Prime-Time Lottery Spinoff Set for TV

The California lottery will hit the television screens this fall with a weekly half-hour, prime-time show that will be produced by a special network of TV stations at no cost to the state.

The show, probably to be called “California Jackpot,” will feature 10 people vying to become millionaires by spinning a huge 100-slot wheel.

Plans call for the show to be aired from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

California will be only the second state in the nation, along with Maryland, to have its lottery jackpot show produced free of charge by stations hoping to recoup their costs by additional advertising revenues. Some states pay as much as $200,000 a year to television stations to air their shows.

The format of the state’s new venture into prime-time television was approved Wednesday by the state Lottery Commission.

There was no decision Wednesday on which stations will carry the lottery show. Commission officials are expected to select the stations within a week from among four groups of broadcasters bidding for the program. The show could be a major money maker for local stations, which presumably could sell advertising time before and after the program. Los Angeles-area stations are involved in each of the four network groups bidding for the program.

The show will begin approximately two weeks after the start of the long-stalled lottery.

Lottery Director M. Mark Michalko branded as false published reports of a possible Sept. 27 starting date for the lottery.

“There’s been absolutely no decision made about that. . . . There are still too many variables,” Michalko said. “I’m still sticking to my late September-early October prediction.”

Stars of the new television extravaganza will be people who have beaten two sets of great odds.

To begin with, only $100 winners in the instant “scratch-off” games will be eligible--and the odds of being a $100 winner are 100,020 in 400,080,000.

About 6,000 weekly $100 winners will then have their names placed in a huge drum, from which 10 names will be drawn. Those 10 will then get a chance--on television--to spin for prizes ranging from $10,000 to $3 million during the first weeks of the lottery.

In other developments Wednesday, two lottery commissioners, Howard Varner and Kennard Webster, said they would no longer vote on matters involving lottery ticket retailers on advice from the Fair Political Practices Commission. Both commissioners own stock in companies that may be selected to sell lottery tickets.