Celebrity Sweepstakes is an American television game show that aired on NBC's daytime schedule from April 1, 1974, to October 1, 1976.
Two contestants (originally three in the early weeks) competed for the entire show, and started the game with $20 (sometimes $50) each, trying to predict which of six celebrities could correctly answer questions posed by the host.
During the final 13 weeks of the show, the host announced the category, allowed the audience time to vote, then read the question.
During the earliest and latest portions of the series run, an incorrect second pick cost the contestant all the money he/she had won on the first one, but he/she could opt not to play for double winnings.
Once the odds were set, the celebrities wrote down their answers, and each contestant secretly chose one and decided whether to bet his/her entire total ("all") or no money ("nothing").
Later in this run, contestants were occasionally given the chance to win a prize package (the "exacta") by guessing how many celebrities had correctly answered the current question.
Players from NBC's six daytime game shows at the time (Sweepstakes, High Rollers, Wheel of Fortune, Hollywood Squares, Jackpot!, and Blank Check) answered a set of questions dealing with Ireland and Irish/Irish-American people; the one who got the most correct won $100,000.
In addition, the last 30 seconds of the January 6, 1975 show exist on audio tape, which features Chuck Woolery promoting the premiere of Wheel of Fortune.
Additionally, about 2 minutes and 20 seconds of the March 18, 1975 episode recorded off WAVE in Louisville and featuring a clip of the Shamrock Sweepstakes mentioned above has surfaced and can be viewed at the FuzzyMemories website.
On January 9, 2013, host Jim McKrell was interviewed on the Shokus Radio program "Stu's Show" and seemed to contradict this, saying that the entire run of Celebrity Sweepstakes was destroyed due to the issues of dual ownership between Sugarman and Ralph Andrews.
The Sweepstakes Game, using a similar format with Bernard Braden as host, ran for 13 weeks on LWT from July 3 to September 25, 1976.