What is "match game"

Match \Match\, n. [OE. macche, AS. gem[ae]cca; akin to gemaca, and to OS. gimako, OHG. gimah fitting, suitable, convenient, Icel. mark suitable, maki mate, Sw. make, Dan. mage; all from the root of E. make, v. See Make mate, and Make, v., and cf. Mate an associate.]

1. A person or thing equal or similar to another; one able to mate or cope with another; an equal; a mate.

   Government . . . makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects.
   --Addison.

2. A bringing together of two parties suited to one another, as for a union, a trial of skill or force, a contest, or the like; specifically:

   1. A contest to try strength or skill, or to determine superiority; a sporting contest; an emulous struggle. ``Many a warlike match.''
      --Drayton.

      A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.
      --Dryden.

   2. A matrimonial union; a marriage.

3. An agreement, compact, etc. ``Thy hand upon that match.''
   --Shak.

   Love doth seldom suffer itself to be confined by other matches than those of its own making.
   --Boyle.

4. A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage. ``She . . . was looked upon as the richest match of the West.''
   --Clarendon.

5. Equality of conditions in contest or competition, or one who provides equal competition to another in a contest; as, he had no match as a swordsman within the city.

   It were no match, your nail against his horn.
   --Shak.

6. Suitable combination or bringing together; that which corresponds or harmonizes with something else; as, the carpet and curtains are a match.

7. (Founding) A perforated board, block of plaster, hardened sand, etc., in which a pattern is partly imbedded when a mold is made, for giving shape to the surfaces of separation between the parts of the mold.

   Match boarding (Carp.), boards fitted together with tongue and groove, or prepared to be so fitted; a surface composed of match boarding. See matchboard.

   Match game, a game arranged as a test of superiority.

   Match plane (Carp.), either of the two planes used to shape the edges of boards which are joined by grooving and tonguing.

   Match plate (Founding), a board or plate on the opposite sides of which the halves of a pattern are fastened, to facilitate molding.
   --Knight.

   Match wheel (Mach.), a cogwheel of suitable pitch to work with another wheel; specifically, one of a pair of cogwheels of equal size.

Match game \Match game\ A game arranged as a test of superiority; also, one of a series of such games.

n. an international championship match [syn: test match, matched game]

Match Game is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and was revived several times over the course of the next few decades. The game featured contestants trying to come up with answers to fill-in-the-blank questions, with the object being to match answers given by celebrity panelists.

The Match Game in its original version ran on NBC's daytime lineup from 1962 until 1969. The show returned with a significantly changed format in 1973 on CBS (also in daytime) and became a major success, with an expanded panel, larger cash payouts and emphasis on humor. The CBS series, referred to on air as Match Game 73 to start and updated every new year, ran until 1979 on CBS, at which point it moved to first-run syndication (now without the year attached to the title, as Match Game) and ran for three more seasons, ending in 1982. Concurrently with the daily run, from 1975 to 1981 a weekly prime time version, Match Game PM, was also offered in syndication.

Match Game returned to NBC in 1983 as part of a sixty-minute hybrid series with Hollywood Squares, then saw a daytime run on ABC in 1990 and another for syndication in 1998; each of these series lasted one season. The series returned to ABC in a weekly primetime edition on June 26, 2016, running as a summer replacement series. All of these revivals used the 1970s format as their basis, with varying modifications.

The series was a production of Mark Goodson/Bill Todman Productions, along with its successor companies, and has been franchised around the world, often under the name Blankety Blanks.

In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #4 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.