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Merv Griffin and Program Partners, your work is great, but please for the sake of all that is good and holy change your name. Let’s Play Crosswords has changed its name to Let’s Do Crosswords. Yeah, this one isn’t really any better. I know we did this before, but any suggestions? Someone said CrossFire before, and I really enjoyed that one.

Quick post: NBC changed the date of the 100th episode of Deal or No Deal to Monday, May 7th, at 8PM ET to 9PM ET. The Lucky Case game will be played for $100,000.

Program Partners has today announced that Ty Treadway, formerly of One Life to Live and currently on SoapNet’s Soap Talk has been named the host of Merv Griffin’s new game show Let’s Play Crosswords. In endorsing his choice for host, Griffin stated: “Ty exudes the kind of energy that will keep audiences engaged and excited. We are looking towards a long and successful association.” Raymond J. Brune and Andrew Yani, co-heads of TV for MGE, will oversee the half-hour syndicated strip with Merv. Brennan Huntington will be the show runner and Robert W. Rang will design the set. Emmy Award-winner Tony Garofalo is consulting producer. Josh Raphaelson of Program Partners has said: “True to form, Merv has assembled an incredibly talented team behind Let’s Play Crosswords. We can’t wait to watch their artistry on the air.”  Let’s Play Crosswords debuts on syndication on September 10th, 2007.  Be sure to check your local listings as the time draws closer.  Doesn’t it feel nice to receive some actual information?

Some interesting occurances this week on “Deal or No Deal” around the world. Both of these clips have something in common. In order, these clips are from Thursday’s British Deal, and Tuesday’s Australian Deal.

[youtube GlcKYn5D56s]

Thanks to dond.co.uk for the British clip.

If you’re a fan of the NBC game show Identity I would be sure to watch it tonight at 8PM ET. It’s the finale, but whether it’s the season or series finale is yet to be seen. For some reason, I’m guessing it’s the series finale. The show hasn’t been lighting up the ratings. Hell, it has barely made a blip, and with the amount of huge winners they have it’s hardly as cheap as Deal or No Deal or 1 VS 100 now. Last week’s ratings sunk to a rather small total of 3.3/6. If I was Reveille, I’d reformat the show, lower the prize, and pitch it to someone as a daily show. They have a decent show hiding somewhere in here. It’s just hidden by the feeling that this show is Deal or No Deal with people. Any thoughts about anything regarding this show?

A good majority of the syndication debut dates for the new and returning game shows were released today, thanks to Mark Berman. Here are the shows debuting on Monday, September 10th:

Let’s Play Crosswords
Temptation
Wheel of Fortune
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Noticeably missing are Jeopardy! and Family Feud. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune generally debut on the same day, so I’d expect September 10th for that as well. However, for Feud, your guess is as good as mine. To my best knowledge there has been no 100% confirmation of renewal, although we are receiving rumors that they are looking at new places to tape next season, so don’t be completely surprised for a renewal there. We still don’t know a single thing about Crosswords, though, which is a bit strange. We should be receiving word of the host and more in the next few weeks, according to our friends at Program Partners. We’ve also heard some reports that things aren’t going that smoothly on the set of Temptation, so I’d cross your fingers.

We previously discussed some pilots CBS was going to shoot in this story. Another one of them is taping tomorrow. Craig Ferguson’s hybrid between a game show and an improv show, The Wizard will be taping Friday, April 27th, at 4PM, and they would love to have you. Visit the OCA site by clicking here and sign up for tickets. On The Wizard, two contestants will have to predict the outcome of improv games performed by Craig and others. The winner will receive a prize of their choice. I’m a huge fan and supporter of any Whose Line is it Anyway? type show, so I’m really anticipating this one and hopefully it’ll make it to air.

By the way, if you haven’t checked out Thank God You’re Here, I’d take a look at it. It’s on NBC Wednesdays at 8PM ET. While it’s not as good as Whose Line, it’s the 2nd best improv (or at least pseduo-improv) show that’s been on TV. It kicks the hell out of Green Screen.

They casted the audience already so I suppose they figured it was time to find some contestants. ABC is looking for people to participate in their newest game show National Bingo Night which debuts on Friday, May 18th, at 9PM ET. On this show, one contestant will play bingo against the audience. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? No idea on the top prize yet, but it is saying you can win cash and prizes, and I’d be shocked if it was anything less than $500,000 to be perfectly honest. Why not try? If you enjoy bingo and can stand in a studio of screaming people while watching balls flying back and forth, here’s your chance. Click here to apply.

