People on ABC (Jayverse)

People on ABC (a.k.a People as you can see on the right side column of this page) was a game show devoted to & sponsored by People Magazine when it aired on ABC from 1991 to 1992. Players answered questions related to celebrities.

Personnel

Host: Jimmy Cefalo

Announcers

1990 (Pilot): Chuck Riley

1991-1992: Ernie Anderson

Gameplay

Round 1: Cover Stories

The first round started with a tossup question. The players were shown a People cover, but with the celebrity picture all covered in red. Jimmy would read a question about the celebrity on the cover while the picture slowly faded into view. The first player to buzz-in and correctly identify the celebrity won $100. Then, Jimmy read a People story on the cover story subject. At some point, Jimmy would read a sentence with a missing word and the contestants had to fill in that blank with the correct keyword. Four missing keywords were played for an additional $100 each. There were three sets of these "Cover Stories" questions.

Round 2: Star Tracks

In this round, three celebrities were displayed on the video wall. This round was based on the "Six Degrees of Separation" theory. Each player (starting with the trailing player) picked a celebrity and was asked a series of questions which connected one star to another star or a group of stars. Before each question, a clip featuring the star in question was played. Questions were still worth $100. The player in control continued to answer questions until either the "star track" was complete or he/she failed to answer a question. On a miss, the other players could jump in and steal the $100 and control. If nobody answered the question correctly, the next question became a toss-up. Each "star track" consisted of five celebrities.

Side Questions

At the end of each of the first two rounds, special questions were asked. The first was a "Flashback" question, where pictures of a celebrity from their past were shown. The second was a "Chatter" question where the players had to identify the celebrity from a choice of three by a statement he/she made. Each of the contestants in secret wrote down their answers on cards. When the show returned from a commercial break, the players revealed their answers and those who wrote the correct answer picked up another $100.

Round 3: Page by Page

The final round was a speed round called "Page By Page," where there were three minutes of rapid fire questions. Question values increased every minute throughout the round. In the first minute, correct answers were worth $100, $200 in the second, and $300 in the third. The player with the most money at the end of this round went on to the bonus game.

Going into this final commercial break, "Tribute", one of those feel-good stories you see towards the back of the magazine was profiled.

Bonus Round: Famous Faces

In the bonus game, the winning player was shown three celebrities, and was given a fact about one of them. The player would then pick the face who matched the given fact. After each question (whether it was answered right or wrong) a new face would replaced the one with the given fact. Making six matches in 60 seconds won an additional $10,000. An equal match of money was also donated to the subject of the "Tribute" story told before the last commercial break.

Trivia

ABC picked up People: The Game Show as a Spring Replacement for Big Break in which the show will return in September.