanded to the generalized question form "[adjective]-[alliterative-name] is ''SO'' [adjective]..." To this, the audience responded, "How [adjective] ''is'' he/she?" Rayburn finished the question or, occasionally, praised the audience or derided the audience's lack of union and made them try the response again. Other common subjects of questions were Superman/Lois Lane, King Kong/Fay Wray, Tarzan/Jane, The Lone Ranger/Tonto, panelists on the show (most commonly [[Brett Somers]]), politicians, and [[Howard Cosell]]. Questions also often featured characters such as "Ugly Edna" (later "Ugly Ulfrea"), "Unlucky Louie/Louise," "Horrible Hannah/Hank," "Rodney Rotten," and occasionally "Voluptuous Velma".

Some questions dealt with the fictitious (and often sleazy) country of "Nerdo Crombezia" or the world's greatest salesman, who could sell anything to anyone. Other questions, usually given in the second round (or third round in ''Match Game PM'') to allow trailing contestants to catch up quickly, hinted at more obvious answers based on the context of the question. One such question was "[[James Bond]] went to an all-night restaurant. When the waitress told him they were out of coffee, he ordered a [blank]." Because James Bond's signature drink is a [[martini (cocktail)|martini]], [[shaken, not stirred]], the panelists and contestants were expected to choose that answer. In the most extreme cases, the questions were [[pun]]s with only one answer that made sense. "Did you hear about the religious group of dentists? They call themselves the Holy [blank]" was written so that only "Molars" made sense.

Rayburn always played the action for laughs and frequently tried to read certain questions in character, such as "Old Man Periwinkle" or "Old Mrs. Pervis". He also did the same with Confucius and Count Dracula. Regular panelist [[Charles Nelson Reilly]], a Broadway director, often responded with comments such as "I like it when you act" and "That character was really very good. Along with the other two that you do," to the amusement of the audience.

In the second round, the contestants attempted to match the celebrities whom they had not matched in the first round. On the CBS version, the challenger always began the second round (unless that contestant had matched all six stars, in which case the champion selected from the two questions available). This meant that a champion who had answered only one question could be ahead of a challenger who had played both questions, rendering the final question moot. On the syndicated versions, the leader after a round played first in the next round. In case of a tie score, the contestant who had not selected his or her question in the previous round made the selection in the tiebreaker round.

On ''Match Game PM'', the third round was added after the first season as games proved to be too short to fill the half-hour. Again, the only celebrities who played were those who did not match that contestant in previous rounds. On ''Match Game PM'', the questions with the most obvious answers were typically used in the third round.

If the contestants had the same score at the end of the game, the scores were reset and the contestants played one tiebreaker question each, again attempting to match all six celebrities. Tiebreaker rounds were repeated until a winner was determined. On ''Match Game PM'', or on the syndicated daytime show if time was running short, a time-saving variant of the tiebreaker that reversed the gameplay was used. The contestants wrote their answers first on cards in secret, then the celebrities were canvassed to give their answers verbally. Originally, this included regulars Somers, Reilly, and Dawson only, but when Dawson left the show, the canvass was expanded to include all six panelists in the usual order. The first celebrity response to match a contestant's answer gave that contestant the victory. If there was still no match, which was rare, the round was replayed with a new question. On the CBS version, the tiebreaker went on until there was a clear winner. If it came to the sudden-death tiebreaker, only the final question (the one that ultimately broke the tie) was kept and aired.

The CBS daytime version had returning champions, and the gameplay "straddled" between episodes, meaning episodes often began and ended with games in progress. In this version, champions stayed until they were defeated or had won $25,000, whichever occurred first. Originally, this amount was the network's winnings limit. Anything above that amount was forfeited, but the rule was later changed so that although champions retired after winning $25,000, they kept any winnings up to $35,000. During the six-year run of ''Match Game'' on CBS, only one champion, Carolyn Raisner, retired undefeated with $32,600, the highest total ever won on ''Match Game''.<ref>{{Cite episode |series=Match Game |network=CBS |number=1448 |language=en}}</ref>

On the daily 1979–82 syndicated version, two contestants competed against each other in two games, with two new contestants replacing them afterward. The show was timed so that two new contestants appeared each Monday. This was necessary as the tapes of the show were shipped between stations, and weeks could not be aired in any discernible order. This was a common syndication practice at the time, known as "bicycling". Usually, three pairs of contestants competed in a total of six games over the five episodes for each week.

On Friday episodes that ran short, during the first season, a game was played with audience members for a small cash prize, usually $50. The game was played with regular panelist Brett Somers first. A word or phrase with a blank was asked of Somers, and she wrote it down on her card. Rayburn then circulated amongst audience members who raised their hands to play, and if the audience member matched the answer Somers had written down, they won $50. Rayburn continued picking audience members until someone matched the answer. If there was more time left, the same game was played with Charles Nelson Reilly responding to and writing down an answer for another audience member to guess.

Episodes of ''Match Game PM'' were self-contained, with two new contestants appearing each week.