Supermarket Sweep is an American television game show. Teams of contestants answer trivia questions before competing in a timed race to gather grocery items from the aisles of a supermarket. The original show was broadcast on ABC from December 20, 1965 to July 14, 1967. Later seasons aired on Lifetime from February 5, 1990 to June 16, 1995 (with reruns until August 14, 1998, and on PAX from April 5, 1999 to March 31, 2000), and later on PAX from April 3, 2000 to May 23, 2003, with reruns airing until March 26, 2004. Another version of the show aired from October 18, 2020 to January 30, 2022, also on ABC.
The 1960s Supermarket Sweep was broadcast from Food Fair supermarkets, mostly around New York City. For the Lifetime version, a mock supermarket was created at Hollywood Center Studios. It was modeled after a Hughes Family Market (which was later merged into the Ralphs chain in 1998). The PAX version was taped at Santa Clarita Studios in Santa Clarita, California. Beginning on November 20, 2000, the show moved to NBC Studios, with that series' set modeled after a Unified Western Market. The 2020 version was filmed at the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport.
The host for the 1960s version was Bill Malone. The announcers were Wally King from 1965 to 1966 and Richard Hayes from 1966 to 1967. The host for the Lifetime and PAX versions was David Ruprecht. The announcer was Johnny Gilbert from 1990 to 1995 and again from April to June 2000, with Randy West taking over for Gilbert in July 2000 and continuing for the rest of the series. The 2020 version was hosted by Leslie Jones and announced by Tahir Moore.
Gameplay 1965–67 Three teams competed. Each team began with a base time of 1 minute and 30 seconds. In the first round of the game, one contestant from each team was shown a grocery item and asked to guess its retail price. The team who came the closest won the item and an additional 15 seconds were added to their time. Four items were shown.
In the second round of the game, the contestant from each team who did not play the first round went on a shopping spree through the market, using the time accumulated. Bonus items worth $10 to $100 were also spread throughout the store. All teams kept every item they picked up, with the team with the highest total in groceries, bonus prizes and other items winning the right to return to the show and play in the next game. Teams remained on the show until they were defeated or until they reached the winnings cap of $20,000.
1990–2003, 2020–22
The gameplay of the Lifetime/PAX version of Supermarket Sweep consisted of three segments: the question round, the Big Sweep, and the Bonus Sweep. The game was played between three teams of two related individuals, such as a parent and child, spouses, siblings, or best friends, initially called to play by an object they were holding. Three new pairs of contestants appeared in each episode. Some contestants on earlier episodes later appeared in various tournaments.
The 2020 format largely mirrored the format from 1990. Each hour-long episode consisted of two complete games, with three new teams per game.
Question rounds Similar to the original version, all three teams started with a base time of one minute and 30 seconds. In 2020, the base time was increased to two minutes. Through a series of three rounds, contestants were asked a series of questions, usually centered around knowledge of products found in a grocery store. Each correct answer added 10 seconds to a team's time bank. The first two question rounds were played by one team member, with team members swapping positions after the first round. Questions included identifying a product that was missing letters, determining the brand of a product via an edited picture, and identifying a product based on a series of facts. Occasionally, questions centered around pop culture, movies, or stories found in checkstand tabloids.
Other questions centered around identifying the price of an item. This was accomplished in several different ways; two popular methods included determining which item in a set of three did not fit the designated criteria (e.g. ± $3), or which item was incorrectly priced. A mainstay in the second round gave contestants the opportunity to add 30 seconds to their time banks if all three contestants gave the correct answer.
Occasionally, the second question round was replaced with one of the following games:
"30-Second Shootout"Each team played this round individually. One member was given a list of words and had 30 seconds to get their partner to say as many of them as possible. The first letters of these words spelled out a brand or product name; if the partner could guess it, the team received 30 seconds of Sweep time. If the clue-giver said one of the target words, the team forfeited their turn. A variant of this game required one member to describe three particular brand names for their partner to guess (with their logos shown on-screen), with 10 seconds awarded for each correct solution. "Snack Attack Movie Game"Three questions about movies worth 10 seconds each were asked. The contestant who answered the last of the three questions correctly earned the right to take a taste test of a food item in the market, correctly identifying the item earned that team a $50 bonus for the Big Sweep. If the contestant guessed right on a second chance (multiple choice at that point, and consisting of a maximum three choices), that team earned $25. On some episodes, the question related to the item only had two choices and only the correct choice earned the $50 bonus.
The final round was the "Round Robin" game, in which the members of each team alternated turns buzzing in to answer questions (typically six altogether) that awarded 10 seconds apiece. For the Lifetime and PAX versions, the most common format featured a brand or product name that had its letters scrambled. The emcee would then offer a maximum of three clues to help contestants zero in on the correct answer. On some episodes of the Lifetime version, an alternate format was used that omitted the word scramble; instead, the host would offer five clues. The 2020 version used the same pool of mini-games for the Round Robin as the previous two rounds.
