Lots and lots of new ratings to peruse today. The Moment of Truth started out incredibly strong thanks to American Idol. However, if we look at the percentage lost from Truth’s debut and the percentage lost from last year’s post-Idol Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? debut, Truth definitely ended up better. Syndication was down except for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!. Deal or No Deal is still remaining strong and will only become stronger probably when they get ten $1,000,000 cases in February. By the way, be on the lookout for another Winner Takes All game after the ten $1,000,000 case game. Power of 10’s Fall finale ended with barely a whimper, with 10 million less viewers than Deal or No Deal. Check out the ratings page for all details.
Archive for January, 2008
Ratings Update
Drew Carey loses a job but gains more exposure for his leading show. First off, CBS is pulling Power of 10 as of today. The show might be back in the summer, but Wednesday night’s episode was the final one. Huge shame, because CBS really did not seem to care to switch its time slot out of two major show killers: American Idol and Deal or No Deal. I’m sure there had to be a better slot for it like Fridays at 8:00PM ET. CBS is saying they are still committed to the show and might have new episodes in the summer, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Such a shame, as it was one of the most dramatic, compelling, and fun primetime shows in a really long time.
Don’t feel bad for Drew, though. CBS is bringing back their trusty old The Price is Right primetime specials. No word on if they will be for $1,000,000 or not, but the first one will be on Friday, February 22nd, at 8:00PM ET. Six of the hour-long primetime specials have been ordered to cut down on excessive reruns from the writer’s strike. CBS has two other game shows, Do You Trust Me? (AKA Extreme Friend or Foe?) and Million Dollar Password (AKA “Oh crap here comes another Fremantle revival) waiting in the wings still.
So some really good news and rather bad news all in one. Sadly I think this might bode really negatively for a syndicated series of Power of 10 which was being developed, but here’s to hoping it still has a shot.
Before we get to the video, let’s get a few points out of the way.
*They zoom through the U.
*I enjoy the show, but I like shows like this. I can see a lot of you not liking it, but at least give it a try.
*Mark Walberg is as good at this show as he is at everything.
*The show, while being provocative, has quite a few touching moments as well, like one you will see on the video.
And with that, here’s a preview of The Moment of Truth which debuts tonight at 9PM ET on FOX.
Do you remember the dark ages when we didn’t zoom through letters in logos? How did we get by? I’ve thought for years that they should have zoomed into the Jeopardy! set through Alex Trebek’s mustache.
Heath Ledger 1979 - 2008
I know this probably isn’t news to anyone, but actor Heath Ledger died earlier today. While this isn’t really game show related, I’m sure all of us can agree dying at the age of 28 with such a promising career ahead of him really sucks. We here at BuzzerBlog send out our condolences to the Ledger family.
We obviously love Michael Davies, Embassy Row, and mostly everything they do, but there are just some shows that I don’t look forward to or can’t see being a big hit. We’ve been on a row with stuff like Grand Slam, Power of 10, and World Series of Pop Culture. Well they can’t all be winners, can they? Variety is reporting that Michael Davies of Embassy Row and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? is preparing a show called World’s Strongest Celebrity. Guess what they do. The company who makes World’s Strongest Man, IMG, is helping to develop the show with Davies, though no deal has been made. Networks are said to be interested, however.
Is this really what we’ve come to? Has the revival of American Gladiators been that much of a hit that we need a bunch of stunt/action shows? I mean two celebrity circus series have just been announced and now this? With one big and fun hit there are always some bizarre spin-offs which just do not work. We saw that with Set For Life and Identity. Now we’re in the American Gladiators clone zone.
This post is going to start a new regular series we’re going to call “The British Are Better Than Us.”
We’ll have a look at more game play tomorrow, but for now, enjoy the first ten minutes of ITV’s version of Duel. Another show the British just do better than us, go figure. Their host is much better, music a bit nicer, the game is much quicker, and I definitely enjoy the all-around game play more. The set is up in the air, but the space like look for questions is rather cool. Check it out and we’ll try to get another part, including the ability to stop, up tomorrow.
