Lyons' television show was popular enough to have a three year waiting period for studio audience tickets.
The show was also a powerful outlet for advertisers; potential sponsors had a one year waiting period before there were openings for their commercials to be able to be scheduled. The mention of a product name on the program meant stores would quickly be sold out of the item.
The show was a combination of music and chatter broadcast from Cincinnati, Ohio.
"The 50 Club" was renamed "The 50/50 Club" when the audience was expanded to 100 people in 1953. It was expanded from its original hour to ninety minutes in length. The program visited the other cities it was seen in at least once a year so that local viewers could have the opportunity for tickets to see the show done live. Host Ruth Lyons television show was so popular that it had to have a three-year waiting period for studio audience tickets.
Ohio Governor C. William O'Neill served as master of ceremonies for Ruth Lyons Day in 1957. He and Lyons are seen at left. Lyons' daughter, Candy, program co-host, Bob Braun and husband, Herman Newman, are seen at right. Lyons is holding her trademark bouquet of flowers which concealed her microphone.
In 1957, Cincinnati's mayor, Charles Taft, proclaimed a "Ruth Lyons Day". The event, held at the city's Taft Theatre, was unable to provide seating for the 100,000 ticket requests it received. The show was the top rated daytime television program in the United States from 1952 to 1964 and the first program in the Cincinnati market to be broadcast in color in 1957.