The Better Sex was a television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 game show

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 where men competed against women in a "battle of the sexes" format. The Mark Goodson

Mark Goodson

Mark Goodson was an American television producer who specialized in game shows.-Life and early career:...

-Bill Todman

Bill Todman

William S. "Bill" Todman was an American television producer born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest running shows with business partner Mark Goodson.-Early life:...

 production ran on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 from July 18, 1977 to January 13, 1978. The show had two hosts, one male and one female; each one acted as a leader to the team of the appropriate sex. The male host was country music singer Bill Anderson, and the female host was Sarah Purcell

Sarah Purcell

Sarah Purcell is an American former talk show host, game show host, and panelist.She was co-host of The Better Sex , Real People , America , and The Home Show , and made guest appearances on several TV dramas. She also co-starred in the 1981 film Terror Among Us with Tracy Reed...

. Gene Wood

Gene Wood

Eugene Edward "Gene" Wood was an American television personality, known primarily for his work as an announcer on various game shows. From the 1960s to the 1990s, he announced many game shows, primarily Mark Goodson–Bill Todman productions such as Family Feud, Card Sharks, Password, and Beat the...

 was the announcer.

Gameplay

The show pitted two teams of six men and six women in a battle-of-the-sexes elimination game. One member of the team in control was asked a question, either general-knowledge or survey. The contestant was then handed a card which contained the correct answer and a bluff answer. The player's job was to choose which answer to use to try to fool the opposing team/sex. After the contestant made his/her choice, up to three members of the other team decided to either agree or disagree on the answer. Only two could agree or disagree and once they did, the correct answer was then revealed. If the two players made an incorrect judgment, they were knocked out of the game. If they made a correct judgment, they stayed in the game, the player offering the answer was knocked out along with a teammate of the opposing team's choice; additionally, that team took control of the next question.

When a team was down to two players and could not agree whether an answer was correct or a bluff, the second player was given a chance to convince the first that he or she was correct. If they still disagreed with each other, the answer given by the first of the two players was taken.

The first team to eliminate the other team won the game, $1,000 and a chance to play for $5,000 in the bonus game.

Bonus game

In the bonus game, the winning team faced 30 members of the opposite sex in the studio audience. One at a time, each team member was asked a question, then was handed a card which showed the correct answer only. The contestant could use that answer or come up with a bluff of his or her own. After the player gave an answer, the audience members then voted to agree or disagree on the answer. Each audience member held a paddle-shaped electronic device which displayed their choice. The correct answer was revealed, and any audience members who voted wrong were eliminated and sat down.

Play continued until all six questions were played. If any audience members were left standing, the team lost and the audience survivors split $500. However, if all 30 audience members were knocked out in six questions or less, the winning team split $5,000.

Teams stayed on the show until they lost twice.

Broadcast History

Like most shows that aired at 12:00 noon EST, some affiliates did not carry the show. It aired opposite CBS' The Young and The Restless

The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...

and NBC's To Say The Least

To Say the Least

To Say the Least is an American game show that aired on NBC from October 3, 1977 to April 21, 1978. The show was produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions, hosted by Tom Kennedy and announced by Kenny Williams...

. When both One Life To Live

One Life to Live

One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...

and General Hospital

General Hospital

General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....

expanded from 45 minutes to an hour, the series was cancelled, and The $20,000 Pyramid took over the time slot.