31Jan2009
Cat Deeley Guest Hosts “Millionaire” in February. Could She Be the New Host?
If you've been around this site since October 2008, you may remember a story we did about Cat Deeley. According to a UK rumor, So You think You Can Dance? host guest hosted a week of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and impressed ABC so much that she was offered the hosting gig of the long running game show entering its tenth year in America in August 2009. Of course we had no way of knowing if this is true because obviously ABC would never confirm current host Meredith Vieira leaving the show at that point, we had no way of knowing if Cat Deeley was offered it, or if she even guest hosted the show. You can read the story by clicking here. A link to the Mirror article is included. We may be finding some truth to this rumor. According
Read MoreView Comments (23)30Jan2009
“Only Connect” Episode One, Part 2
Continuing to showcase what has become a cult hit suddenly in the American game show scene, here's the second part of Only Connect's first episode with game play you can actually participate with. Again, it's the best game show I've seen in ages, and apparently a lot of you agree with me. Part 3 will come tomorrow, because on Sunday the Steelers are going to win the Super Bowl and I'll be gone. [stream flv=x:/www.flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/connectpt2.flv width=630 height=343 bandwidth=med /]
Read MoreView Comments (5)30Jan2009
Shows You Should Be Watching: “Solitary”
I've wanted to write about the FOX Reality show Solitary for a while, but I keep forgetting. With the new season going on now, giving the network good ratings, I figured this is a good time. If you've been scared away from watching this show because it's reality or some other bizarre notion, take a new look. It's one of the best and most entertaining shows that's been on this decade. So of course it came from Bob Boden, currently the vice president of programming at FOX Reality and former from GSN who helped to bring in all those great shows like Russian Roulette and Lingo. The show's simple. Solitary sticks people in nine different rooms; each has their own. Basically the only thing in their room is a red button which lets them le
Read MoreView Comments (20)29Jan2009
GSN Radio’s Power Outage
Scary stuff over at GSN Radio today. During the seventh question of 10-sion, their power went out. It wasn't even weather related; they've had clear skies all day. Here's a recording of the clip that's been posted to YouTube.
Read MoreView Comments (7)28Jan2009
Ratings Updated: “Deal or No Deal” Finally Achieves 2.0 Rating
Deal or No Deal finally passed the 2.0 rating mark during the week of January 18th. It's up 5% from the previous week. Daytime Deal has been a very interesting story. In the beginning, ratings were a bit scary, but they've been going up (or stagnant) every week since. Again, we published a bit ago that Deal or No Deal is currently under negotiations to come back for a new season, and I can't see how it won't be happening. It's the top rated new syndicated show. We've been talking about how FOX's strategy for the syndicated Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? so far has been, "People say Deal sucks; they took out everything good; watch us." But last Sunday's episode only got a 2.0 rating. Daytime Deal and primetime advertised Fifth
Read MoreView Comments (10)28Jan2009
GSN Schedules New “High Stakes Poker” and Daylight Savings Time Change
For all the poker fans out there, GSN has altered the Sunday night poker schedule a bit for the inclusion of the new season of High Stakes Poker back for its fifth season after a hiatus of anger/tears from poker fans. Starting Sunday, March 1st, HSP5 will air Sundays at 9:00PM ET with a rerun at midnight. One note for the game show fans also. On Saturday, March 7th, we spring forward one hour (that came quickly, didn't it?) which will preempt that evening's hour block of To Tell The Truth at 2:00AM ET. It will be back to normal the next weekend.
Read MoreLeave a Comment27Jan2009
“The Chuck Woolery Show” Debuts in March
We touched upon this during Freaking Million Dollar Cat Game Show but since it's getting close to time for Chuck Woolery's new radio talk show, The Chuck Woolery Show to debut, we got a press release from our good friend Doug in Mississippi. The show will be nationally syndicated and broadcast Monday through Friday from 7:00PM ET to 12:00AM ET, with encore feeds for the western time zones. All of this starts on March 30th. The show's flagship station is still being negotiated right now. The show is being produced by Syndicated Solutions, Inc.. The Chuck Woolery Show will blend top music with features Chuck knows well, like love and romance advice, special guests, and frequent listener interaction. Chuck Woolery said, “I started in r
Read MoreView Comments (3)27Jan2009
Contestant/Audience Page Updated
In a continuing effort to pretend I remember to do my job around here and keep you guys updated, the contestant and audience search page has been updated. All canceled shows have been removed and I believe links are up to date; if not I'll fix them later this afternoon. The link's at the top, and you can find out about most game shows on TV there.
