21Mar2008
British “Dirty Rotten Cheater”
One of my favorite shows of this decade is Dirty Rotten Cheater, which around fifteen people saw. I was pretty happy when I heard BBC was reviving the show, but a bit let down when I saw the final product. It seems like quite a step down from what we saw on PAX. I can stand a smaller budget, but it just didn't seem to click this time. However, the game's still pretty fun. Check out England's take on our cult favorite. [youtube 7gUCpC957TY] We'll be away for the next few days, so have a nice holiday weekend. I swear we'll post news once some actually comes in. March has been a horrendously slow month.
Read MoreView Comments (9)19Mar2008
“Moment of Truth” Video for Today
So yeah, there's really no news today. Why not put a video up. I asked around to people on my buddy list, and a vast majority said The Moment of Truth, so here you go. This was easily the biggest moment for the show and it cemented why I liked it; the show makes you feel emotion. You can either root for a contestant or cheer on someone losing a ton of money, like contestant Laura Cleri. If nothing else, the comment box is going to be fun to see your hatred towards this show. I will note that I really despise shows like Maury and Jerry Springer and things like that, but there's something relatively addictive about this show to me. Probably only me around these parts, but there is. [youtube FzZWqYWhdQw]
Read MoreView Comments (12)18Mar2008
Preview of “Bingo America”
As I recently said, I really mis-reviewed How Much is Enough? and I do apologize and hope you'll still believe me for some of my reviews. Because of that last horrible judgement on my part, I was a tiny bit afraid of Bingo America. It had three check marks which made me afraid. One, again, my wrong opinion of How Much is Enough?. Two, it's well documented that I truly think National Bingo Night is the worst game show in ages. Three, I really find bingo to be boring and stale to begin with. Luckily the producers of ABC's primetime screw up retooled their show from the dreck that it was and created a fast paced fun little quiz show that is almost a full package. The game is really really simple. $500 is put into the game's jackpot a
Read MoreView Comments (8)18Mar2008
A Few GSN Updates
We have a few GSN updates that I figured would be best to just place all in one post instead of a few spanning far too much of the page. *First off, we will have a full preview of Bingo America later tonight. It's better than How Much is Enough?, I swear. *Second, Wink Martindale is coming back to GSN Live (which you should really check out if you haven't, it's a lot of fun), but not as a guest. No, this time he will actually be hosting the show as regular host Fred Roggin takes the week of March 24th off. Friday's guest will be host of The Hollywood Squares Peter Marshall as well. This is Wink's first hosting job in quite some time, isn't it? *Next, I would really like to apologize, I completely misjudged How Much is Enough?.
Read MoreView Comments (4)17Mar2008
Ken Jennings Visits “GSN Live”
Here's a nice little surprise for the GSN Live viewers. Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy! and Grand Slam 2007 champion, is dropping by the set on March 19th. During his time, hosts Fred Roggin and Heidi Bohay will catch up with Ken and discuss his new book Ken Jennings Trivia Almanac - 8888 Questions in 365 Days. Not only that, Ken will be giving hints and tips to GSN Live viewers on how to be a winning contestant. Check all of this out on Wednesday, March 19th, from noon to 3:00PM on GSN.
