‘Supermarket Sweep’ returns to fulfill my childhood dreams

I don’t know what you felt made up an amazing weekend night during your preteen years, but for young Carolyn Menyes, it meant sitting on the couch with my parents and dog and settling in for a solid few hours of local cable television. In the greater Cleveland area, that meant a high school academic challenge show, the state lottery game show, and the best program of them all: Supermarket Sweep. Yes, Supermarket Sweep, that wonderful relic of the ‘90s, a game show in which teams of two wore bulky sweatshirts, sang commercial jingles, and threw giant hams and mops into grocery carts. It was pretty much my favorite TV show and one I dreamed of being on more than any other.

You see, my mom and I have always thought we’d make the ultimate Supermarket Sweep duo. She’s great at fill-in-the-blank puzzles, and I’m great at pop culture trivia. And we both decided that I would be the one to run through the aisles and do the Big Sweep. I even had a strategy: I would shop the perimeter of the store and get those legs of lamb and wheels of imported cheeses because, yes, that is fun, but I’d do the bulk of my shopping in the medicine aisle. Tylenol is expensive, y’all!

But, alas, I was never going to be able to fulfill my dreams and have the ultimate bonding experience with Mama Menyes because Supermarket Sweep was cancelled in 2003, when I was just 12 years old and far too young to actually compete. My dreams were basically crushed, and frankly don’t think I’ve been the same person since that dark mid-2000s day.

But then, last week, I felt an unexplained shift in the atmosphere. I walked a little lighter, I was a little happier than average. And then I scrolled through Twitter and found out why: Supermarket Sweep is coming back! Yes, last week, Deadline reported that FremantleMedia is bringing back the game show with a few updates for the 2010s. I immediately texted my mother, and we agreed, we’ll be doing our darnedest to get on that show. So until further details about Supermarket Sweep are announced, I’ll just be over here learning about the most overpriced items at my grocery store and planning my Big Sweep accordingly.

Carolyn Menyes is the entertain and holidays editor at The Daily Meal. She was really, really cool and popular in high school. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.