30Jun2008
“Wheel of Fortune” Goes for a Million
It's official: Wheel of Fortune's top prize next season is being changed to $1,000,000. Syndicated game shows at this point are giving away more money than primetime game shows next year. We'll have Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! makes gives the opportunity at a million. Deal or No Deal will also offer a half million which you know will be bumped to a million during sweeps stunts. It's just about that many million dollar primetime game shows as well. EDIT BY NICK: We now have a video of the announcement made during today's episode of Wheel of Fortune, which seems to include a brief shot of the wedge. What we're guessing (and hearing) is that it may mimic Australia's recently canceled Million Dollar
Read MoreView Comments (20)30Jun2008
Comedy Central’s “Gong Show” Preview
Comedy Central's new game show, The Gong Show with Dave Attell has started the press rounds for its debut on Tuesday, July 17th at 10:00PM ET. The show follows the basic pattern of the old one but obviously with more comedy (intentional or not) acts being promoted. Seven to ten acts are on each show, and the winner of the entire show takes home a Gong Show belt as well as $600. Not bad for a few drag queens performing archery. The judges are looking to be very good as well. On the first episode you will see judges Brian Posehn, triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and Steve Schrippa. Other judges include Adam Carolla, Kate Walsh, Andy Dick, Ron White, Dave Navaro, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton and JB Smoove. As a big stand up comedy fan, it's
Read MoreView Comments (3)29Jun2008
Weekend Replay: “Russian Roulette”
I will still go to the grave saying GSN's best original, all around, they ever did was Russian Roulette. And thank god that drop never got old. Part of it was because of the exciting, scary, tense game play a few years ahead of its time. It's also partly due to the funny and fun contestants they had. Anyone who screamed before they dropped made the show. For this weekend, we found a great clip of a really funny Russian Roulette contestant: the nanny. Please, GSN. Revive.
Read MoreView Comments (3)27Jun2008
New National “Trivial Pursuit” Locations
The tour for the new syndicated quiz show Trivial Pursuit is continuing. This set of locations is across the country for the next few weeks, not regulated to one area. They are trying to come to your areas, so be sure to be vocal if you want the crew to make it to you. All you have to do is go to one of the question casting locations and submit your question to potentially earn hundreds of dollars by sitting at home and being part of "America's Team". You can't beat that. Here's the new list. Wednesday, July 2- Las Vegas, NV- The Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian- 1PM-8:30PM Thursday, July 3- Las Vegas, NV- The Fashion Show Mall- 11AM-6PM Saturday, July 5- Dallas/Frisco, TX- Stonebriar Centre- 11AM-6:30PM Sunday, July 6- Phoenix/
Read MoreView Comments (4)27Jun2008
Feud/Wipeout Ratings
The much anticipated Celebrity Family Feud hosted by Al Roker did pretty well in it's 8pm hour on NBC. Scoring a 2.3/7 rating, or 8.77 million viewers if you don't care to work that out. The show was reached with mixed reviews, but I can see the number going up next week. However, the show that slipped under our radars, Wipeout actually scored #1 for the timeslot on ABC with a 3.7/12 rating, or 9.85 million viewers. Over a million more than Feud. #2 for the night over the networks, only trailing the big hit America's Got Talent. Pretty shocking actually, but I think it deserves it. I just hope it can hold on to the rating. The format may get repetitive, but come on, who would get tired of the crash and burn on the "Big Balls".
Read MoreView Comments (1)26Jun2008
The next Comedy Central roast recipient: Bob Saget
TV Week reports that a Comedy Central roast for Bob Saget will air on the network on August 17. And you thought Bob had to deal with some unruly mobs on 1 vs. 100.
Read MoreView Comments (3)26Jun2008
Pizza party at 33 on Saturday!
There will be pizza at the Bob Barker Studio on Saturday and if you're reading this, you're probably not invited. Sorry. Drew Carey is having 45 pizzas delivered to CBS for the TPiR staff on Saturday...from Cleveland. The story is at Cleveland.com. For what it's worth, my favorite pizza in Cleveland is from Zeppe's, and I don't say that because I was an employee of Zeppe's from 1993 to 1994.
