Feature Story
Age-old dinner table debates return to TV screens this summer in the form of a long-awaited game show revival.The next generation of trivia competition series “Generation Gap” premieres Thursday, July 7, on ABC, more than five decades since the original series aired on the network in 1969.
As the title suggests, team members of different generations compete together to correctly answer trivia questions from each other's generation. Three teams of senior and junior pairs battle it out to see just how much knowledge has been passed down, up and across the years.
In a score for the series, “Generation Gap” calls longtime “Live With Kelly and Ryan” anchor Kelly Ripa its host, having announced that the daytime talk show host had joined the production in April of this year. It's a family affair for Ripa as her husband and former “All My Children” co-star, Mark Consuelos, joins her as an executive producer of the series.
The long-anticipated comedy quiz show has been in development at ABC for almost three years, helmed by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host Jimmy Kimmel and the creator behind everyone's favorite competition shows such as “Survivor” and “Beat Shazam,” Mark Burnett. Inspired by the “Generation Gap” game show segments on his late-night show, it was announced in 2019 that Kimmel's production company, Kimmelot, had partnered with MGM Television, of which Burnett is chairman, to bring the trivia game to prime time.
For Kimmel's late-night segments, two contestants are asked about things like video games, board games, famous quotes and pop-culture figures. In one 2018 generational faceoff for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” 91-year-old greatgrandmother Jo came up short trying to recognize Minecraft, Pennywise from Stephen King's It franchise and Grammy winner Cardi B. Her 14-year-old competitor Travers, making his first appearance sans-braces, kept his winning streak going with his third win in a row by correctly answering Jo's missed questions and getting 10 points for knowing what a backgammon set is.
The original series tested its teenage contestants on things like slang that had gone out of style and musicians from the 1940s, while its older generation of competitors was quizzed on current fashion and folk singer/ songwriters.
There's a good chance by now that the 1969 “Generation Gap” younger generation's common knowledge of bell-bottom jeans and Arlo Guthrie's “Alice's Restaurant” may not even be included among the current older generation's-knowledgebase, but it may have been in the last iteration of the series that aired on Canada's children's network, YTV, in 1989.
Turning knowledge gaps between the generations into a competitive game is a common concept, and beyond the YTV version of “Generation Gap,” the format has been reproduced by other names over the years. “Trivia Trap,” which aired on ABC for one season in 1985, pit two teams of three, either over or under 30 years old, against each other in a trivia battle for a $10,000 prize. VH1's “My Generation,” meanwhile, put a musical twist on the generational quiz show and aired for one season in 1998.
According to an ABC news release, the 2022 reboot of “Generation Gap” will pair “grandparents and grandkids,” widening the age gap between the seniors and juniors by much more than in previous versions of the series to make scoring points that much more challenging.
With a slate of summer competition series returning and premiering on the network, “Generation Gap” makes its home among proven hits and exciting new series. The rebooted classic “Press Your Luck” leads into “Generation Gap” and is joined by returning shows “Celebrity Family Feud” and “The $100,000 Pyramid” this summer on ABC. New game shows being welcomed to the network alongside “Generation Gap” are “Claim to Fame” and “The Final Straw.”
Brand-new competition series “Claim to Fame” offers a twist on the “Big Brother” model as it features a house of strangers living together and keeping a wide array of secrets. That said, there is one secret they all share: they are relatives of bigname celebrities. Celebrity siblings Frankie and Kevin Jonas (“Jonas”) host and watch from afar as contestants try to outlast each other and win the $100,000 prize.
The wackiest new competition series to land on ABC has got to be “The Final Straw,” in which contestants try to pull everyday objects from Jenga-like towering piles. Hosted by “Abbott Elementary” standout Janelle James, the series boasts a “life-changing grand prize” to be awarded to the team that is able to beat out its competitors and take on the final Mega Stack.