Supermarket Sweep

Supermarket Sweep is an American television game show. The format combines an ordinary team-based quiz show with the novel concept of a live, timed race through a supermarket. In the timed race, cameras follow the teams with shopping carts through a large vacated supermarket with several aisles; the value of items thrown into the cart determine the winning team. The original show was broadcast on ABC from December 20, 1965 to July 14, 1967. Revivals aired on Lifetime from February 5, 1990 to June 16, 1995 (with reruns until August 14, 1998, and on PAX TV from April 5, 1999 to March 31, 2000), and later from April 3, 2000 to May 23, 2003, with reruns airing until March 26, 2004. Another ongoing revival of the show premiered on October 18, 2020, also on ABC.
The 1960s "Supermarket Sweep" was broadcast from Food Fair supermarkets, mostly around New York City. For the Lifetime version, a mock supermarket was created at Hollywood Center Studios. It was modeled after a Hughes Family Market (which was later merged into the Ralphs chain in 1998). The first season of the PAX version was taped at Santa Clarita Studios in Santa Clarita, California. Beginning on November 20, 2000, the show moved to NBC Studios, with that series' set modeled after a Unified Western Market. The 2020 revival is filmed at the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport.
The host for the 1960s version was Bill Malone. The announcers were Wally King from 1965 to 1966 and Richard Hayes from 1966 to 1967. The host for the Lifetime and PAX versions was David Ruprecht. The announcer was Johnny Gilbert from 1990 to 1995 and again from April to June 2000, with Randy West taking over for Gilbert in July 2000 and continuing for the rest of the series. The 2020 version is hosted and announced by Leslie Jones.
Gameplay.
1965–1967.
Three teams competed. Each team began with a base time of 1 minute and 30 seconds. In the first round of the game, one contestant from each team was shown a grocery item and asked to guess its retail price. The team who came the closest won the item and an additional 15 seconds were added to their time. Four items were shown.
In the second round of the game, the contestant from each team who did not play the first round went on a shopping spree through the market, using the time accumulated. Bonus items worth $10 to $100 were also spread throughout the store. All teams kept every item they picked up, with the team with the highest total in groceries, bonus prizes and other items winning the right to return to the show and play in the next game. Teams remained on the show until they were defeated or until they reached the winnings cap of $20,000.
1990–2003, 2020–present.
The gameplay of the Lifetime/PAX version of "Supermarket Sweep" consisted of three segments: the question round, the Big Sweep, and the Bonus Sweep. The game was played between three teams of two related individuals, such as a parent and child, spouses, siblings, or best friends, initially called to play by an object they were holding (in the studio audience for the Lifetime version, backstage for the PAX version). In the 2020 version, contestants begin the show onstage, with each having a nickname (for example, the first episode had competing teams named Team Sugar, Team Biscuits and Team Wings). Beginning with the Big Sweep, the team members would put on sweatshirts of the same color, with each team ranked depending on how much time they earned in the question rounds. In the first season, the sweatshirt colors for teams 1, 2, and 3 were light blue, red, and yellow, respectively; the sweatshirt colors of teams 1 and 2 were swapped in subsequent seasons.
Three new pairs of contestants appeared in each episode. Some contestants on earlier episodes later appeared in various tournaments.
The 2020 revival largely uses the same format as the 1990 version. Each hour-long episode consists of two complete games, with three new teams per game.
Question rounds.
Similar to the original version, all three teams started with a base time of 1 minute and 30 seconds. For the 2020 revival, the base time was increased to 2 minutes. Through a series of three rounds, contestants were asked a series of questions, usually centered around knowledge of products found in a grocery store. Each correct answer added 10 seconds to a team's time bank. The first two question rounds were played by one team member, with team members swapping positions after the first round. Questions included identifying a product that was missing letters, determining the brand of a product via an edited picture, and identifying a product based on a series of facts. Occasionally, questions centered around pop culture, movies, or stories found in checkstand tabloids.
Other questions centered around identifying the price of an item. This was accomplished in several different ways; two popular methods included determining which item in a set of three did not fit the designated criteria (e.g. +/- $3), or which item was incorrectly priced. A mainstay in the second round gave contestants the opportunity to add 30 seconds to their time banks if all three contestants gave the correct answer.
Occasionally, the second question round was replaced with one of the following games:
The final round was the "round robin" game, in which the members of each team alternated turns buzzing in to answer questions (typically six altogether) that awarded 10 seconds apiece. The most common format featured a brand or product name that had its letters scrambled. The emcee would then offer a maximum of three clues to help contestants zero in on the correct answer. Occasionally, an alternate format was used that omitted the word scramble; instead, the host would offer five clues. 
Mini-Sweep.
Beginning in the show's second season in 1991, a Mini-Sweep was played at the beginning of the first round. A toss-up question (usually a rhyming couplet) was asked with a particular product as the answer. The team that correctly answered the question earned 10 seconds, as well as a chance for one team member to run into the market to retrieve a package of that product marked with the show's logo. If the product was returned within 30 seconds, the team won $50 towards their Sweep total. The team won no bonus if the runner failed to find the marked package, returned it after time ran out, or returned an incorrect item or unmarked package. Originally, contestants were only required to bring back any one package of the item in question.
A year after its debut, the bonus was doubled to $100 if the product was brought back within 20 seconds. Starting with the fourth season, a second Mini-Sweep was added at the beginning of the second round; while this was later discontinued as a regular feature, it would be used during special weeks on the PAX version.
For the 2020 revival, the Mini-Sweep consists of a clue read to all three teams. Instead of buzzing-in, the teams discuss the clue and send one member apiece into the market to find the correct item. The first person to bring it back wins $250 and 10 seconds for their team.