No US news at all today, but we will have a small preview of The Moment of Truth sometime next week. England has had a lot of fun game show news, though. One of my favorite shows that the US completely screwed up, Weakest Link, will be moving to the main BBC station next month. It’s been on BBC2 for quite a few years. The UK version is absolutely supreme to ours in nearly every way possible, and if you haven’t checked it out you really owe it to yourself.
Also, Duel starts its UK run on Saturday. The show is basically the same gameplay wise as our version, though they ditched the tournament. Probably a good move, as it just did not work here at all. I was bored until the final night (and even then still a bit bored), as hypothetical risks were being thrown around. Chips are worth £1,000 added to a jackpot which starts at £100,000. If you win two duels, you can stop with either potentially £10,000 or 10% of the jackpot. After three wins, you can stop with £20,000 or maybe 20% of the jackpot. If you win four duels, you win the entire jackpot. We’ll get a video of it for you next week hopefully.
Ratings Update
We have some new broadcast ratings in. The main success story right now is Deal or No Deal. Somehow, through all of NBC’s over saturation and excessive airing, the show remains extremely popular and saw one of its better ratings on Monday night. American Gladiators is doing well but dropped off a bit. 1 VS 100 also sunk below 5.0. Next week is going to be interesting. Was the audience just interested in the millionaire that was heavily advertised? My guess at this point is probably. Fifth Grader also returned and is looking as good as ever. Pretty good news for everyone all around except Power of 10 and 1 VS 100, which are probably the only two current game shows that deserve great ratings. And American Idol is kicking the holy shit out of everyone. Oh well.
Thanks to reader John Moss for pointing out a recent article from Media Life Magazine which talks about the current syndication market and next year’s. Very few shows are on the bubble to be picked up for a second season. The only two shows listed are Montel Williams and Crosswords. Interesting, as on the official Crosswords blog, they have been heavily promoting starting taping for season two in the not to distant future. Also, Crosswords just got up to the 1.0 mark, a new high, so that should be worth something.
Meanwhile, at the bottom, it lists the unimaginable:
“[Twentieth Television's] foundering game show “Temptation” is also expected to return.”
Temptation has been hovering around the 0.5 mark, going up to a .6 at best, since its start and has never been a real hit. Let’s also factor in that the show is one point lower than what was said to make the show be profitable. However, I’m pretty sure I can pay the show’s prize budget (and production values) with what’s in my wallet currently. Then look at the major issue with the writer’s of the show. Yeah, Crosswords has had lots of game tweaks through the season, but Temptation has been a complete disaster. If it makes it and Crosswords doesn’t, I’ll be amazed.
Don’t forget that next year we are definitely getting Deal or No Deal in syndication ($250,000 and 22 cases with potential contestants holding some) as well as potentially having Trivial Pursuit which has cleared in 55% of the country.
The US version of Power of 10 isn’t doing too well right now. For some reason CBS insists on putting it against Deal or No Deal which is a steamroller at this point, but what do I know? I’m just a critic.
Despite this, Australia is going ahead with their version of Power of 10 for Channel 9. They will be offering $1,000,000 instead of $10,000,000. Note that we still have a potential syndicated version in the making (depending on how the rest of the primetime run goes), so their version will basically be how our syndicated edition will go.
Longtime quiz show host Eddie McQuire (who hosted Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and 1 VS 100) was actually not chosen. Instead, the host is Australia’s Today weatherman Steve Jacobs. He told TV writer Stephen Downie, “I don’t think it has sunk in, actually. While Jacobs described McGuire as “the master when it comes to quiz shows, he denied having taken tips from him. This show is a little bit more relaxed than other quiz shows. There is a bit more ad-libbing. It’s a really good vibe.”
Eight episodes have been ordered. Finally, another US export that we can be proud of.
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