Popularity Polynomial: Difference between revisions

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** Years before its cancellation, it was actually a popular show, far more so than a cult following. The process of its diminish began gradually throughout the early-mid 1980s.

* [[Game Show]]s in general tend to go through cycles. They went through their first boom in [[The Fifties]], and fell hard after it was revealed that several of them (most infamously ''[[21 (game show)|21]]'') were [[Executive Meddling|rigged]] in order to create tension for viewers. Except for the [[Panel Game]] variants like ''[[I've Got a Secret]]'' and low-stakes parlor games like ''[[Password]]'', American audiences wouldn't trust game shows again until [[The Seventies]], when shows like ''[[Family Feud]]'', ''[[The Price Is Right]]'', and ''The $10,000 [[Pyramid]]'' (and its variants) became popular. This started to die down in [[The Eighties|the '80s]] and [[The Nineties|early '90s]] — many just couldn't compete against the success of the syndicated ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' and ''[[Jeopardy!]]'', and the market did get quite saturated around that point (no fewer than a dozen shows debuted in 1990 alone, including quite a few revivals, with none lasting more than a season). In the early 1990s, daytime game shows pretty much went by the wayside. Except for the juggernaut ''[[The Price Is Right]]'', there wasn't a single daytime game show between the end of ''[[Caesars Challenge]]'' in 1993 and the ''[[Let's Make a Deal]]'' revival that bowed in 2008.

:The genre returned in a big way in the late '90s/early 2000s with ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'' and ''[[The Weakest Link]]'', as well as shows like ''[[Greed]]'' and the [[Revival]] of ''[[Hollywood Squares]]''. This boom also caused a deluge of [[Who Wants to Be Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?|their assorted clones]]. In the early 2000s, ''Millionaire'' and ''Link'' pulled in tens of millions of viewers and were watercooler discussion fodder, and their hosts (Regis Philbin and [[The Mean Brit|Anne Robinson]], respectively) were household names. Then their networks [[Adored by the Network|began marketing them to death]] ([[ABC]] aired ''Millionaire'' almost every night of the week), and reality shows like ''[[Survivor]]'', ''[[American Idol]]'' and ''[[The Amazing Race]]'' started taking off and providing what were then innovative alternatives to the traditional quiz show model. Almost overnight, the shows were only surviving in syndication—and even that wasn't enough to keep ''Link'' alive. To this day, their catch phrases ("Is that your final answer?" for ''Millionaire''; "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" for ''Link'') are considered annoying as all hell.

:The genre returned in a big way in the late '90s/early 2000s with ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]'' and ''[[The Weakest Link]]'', as well as shows like ''[[Greed]]'' and the [[Revival]] of ''[[Hollywood Squares]]''. This boom also caused a deluge of [[Who Wants to Be Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?|their assorted clones]]. In the early 2000s, ''Millionaire'' and ''Link'' pulled in tens of millions of viewers and were watercooler discussion fodder, and their hosts (Regis Philbin and [[The Mean Brit|Anne Robinson]], respectively) were household names. Then their networks [[Adored by the Network|began marketing them to death]] ([[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] aired ''Millionaire'' almost every night of the week), and reality shows like ''[[Survivor]]'', ''[[American Idol]]'' and ''[[The Amazing Race]]'' started taking off and providing what were then innovative alternatives to the traditional quiz show model. Almost overnight, the shows were only surviving in syndication—and even that wasn't enough to keep ''Link'' alive. To this day, their catch phrases ("Is that your final answer?" for ''Millionaire''; "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" for ''Link'') are considered annoying as all hell.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' is very close to its 20 year mark, and it's quickly becoming a good example of this. It was a huge phenomenon in the early 90s, but it began to slowly dwindle until about 2002, when it was bought by Disney, when [[It Got Worse]]. It had a short burst of success then, but Disney was apathetic to the show at even the best of times, and it essentially culminated in its cancellation in 2009 after [[Power Rangers RPM]]. However, soon after, the show was bought back by Saban, [[Channel Hop|hopped]] over to Nickelodeon, and the franchise seems to be back on an upswing.

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*** Except in Europe, where the Playstation Store [[No Export for You|still has to catch up with its Japanese and Northern American counterparts]]: for example, while the original ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' trilogy was released in the U.S. as a whole within a single ''month'' (as in, one title per week), it ''still'' has to make it to Europe. However, the "head, meet wall" part is averted as of late 2011, given SCEE somehow [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|managed to]] [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|release previously Japan-only titles]] as their answer to Nintendo's [[Virtual Console|Hanabi Festival]].

* [[Mortal Kombat]] in [[The Nineties]]: a ridiculously popular fighting game, with blood and gore as a selling point. [[Mortal Kombat]] during the [[Turn of the Millennium]]: an overcomplicated, ridiculously unbalanced fighting game series that was past its prime (the [[Lighter and Softer]] crossover with DC not helping anything). [[Mortal Kombat]] starting with the [[Mortal Kombat 9|2011 reboot]]: a ridiculously popular fighting game, with blood and gore as a selling point.

* The ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series has gone on a wild roller coaster of this. When it came out, it immediately became on of the definitive games of the 16-bit era and put the [[Sega Genesis]] into a fierce [[Console Wars|competition]] with Nintendo. During the time of the [[Sega Saturn]], the series was on main series hiatus, only existing through spinoffs. Come the [[Dreamcast]], the leap to 3D with ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'' and ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'' was wildly popular and highly acclaimed, but subsequent games would take their [[Polygon Ceiling|notable flaws in the camera and controls]] and cause the series to have a bad reputation of being in 3D. This was exacerbated by the over-the-top [[Darker and Edgier]] ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' and the infamous [[Obvious Beta]] ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)||Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'', causing the series to fall into [[Snark Bait]]. After ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' introduced a new well-received style of play, with ''[[Sonic Colors]]'' and ''[[Sonic Generations]]'' refining it and removing any poorly received alternate gameplay styles, it's safe to say that the series has been brought back to its former glory as an A-list series for Sega.

* The ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series has gone on a wild roller coaster of this. When it came out, it immediately became on of the definitive games of the 16-bit era and put the [[Sega Genesis]] into a fierce [[Console Wars|competition]] with Nintendo. During the time of the [[Sega Saturn]], the series was on main series hiatus, only existing through spinoffs. Come the [[Dreamcast]], the leap to 3D with ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'' and ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'' was wildly popular and highly acclaimed, but subsequent games would take their [[Polygon Ceiling|notable flaws in the camera and controls]] and cause the series to have a bad reputation of being in 3D. This was exacerbated by the over-the-top [[Darker and Edgier]] ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' and the infamous [[Obvious Beta]] ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'', causing the series to fall into [[Snark Bait]]. After ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' introduced a new well-received style of play, with ''[[Sonic Colors]]'' and ''[[Sonic Generations]]'' refining it and removing any poorly received alternate gameplay styles, it's safe to say that the series has been brought back to its former glory as an A-list series for Sega.