[Brekkie]

But yes, nobody watched Strike It Lucky for the set, and it could probably be argued nobody watched it for the gameplay either, because the format's wafer thin and the only saving grace was the host milking any comedic value out of anything that happened.

Yes - that episode posted earlier shows that with nearly half the episode being the contestant introduction, and even the strange intro not from the episode recording itself but Barrymore introducing it telling us to watch for the special contestants, then a hard cut to them being introduced.