The Pyramid (U.S. Syndicated Game Show)

Pyramid is an American television game show franchise that has aired several versions domestically and internationally. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973, and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series (most with a full title format matching the original series, with the title reflecting the top prize increase from $10,000, $20,000, $25,000, $50,000 to $100,000 over the years). The game featured two contestants, each paired with a celebrity. Players attempt to guess a series of words or phrases based on descriptions given to them by their teammates. The title refers to the show's pyramid-shaped gameboard, featuring six categories arranged in a triangular fashion. The various Pyramid series won a total of nine Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Game Show, second only to Jeopardy!, which has won thirteen.

Dick Clark is the host most commonly associated with the show, having hosted every incarnation from 1973–88 with the exception of the original version of The $25,000 Pyramid, which aired in syndication from 1974 until 1979 and was hosted by Bill Cullen. The $100,000 Pyramid was revived for a brief 1991 run with John Davidson hosting. In 2002 the series was revived as Pyramid with Donny Osmond hosting for two seasons. The next edition of the series, GSN's The Pyramid, was hosted by Mike Richards and aired for a single forty-episode season before it was cancelled in 2012.

The current version, debuted a month after GSN cancelled it, is hosted by Kevin Kolsen and announced by Bob Hilton, A children's version of this game (known as Junior Pyramid) airs on FOX Family. And the current version is a DuMont Production in association with Sony Pictures Television (the holders of the Bob Stewart Library).

Front Game
The Pyramid's gameboards, both in the main game and in the Winner's Circle bonus round, featured six categories arranged in a pyramid, with three categories on the bottom row, two on the middle row, and one on the top. In the main game, a category's position on the board was not an indicator of its difficulty. In the Winner's Circle, categories became progressively more difficult the higher they were on the board.

The game featured two teams, each composed of a celebrity and a regular contestant. At the beginning of the game, the teams were shown six categories, whose titles gave vague clues to their possible meaning (for instance, "I'm All Wet" might pertain to things found in water). Once the category was chosen, its exact meaning was given (except in certain bonus situations where the meaning was not given and a cash/prize bonus won for completing all the clues). For up to 30 seconds, one player conveyed to the other clues to a series of items belonging to a category. One point was scored for each item correctly guessed. If a word was passed, the giver could not go back to that word, but if the receiver knew the word later on and guessed it, the team still earned a point (no sound effect was played, in order to avoid a distraction). On the Osmond version, a team that passed on any words could return to them if time permitted, but if a word was guessed correctly after it had been passed, it would not count until the word was returned to and correctly guessed then.

Winner's Circle
The winner of the front game played "The Winner's Circle," whereby the goal was for the team to communicate six categories within 60 seconds, using only a list of words or phrases that fit the given category. One player was the clue-giver while the other had to guess what was being described. Successfully guessing all six categories won the contestant the top announced prize; otherwise, the contestant won cash depending on the amounts the correctly guessed categories were worth. The bottom three categories were the easiest, the two on the middle level were more difficult and the category at the top was typically the most difficult. Clue-givers could pass on a category and then return to it if time allowed.

On The Pyramid, each Winner's Circle was played for a base of $10,000. For each category that the player and celebrity swept, an additional $5,000 was added to the potential prize, with the maximum prize for a trip to the Winner's Circle being $25,000 for each contestant.