22Jan2009
New Ratings for January
Ratings for the week of January 5th have been updated. Everyone is up or at the same. Deal or No Deal, as long as something happens which causes the ratings to plummet suddenly, should break the 2.0 mark soon. Trivial Pursuit just can't go up at all.
Read MoreLeave a Comment22Jan2009
Nickelodeon Starts Production on New Kids Game Show “Brain Surge”
I'm back, not ill, there's no inauguration that I have to watch anymore, and there's news! Pretty big news, too. Nickelodeon, the kids cable network, is beginning production of a new game show called BrainSurge. It's their first all-new game show in a long time, isn't it? I guess the success of My Family's Got GUTS made them think of doing more cheap, popular programming. Not a ton is known about the show right now beyond that it begins taping in February in Hollywood, and only kids between the ages 8 and 14 are allowed in the audience. Parents and other non-young people will be put in a special room to watch the show. They've been casting the show for a bit and finally realized a little bit of information. It's a game of memor
Read MoreView Comments (83)19Jan2009
My Confidence in Daytime “Fifth Grader” is Diminishing
If you're a game show fan in America, right now one of the bigger stories is Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? the once-hit FOX game show is going into daytime syndication in Fall 2009. A lot of trade magazines and websites have been publishing stories about the show; how it looks to be nearly guaranteed to be fully greenlit in the Fall, how it'll probably follow Daytime Deal or No Deal's path of success, and all of that sort of thing. But I have to be honest, the more I read about it the more I'm not sure. The breaking point came today in an article on TVWeek. Executive producer of Fifth Grader?, Barry Poznik, said, “We’ve sort of coined [the syndication version] as ‘Smarter, Faster 5th Grader.’" I understand the faster thing; th
Read MoreView Comments (11)19Jan2009
GSN Live Offers Extra $100 for Inauguration Facts
GSN is giving you some extra incentives to watch GSN Live and play along today at 12PM E. In celebration of the countdown to inauguration day, GSN's live daily afternoon talk and game show will be giving callers a chance for an extra $100. All they have to do is answer a simple true/false question to pocket the money.
Read MoreLeave a Comment18Jan2009
The British are Better Than Us: QI
We'll work on getting a non-YouTube version of this show later today, but this installment of our no-news series "The British are Better Than Us" features one of my favorites: QI. It's a comedy/quiz panel show where the panelists get "points" for having the most interesting answer, not just the correct answer. It's a lot of fun, extremely funny, and another show which makes me wonder how low do US game show producers/networks think of Americans that they won't give us a show like this, yet we get such wonders as Hole in the Wall. It would be nice to see on BBC America. It's a hell of a lot better than Dragon's Den, which they've been showing recently. QI is hosted by Stephen Fry who US audiences may recognize from the British version o
Read MoreView Comments (14)16Jan2009
Million Dollar “Dating” Game Show? Apparently!
Time to take another dip into the Craigslist casting pool. I've noticed this one popping up a lot recently. Apparently casting directors are looking for people for a million dollar match-making show. They are really persistent in saying it's not a dating show. However, they are only casting single people and the show involves you picking your perfect match in order to win. Sounds like a dating show to me. Sounds like a marriage and divorce show to me also, once the contestant wins the million and the other person takes half of it. I'm stumped as to how this will work at all, especially since I've never really been a fan of dating shows except for an older one from the beginning of the decade starring one of my favorites, Greg Proops.
Read MoreView Comments (5)16Jan2009
Weekend Replay: UK “Deal or No Deal”
It's been a combination of I've been at an insane amount of meetings this week, plus there's been basically no news, so the well is dry. In leu of that and for now until I get something more meaningful for you all, here's a fun video of the British version of Deal or No Deal from a few weeks ago. A lot of great moments in here. EDIT: Now with better quality video.
Read MoreView Comments (8)14Jan2009
Meredith Vieira “Millionaire” Marathon on GSN President’s Day
GSN will be celebrating President's Day by airing a marathon of Meredith Vieira's daytime edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? during the usual marathon times, 9:00AM ET to 6:00PM ET. This will be on Monday, February 16th. No other schedule changes through February as of now. Millionaire on President's Day is kind of ironic. You can think about the millions the current administration and countless others lost while repeatedly hearing the word Millionaire and sobbing.
Read MoreView Comments (1)14Jan2009
Sony Buys Production Company Embassy Row
A small news update here. It was announced in TVWeek that Sony will be buying the production company Embassy Row, run by champion of the genre Michael Davies. Embassy Row is behind shows like Chain Reaction, Power of 10, and others. Michael's been unbelievably helpful to me, and a tremendous supporter of the site, so congratulations to him and all at Embassy Row.
Read MoreView Comments (2)13Jan2009
“Bingo America” Makes 250 Winners This Week
Just a small reminder that GSN is making more winners than ever on their hit show Bingo America this week. If you print cards from GSN.com, play along at 6:30PM ET, and get a Bingo, you're an instant winner. It's not as much money as usual, but hey, money is money.
Read MoreLeave a Comment13Jan2009
“Trivial Pursuit” Most Likely Not Coming Back
I'm sure this comes as no shock to anyone who's paid any attention to the ratings, but B&C basically confirmed what we said a few weeks ago; that Trivial Pursuit: America Plays will most likely not be renewed and looks to be the only game show not coming back.
Read MoreView Comments (12)13Jan2009
“Double Dare” (70s Version) Revival Pilot Now Casting
I never saw this coming. Browsing through Craigslist for casting calls, it looks like the old 1970's trivia show Double Dare, hosted by a pre Jeopardy! Alex trebek, is being "revamped" for modern times and is now casting. Not much is known just yet beyond the fact that, as we said, they are revamping the game show to make it much more exciting and with bigger money. Craigslist calls it a hit game show which seems a bit much counting that it was on for less than six months, but nonetheless, looks interesting. GSN reran it a few times a bit ago; check out a clip below. Currently they are casting for "very smart people who will be on the show reoccurring as the lead panel contestants," which links up to the show's old game including
Read MoreView Comments (32)12Jan2009
Here We Go Again: ABC May Revive “Millionaire”
TVWeek is saying ABC is "seriously considering" a network primetime revival of the show that basically saved them and saved the genre, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? with host Regis Philbin. If it happens, it'll be in August which will be nice since it'll be right before the Fall 2009 season starts so it can get a good time slot and it'll be the 10th anniversary of the show in America. Isn't it staggering the show's been on for ten years. I owe a ton to Millionaire; it's the first game show I ever liked and it's what got me started in the genre, so it holds a special place for me. Since I don't know how much celebrating the syndicated version will do for this occasion, having the primetime version come back for a series of episodes, li
Read MoreView Comments (25)11Jan2009
Weekend Replay: Part Three of “Only Connect”
Here it is. It's the final part of the one of my favorite British game shows, Only Connect. Here comes a few new ways of playing, including the connecting wall and a speed round on buzzers to determine the winner. [stream flv=x:/www.flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/onlyconnectpt3.flv width=630 height=343 bandwidth=med /] I agree with a lot of you commenters: I think some form of college tournament on PBS or Discovery could be a ton of fun. Maybe someone will take note? And hopefully we'll have a second season of this show in England, so we can show you more. We'll try to get another episode to show you, since it seems so many of you enjoy the show.
Read MoreView Comments (33)10Jan2009
CNET’s First Look of the New Jeopardy Set!
16:9 everything, fancy new OLEDs everywhere... Here's CNET's look at the new Jeopardy set. CNet Video @ YouTube
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