Scattergories is an American game show on NBC daytime hosted by Dick Clark, with Charlie Tuna as announcer, that aired from January 18 to June 11, 1993.
Instead of being physically present in the studio, though, the panelists videotaped their responses to the game questions in advance; they also recorded introductions for the host and dialogues leading into and out of commercial breaks.
Early in the show's run, the host stated a category/letter at the beginning of the first round, and the first contestant to buzz in and give an acceptable response scored one point and secured initial control for his/her team.
In the event of a tie, a toss-up similar to the first-round starter was played; the first contestant to buzz in and give an acceptable response won the game for his/her team.
Scattergories and a revival of Grundy's earlier hit Scrabble joined the NBC lineup on the same day; NBC was looking to replace the soap opera Santa Barbara, which had been airing since 1984 but had recently suffered a dive in ratings thanks in part to stations becoming more prone to moving their schedules around to open the 3:00 pm slot Santa Barbara occupied for other programming such as talk shows.
NBC agreed to give that time slot back to the affiliates once Santa Barbara ended, making it the first of the major American broadcast networks to do this; ABC gave the slot back in 2012, while CBS allowed flexibility to its own affiliates as to where they choose to air programming.
In exchange, NBC reclaimed the 12:00 pm slot and chose to place both of its new game shows in the noon hour.
In the markets that did air Scattergories at its scheduled time, the show faced off against Loving on ABC and the first half-hour of The Young and the Restless on CBS but did not perform well enough against either soap opera.