From Quacks to the Small Screen: CMYK Launching CBS Game Show ‘The Perfect Line’ Based on Warsch Design

Get ready for a new kind of game night! CMYK, the innovative publisher known for bringing us tabletop hits like The Quacks of Quedlinberg and the mind-bending party game Wavelength, is making an exciting leap from the game table to the television screen. They’re launching a brand new game show, “The Perfect Line,” set to premiere on CBS later this year!

Hosted by Deborah Norville of Inside Edition fame, the show is already making waves, having been sold to broadcast stations covering an impressive 90% of the United States.

Inspired by a Tabletop Illusion

Fans of clever board game mechanics might recognize the spark behind the show. The Perfect Line draws inspiration from “Illusion,” a 2018 design by the acclaimed game designer Wolfgang Warsch (the mind behind Quacks and The Mind).

Interestingly, CMYK is doubling down on this concept by also re-releasing Illusion under the new name “Figment” this year. The core idea translates to television by challenging contestants to test their pop culture knowledge, tasking them with arranging various items into a perfectly precise lineup to win cash prizes.

Game Shows vs. Board Games: A Different Beast

Adapting game concepts for television presents unique challenges. “Gameshows are hard!” Hague admitted. “You need to capture someone’s attention even faster and ideally have a concept that’s able to be understood even with the sound off.” He also noted the difference in development tools, saying, “you don’t have the usual prototyping tools available to you, since the format is so different.”

CMYK’s Track Record of Fun

CMYK is no stranger to creating engaging and successful games. They first gained significant attention with the party game Monikers in 2015, followed by the breakout success of Wavelength in 2019, which has sold over a million copies physically and boasts four million digital app downloads.

It’s always exciting to see creative minds from the tabletop world branch out into new mediums. Keep an eye out for “The Perfect Line” premiering on CBS later in 2025 – it sounds like a perfectly intriguing concept!