Mini-Sweep Beginning in 1991, a Mini-Sweep was played at the beginning of the first round. A toss-up question (usually a rhyming couplet) was asked with a particular product as the answer. The team that correctly answered the question earned 10 seconds, as well as a chance for one team member to run into the market to retrieve a package of that product marked with the show's logo. If the product was returned within 30 seconds, the team won $50 towards their Sweep total. The team won no bonus if the runner failed to find the marked package, returned it after time ran out, or returned an incorrect item or unmarked package. Originally, contestants were only required to bring back any one package of the item in question.
In 1992, the bonus was doubled to $100 if the product was brought back within 20 seconds. In 1993, a second Mini-Sweep was added at the beginning of the second round. This was later discontinued as a regular feature but occasionally was used during special weeks on the PAX version.
In the 2020 version, the Mini-Sweep consisted of a clue read to all three teams. Instead of buzzing-in, the teams discussed the clue and each sent one member into the market to find the correct item. The first person to bring it back won $250 and 10 seconds for their team.
Big Sweep The "Big Sweep" was the chance for the teams to run throughout the supermarket and take products from the shelves with the seconds they had earned in the front game. One contestant from each team was designated as the "runner," with the job of collecting items in a shopping cart, and the teams were assigned numbers based on their accumulated time: 1 for the most, 2 for the second-most, 3 for the least.
The clock for the Big Sweep was set to the leading team's time, and it started when Team 1 was sent into the market. Teams 2 and 3 were sent in when the clock displayed their respective times. If any of the teams were tied, they were sent into the market at the same time.
A camera operator would follow each shopper throughout the Big Sweep. In each finished episode, the footage was spliced together to create one near-real-time highlight reel, and the announcer would add a play-by-play commentary to the reel, describing the items being placed in each contestant's cart.
At any time, runners could bring full carts back to their partners' checkout counters and exchange them for empty ones. With the exception of certain bonuses, items had to be in a team's cart (either the runner's current one, or a full one already delivered to the checkout) when time ran out in order to count toward their total.
The three main rules for the Big Sweep were: Each runner could take no more than five of any one item. If an item was knocked off a shelf or otherwise upset or damaged, the runner who did so either had to replace the item on the shelf, put it in their cart, or take a $25 penalty for each item. Teams were also penalized $100 for running into supermarket displays, cameramen or any other personnel, including opponents. Only the runners could be in the market; their partners were required to remain at the checkout counter behind a red restraining line and unload the groceries. The partners could cross the line only with permission from the producers, typically to pick up a dropped item or bonus or to take part in a bonus activity that required their participation.
The five-item limit was absent in the original ABC version of the show, but was added to prevent a team from overloading their carts with expensive items, such as poultry, laundry detergent or over-the-counter drugs.
During most episodes of the first season, costumed characters such as Frankenstein's monster, a gorilla, or a creature named Mr. Yuck ran through the aisles during the Sweep. If the character came near a contestant or vice versa, the contestant had to turn around and go in the other direction. If the contestant's cart hit the character, a penalty was also imposed. The characters were later dropped.
A variety of opportunities to earn additional cash were available during the Big Sweep. The one constant throughout the entire run of the second series was a group of giant "bonus" items (these included stuffed animals, advertising signs and inflatable displays of products) placed throughout the market in plain sight. Attached to each of these items was a peel-off sticker that concealed a value of either $50, $100 or $200. In 1993, a fourth bonus value ($250, dubbed the "Super Bonus") was added. Episodes of the Twin Car Giveaway tournament that took place in 1994 had a $300 bonus (dubbed the "Super Super Bonus"), replacing the $50 bonus. Each runner could take only one bonus, and its value was added to the team's total only if it was returned to the checkout counter before time ran out.
Later in the Lifetime series, Supermarket Sweep began employing more ways for the teams to build up their sweep totals. The first such method employed was called the Shopping List, where teams could earn an extra $250 for bringing three (originally four) specific grocery items back during the course of the Big Sweep ($500 in the 2020 version). Over the years, more variations on that theme would be used; for instance, the teams might be asked to fulfill a bread order or retrieve magazines.
Other ways for teams to earn money included: Searching through a bin of canned goods to find a marked can of a specific brand, or a cart of random products to find a red-tagged product, announced by Ruprecht during the Big Sweep Finding a mystery product or movie, with the help of clues given by Ruprecht or a set of monitors in the aisles Retrieving a bag of empty cans for the partner to stack or crush