Read MoreView Comments (5)25Jun2008
Hosts for GSN’s “Dating Game” and “Newlywed Game” Announced
If you haven't noticed, the current game show host trend is to get stars from the 80s or 90s who have faded, had some fame back then, and make them the new big thing. For the most part it's worked out well. Really, the only people who haven't been hired by this process are Mark Walberg and Regis Philbin, but they are both awesome so they deserve the primetime gigs. GSN's been doing the same thing with Corbin Bernsen and Patrick Duffy, slipping further in the celebrity list. Who did they drag up from Kathy Griffin's D List basement this time for the revivals of Dating Game and Newlywed Game? Kim Coles and Judy Gold. I follow stand up comedy so I know Judy Gold, who is taking over Newlywed Game, from the endless Comedy Central special
Read MoreView Comments (8)24Jun2008
ABC’s Wipeout
How did I miss this show? On ABC right now is a new stunt show called Wipeout. I hate to say it, but I wholeheartedly recommend it more than NBC's Celebrity Family Feud. Both are good, but Wipeout is just more funny and entertaining. If you get bored of Feud, switch to ABC as soon as you can. Am I the only one watching it? Hopefully not. Judging by the ratings, I'm not. It's been stomping most things in its path since it started, and it deserves to. Obviously it's not high class brainy entertaining. I love it because I can just sit back and laugh my ass off at people getting slammed in the face. Game play takes a step back for entertainment here, and so what? It's very clear this is solely for entertainment, and if you're watc
Read MoreView Comments (11)24Jun2008
“Million Dollar Password” Renewed
All of this is starting to sound a lot like how Power of 10's life cycle went, but let's hope this one works out better. CBS's hit primetime game show Million Dollar Password has been renewed for six more episodes. Its ratings have been pretty good for summer but it has seen a slight drop in recent episodes. CBS really needs to not do what they did to Power of 10 and place it midseason against heavy competition. I'm enjoying the show more with each new viewing and I'd like to see it stick around.
Read MoreView Comments (9)24Jun2008
“Celebrity Family Feud”
On NBC tonight at 8:00PM is the series debut (and primetime revival) of Celebrity Family Feud. Four teams compete in each show, and the winning team plays Fast Money at then end for $50,000. It looks to be a very fun show and I'm taking a stab in saying a good number of you will be tuning in. Be sure to voice your opinions about the show here. Before the show debuts also, you can check out an interview I did with host Al Roker and executive producers Gaby Johnston and Toby Gorman. We were also given a few videos to hopefully make you want more tonight on NBC. Sorry for some background noise on the interview, Al was on a train at the time. Sorry, but Celebrity Family Feud is an extremely lackluster version of a great daytime game sh
Read MoreView Comments (24)24Jun2008
Leeza Gibbons on “Millionaire”
Be sure to check out Who Wants to be a Millionaire? this week. It's sad that Meredith Vieira isn't here for now, but they have a very nice guest host: Leeza Gibbons. She's a veteran talk show host, with her own talk show and reporting for Entertainment Tonight, she appeared on Dancing With the Stars, and much more. Her style is a lot different than Meredith. Leeza more bubbly and warm than Meredith, but it works. She tones it down when she needs to and keeps things going at a good pace. It does prove to me that the perfect host for this show is a talk show host, though. I mean honestly, this show's a talk show with questions thrown in. A talk show host knows how to drag conversations out of the nervous player. Leeza added some wa
Read MoreView Comments (6)24Jun2008
Site Status: Comments Now Working
Edit: Comments are now working! Feel free to comment and edit away. We'll fix the sidebar next. Welcome to the new BuzzerBlog! We have a few new features we hope you love. First, off, the most noticeable changes are the ones directly above the articles. We write so much that the important stories easily get buried. We figured this was a nice and easy way to make sure you see the stories we feel you should know about. Not only that, above the sidebar is a small video player. You can view our most recent movies there, or you can go to the videos page to go to our archives. Our favorite changes are the speed. We are actually a pretty fast moving site now which is amazing for a change. Commenting should be faster, and not only t
Read MoreView Comments (6)24Jun2008
“Crosswords” on Hiatus
Bad news for Crosswords fans like myself. According to multiple sources, Program Partners is putting the low rated quizzer on hiatus until 2009 because of high production costs. At this point, to be completely honest, unless GSN picks it up which I doubt they will I don't see the show coming back. Its demise leaves a very nice gap for Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? for next season, though. It's a shame because while the show had issues it was still fun to play along with and was a fast paced intelligent quiz show; something we have barely any of now. More than 3/4ths of the country cleared the show for the new season, so it's leaving them in a bind. Program Partners is giving them a few options, one of which is pretty interesting
Read MoreView Comments (14)21Jun2008
BuzzerVision: To Tell The Truth
More John O'Hurley hilarity, this time from "To Tell the Truth." Just like on the 1970s version, the entire panel gets tricked into eating pet food.
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