Bert Convy was originally supposed to host, but got sick before production began, so they brought in Ross Shafer. I agree that he lacks a certain spark -- I never cared for him when he was host of "The Late Show" on Fox, either.
It didn't help that the celebrities weren't as strong on this version as they were on the earlier one -- ABC tended to use it as a promotional platform for their soap stars, a lot of whom had no business being on a show like this.
The noon timeslot/low clearances certainly didn't help matters either, but I have my doubts about whether this would have succeeded even in a better time period.
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