Read MoreLeave a Comment17Mar2008
TV Land Greenlights Game Show Pilot
TV Land, the place for TV hits or something or other now, greenlit a pilot for a new game show with some old school roots. The show is called, for now, What's in the Box?, and it's literally as simple as it comes. Something's in a box. Teams compete and ask up to 20 questions about what's in it. If they guess correctly, they win a cash jackpot and a chance to win the grand prize. Doesn't get any simpler, does it? This show definitely verges on the "How much simpler can we make a show," idea that so many shows have done recently, but I think this one actually succeeds. There's some stragegy involved as you try to not give your opponents any hits or clues as to what it is. Plus it'll make a fun online game at the very least, even if
Read MoreView Comments (6)14Mar2008
New GSN Schedule Effective March 31st
We normally don't post schedule updates unless it's something major. This is major. GSN is doing some extreme shuffling and pulling some shows out of their vault, including a newer one that I think I'm the only one that likes it. Be prepared, it's a lot. All of these are effective March 31st at 9AM ET. *Love Connection replaces Newlywed Game at 9:00AM ET *Blockbusters (Bill Cullen edition) replaces Love Connection at 9:30AM ET *Tic Tac Dough replaces Let's Make A Deal at 10:00AM ET *Wheel of Fortune replaces Press Your Luck at 10:30AM ET *Let's Make A Deal replaces Wheel of Fortune at 11:00AM ET *Press Your Luck replaces Tic Tac Dough at 11:30AM ET *Card Sharks stays at 1:30PM ET, but the Eubanks version will air during the week of the 31st. After that, they are going back to the Perry version. *This is a big one. One of my personal favorites, Friend or Foe, replaces I've Got A Secret at 3:30PM ET. Sorry, I just like backstabbing shows. *The Anne Robinson edition of Weakest Link replaces both the George Gray Weakest Link and Chain Reaction from 4:00PM to 5:00PM. *Russian Roulette replaces Lingo at 6:00PM ET *Bingo America replaces Weakest Link at 7:00PM ET. Lingo airs at 7:30PM ET *World Poker Tour will repeat Mondays at midnight, replacing an airing of Millionaire. Now for the weekends..... *How Much is Enough? replaces Weakest Link weekends at 3:30PM ET *Russian Roulette replaces That's The Question at 4:00PM ET *Bingo America replaces How Much is Enough? at 4:30PM ET *World Poker Tour repeats Sundays at 7:00PM ET, replacing one airing of Greed. *Saturdays have an hour of Richard Karn Family Feud at 9:00PM ET. Sundays have Lingo. *Russian Roulette replaces Weakest Link weekends at 10:00PM ET. *Whammy! replaces Chain Reaction weekends at 10:30PM ET. *Saturdays at 11:30PM ET have Chain Reaction. Sunday is Karn Feud. Primetime is pretty crazy. These are all the main daytime/weekend changes. To save on clutter and the seizure you may have while reading this all, under the page break is the entire daytime lineup as well as the primetime schedule. It's a big one, be careful, but it's worth it if you're a regular viewer. (more...)
Read MoreView Comments (20)14Mar2008
Australian “Gladiators” Information
Not to be remotely jingoistic, but hopefully we'll get some American news soon. However, I'm sure some of you will enjoy some news and pictures about the new Australian revival of the hit show Gladiators. Seems like they are going for an even more British route than we did. However, a large amount of their Gladiators look like the casting department said, "Look at what the American Gladiators look like! Hey, I have an idea, let's not be original. Let's get people who look oddly similar and have many of the same themes." Plus some of the names are downright crappy. Angel? Destiny? Sounds like a girl group reunion tour. Their list of games puts ours to shame, though. They are basically getting a lot of the same events that we had, but they are including some great ones as well that we were missing, like Atlasphere. There are also some games which Americans might not be familiar with, like Pendulum, Sumo Ball, Suspension Bridge, and Vertigo. You can check out some pictures here. And now the question to keep us all entertained. What events would you like to see come back for season two of NBC's American Gladiators?
Read MoreView Comments (9)13Mar2008
ABC Officially Announces “Duel” Season Two
As we have been talking about for quite some time, ABC has finally announced the second season of Duel starting Friday, April 4th, at 9PM ET and going on for ten weeks. ABC and Reuters are saying it's $500,000 with the chance to double your money at the end. Please do not let it be a double or nothing scenario, please. The tournament format is gone and they are going for more self-contained shows. Money is won on a duel-by-duel basis. Host Mike Greenberg returns with his magic pen. If they can make some good changes, then I'm very excited. I hope they looked at the British version. If they didn't, uh oh.
Read MoreView Comments (8)13Mar2008
Channel 7 Possibly Bringing Back Aussie “Weakest Link”
Of all shows that could come back in recent times, for some reason this one I never figured. There are talks that Channel 7, an Australian television station, is bringing back the hit quiz show Weakest Link. While it's still going strong in England, it fizzled out practically everywhere else. A possible host is Gretel Killeen, who is the host of the Australian version of Big Brother. She is known for a sharp wit and tongue, and has not signed back onto the show for 2008. Sources are saying that the deal is basically done, so keep on the lookout. I'd honestly really like to see a Weakest Link revival in America. I am a backstabbing show fan, yeah, but it was still a pretty good quiz show regardless. George Gray isn't really doing that much recently it seems, I'm sure he'd come back given the opportunity. I have noticed, though, that there is a rather sizable group of game show fans who really do not like the show. Any particular reason (I'm just curious)?