I know I’ll get a comment about why I am bitching about this show before it airs so I’ll explain. Watching bingo is not fun: period. ABC did a smart thing by letting people print out their own bingo cards to play or else this would be a total waste of time. Judging by some early reports, there is no risk. You just sit there and hope everything works out. Now I know I’m being over dramatic and I know there will be some places in the game where the contestant will have to gamble everything to continue, but I just don’t think bingo will be fun and exciting to watch on TV. I also have issues with how they are casting some of the audience. They specifically casted female models to be audience members and to be seated in on-camera positions just so they can show that the place is a party. If you can’t get the audience excited about the show and are forced to hire models to make bingo sexy, I just think it’s a bad sign. It’s what FOX did for Fifth Grader’s contestants. I’m going to give it an honest shot and I hope I am wrong, but it’s just my early opinion that this will be boring and make me crave 1 VS 100’s return even more. What are your early opinions?

Edit: Casting link fixed. Sorry about the wrong link up there.

GSN’s sole surviving show from the rebranding, World Series of Blackjack IV, kicks off a brand new season on June 4th at a strange late time of 11PM ET. 40 people qualified from all around the country and have been invited to the Las Vegas Hilton to be the last person standing and walk away with $500,000. There are some celebrities and special guests who have also made the cut: Shannon Elizabeth, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser, Identity host Penn Jillette, comedian/host/Celebrity Blackjack winner Caroline Rhea, WSoBJ II winner Ken Einiger, and WSoBJ III winner Dr. Jeff Bernstein. Matt Vasgersian returns to host the series much to the joy of fans of the show, such as myself, I am assuming. Joanna Henderson will be giving blackjack tips and other features during the show as well. Thirteen episodes are going to be airing in this new season with the Burger King Power Chip and Knockout Card returning. Be sure to check out the new season starting June 4th at 11PM ET (Couldn’t we somehow get an earlier time? Do we need 3 hours of High Stakes Poker?). This is, in my opinion, the one show GSN has done perfectly and kept going since the rebranding.

We are getting back into the Deal or No Deal recap business, thanks to our friends at DoND.co.uk. This one was done by Joe Raygor, and the truncated form is found under the break.

If you want to know what the hell the commentators are discussing, take a look at the Deal or No Deal bible of terms. I’m still confused on a good deal of them, but it’s interesting to see how they do the math.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dynamo Games is developing a version of “The Crystal Maze” for cell phones in Britain for release in late 2007.  It will feature the Aztec, Industrial, Medieval, and Futuristic Zones.  No further details are known.

Today it was announced that GSN’s newest original, Without Prejudice?, will be debuting on July 17th at 9PM ET. The host is psychotherapist Dr. Robi Ludwig who has previously hosted the TLC show One Week to Save Your Marriage. In the show, a panel of five normal people will interview five normal contestants about their lives, goals, and more.  At the end of the hour long program, the panel must decide which of the five contestants deserves the prize money: $25,000.  Eight programs consisting of one hour each are currently being shot.  Find out more about the show by reading about the British version here.  It’s really an amazing show, so be sure to check it out.

I know it’s not much, but look at the size of those balls.

[youtube ClzfhFGC-bA]

Thanks to Michael Hetrick for the video.

We made a slight mistake earlier based on assumptions.  It has already been announced that Win My Wage will replace UK Deal or No Deal this summer.  We assumed this was a title change for the US/UK pilot Paycheck.  We were incorrect.  According to a source on the production staff, the two shows are completely different.  Win My Wage is a different concept than Paycheck.  Win My Wage will be on Channel Four this summer replacing Deal or No Deal.  Meanwhile, we’re waiting for official confirmation but we’re hearing that Paycheck is replacing In The Grid on Five.  We’ll get back to you on this once we get more official confirmation

Inc. Sterling Publishing Company will be releasing the Deal or No Deal Scratch & Play book just in time for the third season. Personally, I don’t see the point in getting a book that will only give you a limited amount of games, especially they’re the same in every copy.

If for some reason you want to pre-order it, it only costs $7.95. A cheap price for a cheap book, in my opinion.

PRE-ORDER FROM AMAZON