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The Price is Right had a big event on the 28th: the first disqualification in 243 shows according to Golden-Road.  Contestant Christopher Francis, a television producer from Tuscon, AZ, was disqualified from The Price is Right and lost his $2,500 in cash and prizes when it was found that the station he works for, KOLD, is a CBS station.  If you know anything about eligibility requirements, it’s that if you are connected closely with a certain network or station, you cannot appear on a game show by that network or station.  His episode has aired and he has been venting about it, as you can read here.

I’d love to know what this guy was thinking.  I’ve been working with GSN for a few years now.  I know that I cannot try out for anything GSN related because of this.  I knew this without even reading the requirements for shows.  Nor can I for most others.  It’s common sense.  He told them he works for CBS even.  This sentence in his post is what got to me:

“What weighs on me is how my honesty didn’t mean very much to the CBS brass.”

What this sentence said to me was “I told the truth and got no reward, that’s not fair.”  Honestly, my take on the situation is that he doesn’t deserve anything.  He wasn’t told by casting people and it wasn’t on the website that affiliate networks can’t be on the show, I’ll give him that.  It’s still common sense that if you work for a CBS network, you can’t appear on CBS shows.  I mean did he actually think he was going to get away with it?  He’s being very insisting on the fact that his station is not owned or controlled by CBS.  However, go to KOLD’s website and the logo for the site has the CBS logo right beside it.  That’s enough of a hint for me.  A lot of his points are trying to grasp at straws and defend himself when he has no defense.  I’m sorry, but he just should have known better.  There’s no way any smart and knowledgeable television producer would not know they were ineligible.  If he truly didn’t maybe we need some new television producers.  What do you all think of the situation?  Did CBS do the right, appropriate thing, or did Mr. Francis get screwed by the system?

TV Week has posted FOX’s first promo video of “The Moment of Truth.” Check it out.

You may have noticed some ads for the 1 VS 100 home games and were wondering what’s the deal with them? Yes, it’s an advertisement, but it’s a great one for you. iToys, the creator of the 1 VS 100, Deal or No Deal, and Family Feud (review coming soon) games, partnered with us to create an incredible discount on the amazing game. For just $19.99 you can buy the tabletop electronic game. You can also buy the Mega Pack for $24.99 which includes both the tabletop AND the electronic handheld game. Both of these are also shipping and handling free, meaning you aren’t going to get these games this cheap in stores. I got these games a long time ago and I was honestly amazed by them, and we’re honored to have them partnering with us. Click one of the banners around the site to take a closer look at the deal which is available in the US and Canada, or click here to as well. Read on for a larger review of the game. This deal only carries through December 22nd, so get it while you can. This post will run a very short number of times until Christmas just a reminder for people who don’t see it.

“I’m horrendously cheap and picky, but this game blew me away. If you’re a fan, there’s no excuse not to own this. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it’s worth the money.” (From a June 7th post)

Read the rest of this entry »

One of my favorite sitcoms ever, The Drew Carey Show, is coming back to TV on Ion.  The popular sitcom starring new The Price is Right and Power of 10 host, will air Monday through Thursday at 9PM ET with a marathon on New Year’s Eve.  When did Ion start airing good shows?

GSN gave us some pictures of the set of their new game show, How Much is Enough?, plus host Corbin Bernsen.  Enjoy.  Interesting looking set.  And hey, at least it has an audience for a change.  What are those yellow-looking things above the audience, though?

I have a very small update and then an explanation on the lack of updates.

First, How Much is Enough, that’s not a word game and has a budget of more than $5,000!, debuts January 8th at 9PM and runs daily. Sadly, this pushes out That’s The Question which we strongly hope gets a third season. There are forty episodes planned of the show where sneaky and non-greedy contestants can win tens of thousands of dollars if they can convince other players to bank too much money from the “Money Clock”. They’ve got a high profile host also, Corbin Bernsen, so that counts for something I suppose.

And as I said, a reason why there haven’t been updates the past few days. Yet again, I, with others, are in New York City pitching a few shows and are really wrapped up in this. Regular updates start again tomorrow. We’ll have pictures of the NYC trip plus, if I can, tips on pitching a show coming soon. I really apologize for the lack of anything meaningful recently.

We received a casting notice for a new Showtime reality game show called The Hydra Executives.  Essentially, imagine The Apprentice but for a $1,000,000 real estate job in Abu Dhabi.  Yes, that’s the United Arab Emirates.  The winner honestly gets shipped over there to work on a real estate dream job.  Yeah, it’s a dream job, but you’re still getting sent to what is basically a rather unpleasant general area in a pretty rough time.  That’s not taking away from the fact that Abu Dhabi is a very nice city and one of the richest in the world.

The production company needs eight Americans and eight people from England.  All candidates should have a good background in marketing, real estate, architecture, sales, or engineering.  You must also have a valid US/UK passport and be available for sixteen weeks in January.  The casting notice is below the break if you’re interested.  What do you all think about this?  I really don’t know if I’d want to be shipping over to what is in general a pretty rough area for a job only worth a million dollars.  There are million dollar jobs over here that don’t require you beating a lot of people in a competition.  For some reason this almost sounds like Arrested Development’s main plot to me.

