Editing The Gong Show (section)

===Syndication (1976–80)===
Immediately after taping the final NBC episode, Barris was evicted from NBC's Burbank studios and  ''The Gong Show'' set was moved to the studios of [[Golden West Broadcasters]] (now [[Sunset Bronson Studios]]) in Hollywood. Production of the syndicated nighttime/weekend version of ''The Gong Show'' continued there for two years. The entire syndicated run from September 1976 to September 1980 was distributed by Firestone Program Services. While the series eventually met its demise in syndication as it had on NBC, according to Barris, the problem did not lie with any outrageous acts, but instead the controversy and public outcry over another series he had produced.

In September 1979, Barris launched the game show ''[[Three's a Crowd (game show)|Three's a Crowd]]'', which was a spin-off of ''The Newlywed Game''. Instead of recently married couples trying to match answers, the wives and secretaries of married men would compete to show who knew the men better. Religious activists and feminist groups protested against ''Three's a Crowd'' and its ratings eventually forced the show's cancellation during the middle of the season.

In Barris's autobiography ''The Game Show King'', he wrote that "the public backlash from ''Three's a Crowd'' not only caused the program to be canceled, but it took three other TV shows of mine with it. I went to my house in Malibu and stayed there for a year." ''Gong'' was one of those shows to be canceled, and Barris never hosted another series. The trauma from the ''Three's a Crowd's'' backlash was so severe, in the last several weeks of the ''Gong Show'', Barris reportedly had "a small nervous breakdown" on-air, because he was "bored to death" with broadcasting.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.yahoo.com/music/chuck-barris-wacky-host-creator-gong-show-dies-050605615.html|title=Chuck Barris, Wacky Host and Creator of 'The Gong Show,' Dies at 87|date=22 March 2017 }}</ref> His next two series, revivals of the 1960s game show ''Camouflage'' (the replacement for ''Three's a Crowd'') and his 1973–77 series ''[[Treasure Hunt (U.S. game show)|Treasure Hunt]]'' (of which Barris had very little to zero involvement, according to host [[Geoff Edwards]]), both failed to find audiences and Barris went further into his self-imposed exile from television. Barris would not have another hit series until the 1985 syndication revival of ''The Newlywed Game''.

Reruns of the NBC shows began in syndication during the autumn of 1979. In the 1980s, the NBC and syndicated episodes were rerun on the [[USA Network]] and later, the [[Game Show Network]], although by the time GSN picked up the series, many episodes had to be edited or were not broadcast due to musical performance clearance issues. No episodes from the first syndicated season, hosted by [[Gary Owens]], were rerun.