Big Sweep.
The "Big Sweep" was the chance for the teams to run throughout the supermarket and take products from the shelves with the seconds they had earned in the front game. One contestant from each team was designated as the "runner," with the job of collecting items in a shopping cart, and the teams were assigned numbers based on their accumulated time: 1 for the most, 2 for the second-most, 3 for the least.
The clock for the Big Sweep was set to the leading time, and it started when Team 1 was sent into the market. Teams 2 and 3 were sent in when the clock displayed their respective times. If any of the teams were tied, they were sent into the market at the same time.
A camera operator would follow each shopper throughout the Big Sweep. In each finished episode, the footage was spliced together to create one near-real-time highlight reel, and the announcer would add a play-by-play commentary to the reel, describing the items being placed in each contestant's cart.
At any time, runners could bring full carts back to their partners' checkout counters and exchange them for empty ones. With the exception of certain bonuses, items had to be in a team's cart (either the runner's current one, or a full one already delivered to the checkout) when time ran out in order to count toward their total.
The main rules for the Big Sweep were:
The five-item limit was absent in the original ABC version of the show, but was added to prevent a team from overloading their carts with expensive items, such as poultry, laundry detergent or over-the-counter drugs. The store was stocked with at least 15 items of each product, ensuring all three teams could have as many of a given item as they were allowed.
In most episodes early in the show's first season on Lifetime, costumed characters such as Frankenstein's monster, a gorilla, or a creature named Mr. Yuck ran through the aisles during the Sweep. If the character came near a contestant or vice versa, the contestant had to turn around and go in the other direction; if the contestant's cart hit the character, a penalty was also imposed. The characters were dropped later in the season.
A variety of opportunities to earn additional cash were available during the Big Sweep. The one constant throughout the entire run of the second series was a group of giant "bonus" items (stuffed animals, advertising signs, inflatable displays, etc.) placed throughout the market in plain sight. Attached to each of these items was a peel-off sticker that concealed a value between $50 and $250 (originally $200). Each runner could take only one bonus, and its value was added to the team's total only if it was returned to the checkout counter before time ran out. 
Later in the Lifetime series, "Supermarket Sweep" began employing more ways for the teams to build up their sweep totals. The first such method employed was called the Shopping List, where teams could earn an extra $250 for bringing three specific grocery items back during the course of the Big Sweep ($500 in the 2020 version). Over the years, more variations on that theme would be used; for instance, the teams might be asked to fulfill a bread order or retrieve magazines.
Other ways for teams to earn money included:
The following bonuses were introduced in the 2020 version:
Teams received money for these tasks only if they were completed in the manner specified by Ruprecht before time ran out.
Once time expired, the runners had to stop whatever they were doing and return to the checkout counters. All of the products were scanned while the show took a final commercial break, and the grand totals of each team's takes were revealed when the show returned, beginning with Team 3, and ending with Team 1. Each team's groceries were tallied and any bonuses/penalties were applied to determine the final totals. The team with the highest score won their Big Sweep total in cash and advanced to the Bonus Sweep for a chance to win an additional $5,000. The other teams received parting gifts. Sweep totals included cents in the first season, but were subsequently rounded to the nearest dollar, with cents only used to break ties.
Bonus Sweep / Super Sweep.
During Ruprecht's tenure as host, the bonus round was called the "Bonus Sweep." The winning team had 60 seconds to win $5,000 by finding three particular items in succession. Ruprecht read a clue to lead the team to the identity of the first item, and the clock started immediately afterward as the team ran into the market. The correct item was tagged with a large circular token bearing the show's logo and a clue for a second item to be found. This item in turn had a clue for a third item, which had a bundle of $5,000 in cash hidden behind it. In order to win, the team had to find all three items and have their hands on the money before time ran out. If they fell short, they received $200 for each item they had found.
Originally, if the team found the final product and the $5,000 before either of the other two, they automatically forfeited the bonus round. However, after the first two seasons, this was changed so that an overhead announcement was made reminding the team to find the first two products, then return to the third product and claim the cash.
For the 2020 revival, the bonus round is known as the "Super Sweep." The initial rules and time limit are the same as for the Bonus Sweep, but the prize for finding all three items is $25,000. Instead of a bundle of cash, the third item has a sealed envelope hidden behind it. The team must decide whether to "cash out," ending the round and keeping the $25,000, or trade it for an additional 20 seconds on the clock to find a fourth item worth $50,000 and tagged with another envelope. If successful, they may cash out or trade the money for another 15 seconds to find a fifth and final item, worth $100,000 and tagged with an oversized gold bill in that amount. If the team chooses to continue the round after finding the third or fourth item, the clock restarts as soon as they open the envelope containing the next clue. If time runs out at any point, the team wins nothing beyond their Big Sweep total.
Revival.
On October 13, 2017, it was announced that Fremantle had acquired the global rights to the format and that a revival of the show was in the works. Fremantle stated that the new incarnation of the show would incorporate "modern technology" into the program to reflect 21st-century shopping habits. On August 27, 2019, Deadline reported that Leslie Jones had signed on as the revival's host and executive producer. Several networks, including ABC, NBC, and Fox, as well as Netflix, were said to be interested in acquiring the revived series. On January 8, 2020, Deadline confirmed that ABC had picked up the series, with Jones as host. On June 17, 2020, it was announced that the series would premiere on October 18, 2020, and air on Sundays at 8:00 pm. On May 13, 2021, the revival was renewed for a second season.
Merchandise.
A board game based on the original ABC version was manufactured by Milton Bradley in 1966.
A video slot machine based on the Lifetime/PAX version was released to North American casinos by WMS Gaming.
International versions.
Legend: