Perfect Match (American game show)


Perfect Match is an American game show hosted by Bob Goen and announced by Johnny Gilbert, which aired from January 13 to September 12, 1986, in syndication. The game featured three married couples answering questions about their spouses to win money.
Perfect Match was Goen's first game show and the second game show to be distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures after Lorimar Productions purchased Telepictures in 1985. The show was also produced by XPTLA, Inc, whose show The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime launched one week before Perfect Match.
The Perfect Match had also been the name of an earlier TV game show, which aired in syndication in 1967-68 and featured a computer dating theme.
Perfect Match was sold to stations as a replacement for midseason cancellation Catch Phrase, which aired its final episode on January 10, 1986. According to Goen, despite good ratings, it was canceled because the show was too synonymous with The Newlywed Game.

Main Game

Three married couples attempted to match their spouse's answers to questions they had answered before the game. Each team began with a bankroll of $200. For each question, the spouse's answer to it was shown to the home viewers. Prior to giving an answer, the other spouse wagered an amount between $10 and their entire bankroll based on his or her ability to provide a matching response. Providing the same response added the wager to their bankroll but a non-matching response meant that their wager was deducted from the bankroll. Three questions were played.

Bonus Round

Each of the couples competed against each other by predicting how their spouses would write "love letters" to the other. These were written before the show. Each letter contained three missing words and/or phrases. The husbands read their letters first, and for each match the wives made, their team earned $100. The process was reversed and repeated with each match the husbands made worth $200.
The couple who had the most money at the end of the round won an additional $1,000; however, each couple kept any money earned throughout the game. If two or three couples were tied at the end of the game, the $1,000 was split between the tied couples and a three way did happen at least once. But if any couple matched all of the words in their love letters, they won a total of $5,000.