TV & VIDEO - Dec. 27, 1988

It had to happen eventually: “Family Feud” meets telephone polling. MGM/UA Telecommunications has announced the creation of “Hotline,” what the company is calling the first game show to wed 900-area code call-in participation and a lottery-style system of prize disbursement. “Hotline” will allow the viewer at home to answer questions asked on the show using a touch-tone telephone as a sort of in-home buzzer. When answering the questions, callers will also be polled on a number of other questions--which responses, in turn, will be used for the following week’s shows. The show, to be fully unveiled in January, was developed by two separate production companies, one of which is headed by ex-CBS News president Van Gordon Sauter.