Press Your Luck is an American television game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack.

The board's spaces display cash, prizes, extra spins, special items, or the show's mascot, a cartoon creature known as the Whammy.

Its format is a revival of an earlier Carruthers production, Second Chance, which was hosted by Jim Peck and aired on ABC in 1977.

This version featured Peter Tomarken as host, Rod Roddy as announcer, and Carruthers as both director and voice of the Whammy.

The All-New Press Your Luck, a revival of the series, aired from 2002 to 2003 also on Game Show Network with Todd Newton as host and Gary Kroeger as announcer.

A weekly primetime version (reverting to the name Press Your Luck) began airing on ABC in 2019, with Elizabeth Banks as host.

Each question is initially presented as a toss-up open to all; after a contestant buzzes in and answers, the host reads that response and two more to the opponents as a multiple choice selection.

The 2019 revival features a bonus game not present in the original, in which the day's champion plays the "big board" for a chance to win up to $1,000,000.

Beginning in Season 4, a "Prize-a-Palooza" space appears on the board during the final round, awarding every currently displayed prize if hit.

[2] Press Your Luck is a revival of an earlier game show format created by producer Bill Carruthers, known as Second Chance.

Like Press Your Luck, it also featured contestants answering trivia questions to assume control of a randomly generated board with cash and prizes.

[1] His first major television role came earlier in 1983 on the NBC game show Hit Man, and he was chosen to host Press Your Luck after the former was canceled.

Holland animated the character via computer software,[8] thus making Press Your Luck one of the first game shows to use computer-designed graphics.

Some of the animations featured the Whammy taunting the contestant and becoming injured or harmed in a manner which Baber compared to a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

[1] On January 6, 1986, CBS moved Press Your Luck to a different timeslot in order to make room for a Bob Eubanks-hosted revival of Card Sharks.

Tomarken stated that by the end of 1985, the contract for The Price Is Right was up for renewal, but CBS was unable to pay Mark Goodson Productions the kind of money they wanted to continue that show on their network.

A self-described unemployed ice cream truck driver from Lebanon, Ohio, he applied to be on the show that year.

[11] On the single game in which he appeared, an initially tentative Larson spun a Whammy on his very first turn, but then went 45 consecutive spins without hitting another one.

[12] After an investigation, CBS executives concluded that Larson's memorization of the board patterns did not constitute cheating and allowed him to keep his winnings.

In 1994, TV Guide magazine interviewed Larson and revealed the background of this episode including his decision to pass his remaining spins after he lost concentration and missed his target squares.

[13] The story was featured in a two-hour documentary on Game Show Network titled Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal in March 2003, which Tomarken hosted.

[11] In July 2010, Michael's brother James, and his former wife at the time of winning, were interviewed for PRI's This American Life for the episode "Million Dollar Idea".

[20] On February 21, 2019, a casting announcement was released by Fremantle for a new version of Press Your Luck, advertising opportunities for potential contestants to apply.

[22][23] ABC confirmed in early 2019 that the network was partnering with Fremantle to reboot the series, with pre-production on new hour-long episodes of Press Your Luck and Card Sharks already underway and taping slated to begin sometime in the first portion of the year.

[35] A German version entitled Glück am Drücker ("Good Luck on the Trigger") aired on RTLplus in 1992 with Al Munteanu as host.

[36] Another remake, Drück Dein Glück ("Push Your Luck"), aired daily in 1999 on RTL II with Guido Kellerman as host; this show's mascot was an animated shark.

[40] Ludia Inc. (now part of RTL Group, which owns the show franchise) along with Ubisoft released an adaptation called Press Your Luck: 2010 Edition on October 27, 2009 for PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Nintendo DS, and Wii.

[42] A video game adaption of the show titled Press Your Luck 2010 Edition was released in the U.S. on multiple home consoles and with a PC version.