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.

It returned to ABC in a weekly prime time edition on June 26, 2016, running as an off-season replacement series, all using the 1970s format as their basis, with varying modifications.

Gene Rayburn was the host, and Johnny Olson served as announcer, for the series premiere, Arlene Francis and Skitch Henderson were the two celebrity panelists.

With the knowledge that the show could not be canceled again, Goodson gave the go-ahead for the more risqué-sounding questions, a decision that caused a significant boost in ratings and an "un-cancellation" by NBC.

The Match Game continued through September 26, 1969, on NBC for 1,760 episodes, airing at 4:00 p.m. Eastern (3:00 p.m. Central), running 25 minutes due to a five-minute newscast slot.

In the early 1970s, CBS vice president Fred Silverman began overhauling the network's programming as part of what has colloquially become known as the rural purge.

In the summer of 1973, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman took a similar approach in adapting The Match Game by reworking the show, moving it to Los Angeles, adding more celebrities, and increasing the amount of prize money that could be won.

The first week's panelists were Dawson, Michael Landon, Vicki Lawrence, Jack Klugman, Jo Ann Pflug, and Anita Gillette.

In addition, many of the frequent panelists on the early episodes were not regulars later in the series but had appeared on the 1960s version, including Klugman, Arlene Francis, and Bert Convy.

Soon, the tone of Rayburn's questions changed notably, leaving behind the staid topics that The Match Game had first disposed of in 1963 for more risqué humor.

Celebrity panelists also included personalities from other Goodson–Todman-produced game shows, such as The Price Is Right's Bob Barker, Anitra Ford, Janice Pennington, and Holly Hallstrom and Password's Allen Ludden.

Comedy writer Dick DeBartolo (who stayed in New York), who had participated in the 1960s Match Game, contributed broader and saucier questions.

On Match Game PM, or on the syndicated daytime show if time was running short, a time-saving variant of the tiebreaker that reversed the gameplay was used.

On Friday episodes that ran short, during the first season, a game was played with audience members for a small cash prize, usually $50.

The addition of the Star Wheel ended what effectively was Dawson's "spotlight" feature on the show, which distressed him further, and he left the panel of Match Game permanently a few weeks later.

Charles Nelson Reilly swapped out the "78" portion of the sign and installed the new "79" on-air, to the playing of "Auld Lang Syne" and wished the audience a happy new year.

The series, sold to many ABC affiliates (including the network's owned and operated stations such as WABC-TV in New York), was produced by Goodson–Todman and distributed by Jim Victory Television, G-T's syndication partner for Concentration.

For its last two seasons, the show's affiliate count went down significantly due in large part to a daily syndicated version that debuted in September 1979, although some markets kept both shows on the air–in New York, WCBS-TV ran the daily syndicated version as WABC-TV continued to air episodes of Match Game PM into its final season.

For the first two seasons Bill Daily, Dick Martin, Richard Paul, and Bob Barker were among the male semi-regulars who filled Dawson's old spot on the panel.

After CBS canceled Match Game 79, the network moved the long-running soap opera Love of Life into the vacant time slot.

Played similarly to the Super Match, four answers to a statement were secretly shown to the contestants (e.g., "_____, New Jersey", with the choices of "Atlantic City", "Hoboken", "Newark" and "Trenton").

After the choices were made, the last celebrity who played Final Match-Up was told which answers the contestants selected and was then asked to choose one of them.

Lake used the same signature long-thin Sony ECM-51 telescoping microphone Rayburn used during the CBS version, and the set was rebuilt to be almost an exact match of that used from 1973 to 1978.

A Canadian revival of Match Game debuted on March 5, 2010, as Atomes crochus, a Québécois version on V, with Alexandre Barrette as host and produced by Zone 3, in association with FremantleMedia North America.

A coinciding English-language version debuted on The Comedy Network October 15, 2012 and was hosted by Darrin Rose, with Seán Cullen and Debra DiGiovanni as permanent panelists.

The third round is called match-up!, with each contestant given 45 seconds to match/his her chosen celebrity partner, and successful matches are again worth 50 points (100 starting in season 2).

On December 25, 2012, an episode of the 1998 version along with a Bert Convy pilot aired on GSN for the first time as part of a Match Game marathon.

[35] On November 26, 2006, GSN aired an hour-long documentary titled The Real Match Game Story: Behind The Blank, narrated by Jamie Farr.

GSN offered a version called Match Game: Interactive on its own website that allowed users to play along with the show while watching.

The game features caricatures of Jimmie Walker, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Morgan Fairchild (even though she has never appeared on any incarnations of the show itself), Rip Taylor and Vicki Lawrence as the panel and Gene Rayburn as the host.