Title: We’re Surrounded!
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a well-known children’s show.
Answer: BLUE’S CLUES
Correct entries: 385

Five theme entries last week:

17-A: [6-0 winners over the San Francisco Giants yesterday] = OAKLAND A’S
25-A: [Jazz singer who chose her surname because it’s Pig Latin for a synonym for “money”] = ANITA O’DAY
39-A: [Show with Conrad Bain and Gary Coleman] = DIFF’RENT STROKES
53-A: [Peaceful transfer of power — not!] = COUP D’ETAT
66-A: [Cheesy Tom Jones hit] = SHE’S A LADY

Each of these contains an apostrophe; taking a hint from the title, check out the letters surrounding the apostrophes:

A S
O D
F R
D E
E S

Oh the irony! You are always replacing letters, sinister apostrophe, and now it is a letter that will replace YOU! BWAHAHAHA! Namely, find a three-letter word in the fill that uses the two letters surrounding the apostrophes:

ABS
OLD
FUR
DEE
ESS

That spells BLUE’S (note apostrophe!), so you might consider these words to be “Blue’s Clues” which is our contest answer. The “clues” part is a little tenuous there; I don’t think anyone missed it because of the looser-than-usual connection, but it did cause a little uncertainty. Joon and a few others had the idea of putting ACS somewhere in the grid, which would’ve verified the meta answer nicely. Wish I had thought of it!

Karen S writes:

I can’t believe I almost didn’t get this one. My younger son was a HUGE Blue’s Clues fan almost 20 years ago. Brought back good memories of how he’d carry that little notebook around and make unintelligible commentary. Now he’s looking at grad schools!

Little detective! Cute.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a 10-letter word I hope you’ve heard of.