Card Sharks

In 1978, Card Sharks premiered on NBC with Jim Perry as the host. There were two contestants and each contestant had to predict whether their base card was higher or lower than the next card. The first contestant to correctly predict all 5 of their cards was the winner of the game. A person could freeze from playing at anytime. Freezing the cards would prevent the challenger from having the chance to play his/her cards. If a contestant predicted a card incorrectly, he or she would have to start all over on the next play of the cards (with new cards) and his/her challenger would have the chance to play the cards. The first person to win two games won the match and the chance to go to the Money Cards for a chance to win $28,800. In the 1986 version, the Money Card jackpot was $32,000.


(Pictures are from the CBS version of Card Sharks that aired from 1986-1989)

To determine who would play thier cards, a question was asked to one of the contestants. Someone went out on the street and surved 100 people yes and no questions, and the same question was asked to a contestant and they had to predict how many said yes or no. Then the other player would predict whether the correct answer is higher or lower than the prediction made. The person who was correct got to play the cards. (i.e. 100 married men were surved, and they were asked, "Would you want to spend a whole 24 hours of your day with your wife?" How many said yes. The contestant who was asked said, "19" and the other said that the correct answer would probably be "lower." The number of married men who would want to spend 24 hours of their day with there wife is 37. The contestant who said lower was wrong so therefore the challenger would play his or her cards.)



In Money Cards, a contestant started off with $200 and would start off betting with that money and would predict if a card was higher or lower than the next card. Minimum bet was $50. Contestants would place bets on each prediction.On the CBS/syndication version, contestants could change thier card with one of the three extra cards. One card change per line though out of the three lines. After the first line was completed, a contestant received an extra $200 (on the CBS/Syndication version, it was $400). After the second line was completed the contestant reached the last card. On the last card, however, a contestant had to bet atleast half of the money he/she earned so far. On the NBC version, a contestant could win $28,800. On the CBS and syndication version, a contestant could win $32,000.



Card Sharks ran on NBC daytime with Jim Perry as the host from 1978-1981. Card Sharks ran on CBS daytime with Bob Eubanks from 1986-1989. Bill Rafferty hosted the syndication version from 1986-1987. The syndication version offered a contestant who played to Money Card a chance to win a new car. There, a contestant would have to find one of the seven cards that had the word CAR on it. If found, the contestant would win the car. The car game was added to the CBS daytime version in 1987. There was a new version of Card Sharks hosted by Pat Bullard in syndication, but the show was recently canceled due to low ratings and the fact that the format was unlike the previous versions.

HOME