Read MoreView Comments (12)12Mar2008
A Few Bits of News
Sorry for no updates recently, there's barely been anything and I've been exhausted the past few days. It's been a long month. *FOX wasn't lying about the Human Tetris Japanese show remake of Hole in the Wall, were they? We've got a casting notice now. It seems like, oddly enough, they are taping in Australia. For any Aussies we have reading this, is there a version of the show down there somewhere? I have no idea why we're going down there, but oh well. *ABC is casting heavily for season two of Duel right now. They are stressing the prize is "up to a million bucks in cash prizes", so I'm taking a tiny guess that we're getting some form of a money chain. And that could be a lot worse; It could be a tournament again. The rest of the budget probably went to new devices for host Mike Greenberg to wave around in his hand. How about we give him a sparkler? At least make it more exciting to watch. The ratings will also be updated later tonight.
Read MoreView Comments (5)10Mar2008
“Family Feud” Officially Renewed
Good news. The syndicated Family Feud has officially been renewed for the 2008-2009 season. Right now they have more than 80% of the country cleared, including 47 of the top 50 markets, and it's expected to fully clear by Fall.
Read MoreView Comments (13)10Mar2008
Preview of “Million Dollar Password”
Edit: We've got a video of the set. Click here. An audience member who wishes to remain anonymous sent us a look into the rules of CBS's new bastardization of a classic: Million Dollar Password. I've already started off negatively because they really, really screwed up the show. Not nearly as bad as something like, say, Temptation. But this is bad. They've transformed it into an extremely lackluster revival of Pyramid. Get ready for speed round after speed round after speed round. Of course the set is a stereotypical game show set. Circular, audience all around, different entrances, huge monitors, neon, dark colors, and so on. Honestly if you were expecting anything different you were crazy, so no use dwelling on this. It's become a device game shows use so much that I'm fine with it at this point. Plus, honestly, I like the neon sets. I think they are very nice looking. And now the format. It's the same celebrity and contestant setup as every other version of Password. There are four rounds in the front game of trying to get five words in 30 seconds. Each word is a point. Celebrity/contestant trade off giving each round. After round two the celebrities switch. Opposites are allowed as clues. Most points plays for $1,000,000. So far not so bad, but be careful. Money chain alert! In the end game, the entire premise is to get five words out of a certain amount in 90 seconds each time. There are six tiers to the end game. Tier 1: 5 words out of 10: $10,000 *Tier 2: 5 words out of 9: $25,000* Tier 3: 5 words out of 8: $50,000 Tier 4: 5 words out of 7: $100,000 Tier 5: 5 words out of 6: $250,000 Tier 6: 5 words out of 5: $1,000,000 $25,000 is a milestone. If you get to that, you don't leave with less. If you beat a level, you decide to play the next tier or go home. The words get harder as you go up the money chain. If you lose, though, you go back to either $0 or $25,000. The really strange part is that you can only give THREE clues per password. That's right, just three. After that, you're screwed. Whenever you are done with the end game, two new contestants come on. And there we have it. It's been well documented at this point that I'm not a big fan of the classics, but there are three that I love, and Password is one of them. I wouldn't have a problem if it wasn't just constant speed round after speed round. It truly turns the show into Pyramid with a costume on. I hate to complain about the money chain also, because it's probably the safest, though least inventive, game play device. If you can keep a nice chain, it's hard to go wrong. It just seems awkward in this format. I always had a bad feeling about this show
Read MoreView Comments (32)09Mar2008
Another Millionaire on “The Price is Right”
We had our second millionaire in the three episodes of Drew Carey's $1,000,000 episodes of The Price is Right. And by this point all I'm saying is, "I really don't care anymore." [youtube WxqbWuRsX5M] Congratulations for him on winning. But it's getting a bit insane. I really rarely watch The Price is Right when it's on; I have classes and a career; but I've heard that a double showcase win has happened an extremely large amount of times. Now we have two on the million dollar episodes? Isn't that a bit much? I thought the $1,000 range was fine initially. Apparently it needs to be a bit tougher. Of course CBS doesn't care. I keep hearing that the show will be way over budget and offer crappy prizes which really amuses me. These specials are doing fantastic in primetime on Fridays. If they keep doing this well, CBS will give them more and more money and that million isn't going to really be a huge issue. They're fun specials, but I'm completely losing care of anyone winning a million dollars now, and that's just not good.
Read MoreView Comments (20)09Mar2008
“Duel” Officially Coming Back
Before I head out for roller derby, we have a return date for Duel. ABC's site suggests it's coming back on Friday, April 4th, at 9PM ET for ten Fridays. Did we finally ditch the tournament format. I'd also love to know why ABC renewed a horribly low rated game show. However, just fix some format issues and we can have a nice little game.
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