Hot Streak

Hot Streak was an Australian game show that aired weekday afternoons on the Seven Network during 1998, with James O'Neil as host. The program was adapted from a short-lived 1986 American format, Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. In each episode, two teams of five—one all-male, one all-female—faced off in a word-association contest styled as a battle of the sexes, competing for a top prize of $50,000. The series replaced the game show Concentration in its time slot.

During the first two rounds of the Australian version, each correct word transition along the line earned $5; in the third round, each transition was worth $10. In later episodes, the first three rounds paid $5 per transition, and the fourth round paid $15. The winning team then played a bonus game identical to the American version: each correct word on the first subject was worth the same amount accumulated earlier. The round-one winnings were multiplied by the number of correct words in part two, and if the team succeeded in part three, that total was multiplied by five. Teams that won five consecutive championships played only one subject for the full $50,000.

Hot Streak was cancelled in November 1998 after its first year on air, due to lower-than-expected ratings.

In a negative review for The Sydney Morning Herald, columnist Tony Squires compared the show to the Ten network's Battle of the Sexes, writing: "One thing is certain—it's far more compelling than Hot Streak on Seven, where teams of men and women play the same parlour game over and over again. It's worth watching, though, if only to hear the host try to explain the 'second chance' rule, where losers get to come back and lose some more. Oh, it's also worth checking out the dancing when contestants don the headphones so they can't hear what's happening in the studio."