I've Got a Secret

1993 (Syndicated)

Don't get excited, this is a version that never happened.

In May 1992, the Carsey-Werner Company announced that they had acquired the rights to I've Got a Secret and were planning to launch a new syndicated version in the fall of 1993.  Carsey-Werner was best known for their sitcoms, which at the time included two massive hits of the 1980s, The Cosby Show and Roseanne.  They were in the process of creating a new version of You Bet Your Life starring Bill Cosby that would debut in the fall of 1992.  Most people assumed the acquisition of a second classic game show format would give them a show to pair with Cosby, though the company denied that they were planning to sell the two shows as a set.

As far as we've been able to locate, there were only two mentions of this version in the press:  The May 1992 announcement that Carsey-Werner was planning the show, and an unusual item from September 1992 which said that Larry King would NOT be its host.  Larry King Now on CNN was one of the biggest shows in cable television, and its host was an enormous star.  However, mogul Ted Turner, who owned CNN, TBS, TNT and other cable properties, had signed King to an exclusive contract. According to the brief press item, he turned the producers down flat when they asked for King to be released from it.  

After that, this proposed remake is never heard from again.  It's possible that when Cosby's version of You Bet Your Life failed to take off (it only aired a single season), the producers thought the market wasn't yet ready for another classic format.  Still, Carsey-Werner retained the rights, and finally got to launch their remake in 2000 on the new Oxygen cable channel.