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Introduction to Pat Shingleton's 1980s WBRZ game show
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BATON ROUGE – To celebrate Pat Shingleton’s retirement from the WBRZ weather team this week, a rarely seen episode of his (locally) infamous TV game show We Play Baton Rouge will be rebroadcast unedited at 10:35 Friday night during the hour-long late news on WBRZ Plus.
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We Play Baton Rouge will be seen at 10:35 on WBRZ Plus with more broadcasts throughout the night on the same channel.
We Play Baton Rouge was a game show produced by Shingleton when he returned to Baton Rouge and started working for WBRZ in the early 1980s. The show featured contestants from similar groups based usually on their careers. Contestants had to answer a series of questions to win local prizes such as weekend getaways and even cars provided by local car dealers.
“It was a game show in your backyard from people who may be in your backyard,” Pat Shingleton said in an interview ahead of the rebroadcast.
“It was a ratings buster,” Shingleton said and thinks it may have been canceled because it became too popular. In reality, though, he had more pressing duties as head of the station’s weather department.
WBRZ and Pat Shingleton produced 111 episodes. In all, about 200 contestants were featured from 1982 to 1984. Four episodes were taped during day-long productions on Saturdays.
Pat Shingleton will retire from presenting the forecast nightly on WBRZ in a special 6 o’clock newscast on Friday evening. He will remain with WBRZ as a community spokesperson, handling community events and fundraisers on behalf of WBRZ and local owners, the Manship family.
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