Bob Stewart pitched CBS executives on his brilliant new game show idea: "Let's get six random Americans to shout increasingly panicked word clues at each other while Dick Clark watches." Somehow they bought it, and "Pyramid" joined TV's cash-flinging game show titans of 1973. But just how much money would make someone yell random categories at complete strangers?
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The answer is: $10,000
The very first "Pyramid" gave away $10,000 in cold, hard cash. This wasn't just pocket change. We're talking about a prize that nearly matched the average American's yearly salary in 1973. CBS executives balked at offering that much money for a daytime game show where people shouted things like "You put it on bread!" at each other.
Dick Clark, already the king of American Bandstand, had to convince them that 10 grand was the sweet spot. The show's format helped ease their anxiety. Contestants had to win multiple games just to get a shot at the big money. Plus, they could only try for it once per week.
The gamble paid off so spectacularly that "Pyramid" kept raising the stakes. Each time it switched networks or landed a prime time slot, that number in the title grew larger: $20,000, $25,000, eventually reaching $100,000. But those first contestants who climbed to the top of that $10,000 peak made television history, one frantic word clue at a time.
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