Read MoreLeave a Comment26Jan2009
“Wheel of Fortune” Celebrates 5,000 Episodes
A lot of game show milestones have happened over this past television season, and quite a few for Wheel of Fortune especially. It's still number one in syndication, getting ratings that primetime networks would dream of having on such an unbelievably regular basis. They added a million dollar top prize which was won in the first five weeks in some act of witchcraft by contestant Michelle Loewenstein. Wheel can now add celebrating the 5,000th episode to its roster. The number one syndicated game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White, celebrated the 5,000th episode on Janaury 15, 2009 at Sony Picture Studios in Culver City. Here are some pictures of the festivities. Photos courtesy of Carol Kaelson/Sony Pictures
Read MoreView Comments (9)26Jan2009
Daytime “Deal or No Deal” Renewal Negotiations Begin
Small blurb from Broadcasting and Cable: negotiations between NBCU and station managers have begun about bringing back the daytime edition of Deal or No Deal, for a second season. This will make it the only syndicated game show to officially come back on televisions for a second season since Pyramid left airwaves in 2004. Crossswords was reluctantly renewed last season but production company Program Partners stopped production because of lack of funds. The final Merv Griffin created show has yet to appear, though mention of 2009 has been stated. Deal or No Deal is the top rated new sydicated show for the Fall 2008 season.
Read MoreView Comments (2)26Jan2009
Chuck Woolery is Having Senior Moments
I know Lingo was made most popular in The Netherlands, but I think Chuck Woolery's been smoking the pipe a bit too much recently. The host of the former GSN original Lingo recently did an interview about his live show, the $250,000 Game Show Spectacular, and was asked about the popularity of Lingo. He has this to say, “Lingo is the most popular game show in the world.” Chuck can't be that delusional, can he? He does know about things like Millionaire and Deal or No Deal and The Price is Right and Family Feud; the list goes on. I think Freaking Million Dollar Cat Game Show messed him up.
Read MoreView Comments (8)26Jan2009
The British are Better Than Us: Only Connect Preliminary Match Part One
Sorry for the delay, I had a pressing matter this weekend. But here we go, the first part of the first episode of what seems to be pretty popular around here now, Only Connect. I know we were talking how that championship game was brutally hard, but this game is much easier to go along with. It's tough, but you can play along easily. And again, I do agree with a lot of you that something like this on PBS as a college tournament or something would be incredibly welcomed. I could see something like this, a show which rewards intelligence, in this era of game shows which really doesn't for the most part, being a cult hit, much like Cash Cab on Discovery.
Read MoreView Comments (9)25Jan2009
Can Someone Explain the Problem with Daytime “Deal or No Deal”?
I'm Hopefully the slowest news week in eons is over, because an interesting interview in AdWeek was published today. Show producer Mark Burnett was questioned about the new daytime edition of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and for the second straight interview about this show, it seems like all the crew of the new edition of Fifth Grader wants to do is tear down Daytime Deal or No Deal. Never mind advertising the new daytime version of the once-popular FOX game show and telling about its merits, but they seem to love to say, "Deal changed, people don't like it, they suck, we're better." And they've done nothing to prove that. A few interviews with Fifth Grader staffers have involved them saying, "People don't like the Deal chang
Read MoreView Comments (7)24Jan2009
Weekend Replay: UK Gladiators Eliminator
Season two of the UK's Gladiators is underway, and it brings about this exciting Eliminator contest. I've included the description portion for folks outside the UK to see how they do it. [stream flv=x:/www.flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/UKGS2E04.flv width=630 height=343 bandwidth=med /]
Read MoreView Comments (7)23Jan2009
Did You Know “Hole in the Wall” Came Back? Apparently It Did. And Now It’s Gone.
I'm a big fan of the whole public relations/publicity thing. I have a lot of friends in it, so I enjoy hearing about it. The only thing I will give FOX's Hole in the Wall, when it first came out, was that it was marketed correctly. It was just a dumb, silly stunt show. They carried it way too seriously occasionally, but they didn't overly make it out to be something it wasn't. Of course that doesn't help the fact that the show sucks and can't sustain itself as its own show, but I figured I'll give them something. Ratings suffered and the show was quickly pulled from the lineup. FOX announced it would return in January a while ago, but truthfully I forgot about it. It was apparently on last Sunday. Go figure. Sunday night isn't exa
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