Click here to apply for The Hydra Executives

Deal or No Deal is going gimmick crazy during the week of December 10th with some extra long episodes.  But there is a positive note: most of the actual gimmicks are cool and welcome at a later time.  One of them is “The Deal Wheel” which we discussed before.  That is on December 12th.  Here are some more.

On December 10th, Deal or No Deal adds something never done before in the briefcase game: competition.  December 10th is “Winner Takes All”.  During the two hour show, three contestants will play their own individual game.  Whoever gets the most money in their game takes home everyone’s money.  Meaning if Player One gets $200,000; Player Two gets $250,000; and Player Three gets $300,000; Player Three goes home with $750,000.  Interesting way to up the money without going insane, plus this may make for some really interesting and hopefully cautious game play.

December 11th isn’t a huge gimmick.  They are bringing in a small orchestra and members of the Broadway show “Wicked” to perform for the contestant.  It’s also a special “case reveal” episode, where home viewers will get to see what’s inside some case values before the player does.  It really doesn’t add anything special to the show, but it’s not a bad gimmick.

December 12th is the pretty cool “Deal Wheel” which can be found here.  And Merry Christmas, that’s a picture of Anya for the Christmas special.

And that’s Deal or No Deal on the week of December 10th.  I have to say that it looks like they are getting their act in shape now.  The gimmicks add something new to the show without going insane with ponies.  They add new game devices to the show which make it new, special, and exciting.  What do you all think of the gimmicks?

Family isn’t here yet, so we have a quick and fantastic update. We have a return date for 1 VS 100! The highly anticipated second season of the popular Bob Saget hosted quizzer will come on Friday, January 11th. It already has a new website as well. Hopefully NBC will treat it a bit better. It gets better ratings than a lot of what NBC shows and is shoved to the side always. We’ll get pictures of the new/updated set soon. American Gladiators also debuts on NBC on January 6th.

Show Me the Money broke our site, as it should, so instead I’d like to present a fake trailer from my favorite movie, Grindhouse.  This is the fake trailer Thanksgiving.  It’s R rated just to warn you, but it’s hysterical.

[youtube UH3ihpscL8M]

On behalf of the entire BuzzerBlog and BuzzSaw TV family, I wanted to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. We won’t be doing any updates tomorrow as we’ll be spending Thanksgiving eating far too much food and watching football. More than anything, I am thankful for you all making this site what it is. It’s not me, I guarantee you that. It’s all of you readers putting up with my ranting and raving. I greatly appreciate it and adore reading the comments. It’s the greatest part of this job. Trust me, your opinions are being heard by very important people and you are shaping the current landscape of television.

Did you know Temptation had a three day crappy tournament this week?  No?  Neither did we.  Did you care?  No?  Neither did we.

Good news and bad news about Deal or No Deal on December 12th.  Let’s start with the bad news.

Bad News: Deal or No Deal is adding a new gimmick.

Good News: It’s actually good, at least I think!

Starting on December 12th, NBC’s Deal or No Deal is adding “The Deal Wheel”, which you can see in the picture.  Speaking of the picture, does Howie look like a cartoon or computer graphic, or is it just me?

This works exponentially better than Double or Nothing, as this gives you a chance to double, triple, or halve your money.  It’s a bit sketchy right now, but it seems that you have the option to play “The Deal Wheel” after you take a deal or get the value in your case.  You drop a ball down a huge ramp, looking much like a Plinko board, before it hits the wheel.  In there is essentially a roulette wheel.  The spaces alternate “1/2″ or “x2″.  Five of the “x2″ spaces are “x3″, meaning your money is tripled.  You only risk half of your money to potentially triple it, or at least double it in a 50/50 chance.  Seems like a pretty cool gimmick which can definitely work and is worth a risk, unlike Double or Nothing.  What do you all think?  I haven’t watched Deal or No Deal in ages, but I think it might be worth it for this.

The ratings for Crosswords aren’t that great, but it’s getting some support from a major game company.  Hasbro has received the license to develop board and DVD games to the fledgling new syndicated game show.  Both of which are expected to be out this coming Fall, hopefully when a second season will come out.  Hasbro is getting into the game show business even more as they, as previously stated, are partnering with Denbar-Mercury (Family Feud) for the syndicated Trivial Pursuit game show currently being planned.

There should be some form of online game for Crosswords out by now, but it’s been in development longer than I think the rules for the actual show were developed.  You can make your own Temptation home game by watching E! and when you can guess what is being talked about currently, reach into your pocket and give yourself $5.  You probably have a larger budget than the actual show does already.

It’s an early Thanksgiving treat for all you game show fans: Stu Shostak will have legendary game show host Wink Martindale live on Shokus Internet Radio on Wednesday, November 21st, from 4PM to 6PM PT.  You can listen live for free at ShokusRadio.com and you can actually talk and question Mr. Martindale by calling (888) SHOKUS-5 (746-5875).  Talk to Wink toll free for two hours on Wednesday!

Just a tiny update we should have had a few hours ago but our server screwed up. When it pops up I’ll be just as shocked as you all are. A while ago we announced rules about Duel. Here’s just a few new items for the US version thanks to The Futon Critic. Each chip is worth $5,000 and each of the contestants starts with 10. You just place a chip on the answer you think is right; you can place as many chips during a round as you can, possibly one per answer. The winners go on to the final show where someone will win the jackpot.