31Oct2009
So Bad It’s Scary: Dutch “Wheel of Fortune”
Here's a nice little Halloween video for you all. It's from the new Dutch edition of Wheel of Fortune. I know a lot of game show fans complain about our version, but after watching theirs I'm pretty happy with whatever we cobbled together. That little shanty town they have there is screwed up. The entire set is a video wall. The entire set. The backdrops, the decorations, the contestant podium, the puzzle board, everything. It's all a giant LED video wall. Dollar values are tiny. It's airing in the same time slot where a few times a year they play Deal or No Deal for five million euro and on Wheel there's a few 0 euro spaces and some 50s and 100s. The highest is 500 it seems. You're lucky to win more than 5,000 euro. The end gam
Read MoreView Comments (50)30Oct2009
“The Price is Right” and “Family Feud” Halloween Specials
We're right around my favorite: Halloween. It's right before Christmas starts poking its nose in my business unwanted, so I'll take the darkness and spook while I can. A few game shows are celebrating the holiday. First we have The Price is Right. Every year since Drew Carey has taken over they do a great job celebrating special days which is a refreshing change. They upped the ante from last year's fantastic Halloween show. Take a look at the video below from Price's website. Producers Kathy Greco and Mike Richards discuss all the decorations, costumes, and surprises coming your way today. Family Feud has traditionally celebrated Halloween with lots of decorations all over the set along with host John O'Hurley dressed up in s
Read MoreView Comments (9)28Oct2009
Ratings Report: All Are Up or Flat
We've finally got some good news for basically all the syndicated game shows. But first I want to start with Let's Make A Deal which is really the show to watch. As we reported on last time the ratings are not that bad. Obviously they aren't fantastic but they aren't bad. We've got some more figures for you courtesy of TV MoJoe. The ratings of LMAD versus the ratings of what it replaced, Guiding Light, are up 7%. It's at an average of around a 1.6. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that it's down in the key women demo. In women 18-49 it's down 13% and in 25-54 it's down 20%. It's flat when we look at women 18-34 though. So the old housewives are a bit bitter I suppose. The interesting thing is it's up a tenth of a po
Read MoreView Comments (18)27Oct2009
“Cash Cab” Goes to Off-Net Syndication in 2010
So far we don't have any new syndicated game shows announced for Fall 2010, but one popular cable show is making the move. Discovery's Cash Cab will be going into off-network syndication next September. What does this specifically mean? It's the reruns of the episodes shown thus far. The show has won the Emmy for Best Game Show in 2008 and 2009 so making a move like this seems like a pretty logical step. I've got no idea how many episodes are shot total but given the order numbers from releases I've found it looks like there's enough for a season and a half or two before we get into massive reruns. Nothing's ruling out exclusive new episodes for syndication either really. It depends how Cash Cab does against everything else. It cl
Read MoreView Comments (19)26Oct2009
“Price is Right” Had a Little Wreck Today
It's always fun seeing bloopers make it to air. Here's one that came from today's episode of The Price is Right. When showing off the next prize to bid on, a skateboard, prize model Lanisha got a bit out of control on it and wrecked into the set. It's pretty funny. Take a look.
Read MoreView Comments (32)26Oct2009
The Current “High Stakes Poker” Situation
I know we're behind on the game discussing the whole High Stakes Poker fiasco with A.J. Benza being fired and everything, but I just wanted to wait until I got a lot more information. Especially information from very credible sources. One of these credible sources happens to be A.J. Benza. He's great and I really feel for him. I also feel a horrible horrible mistake that is going to hurt the show a bit was made. Read A.J.'s blog if you get a chance by clicking here. It's an interesting read. I've been talking to A.J., who I never got the chance to talk to before, and he's really fantastic. He got completely screwed on this and we'll have more with him coming up, trust me. For those not familiar High Stakes Poker is a pretty popula
Read MoreView Comments (12)24Oct2009
BuzzerVision: Wipeout Australia
Wipeout Australia is basically exactly like US Wipeout and Total Wipeout, just with Australians. And if you don't know what Wipeout is, clearly, you've been living under a rock or something. Anyhow, I present to you two clips from what could be considered the best episode in Wipeout history (yes, for all three versions). In the first clip, a double Sweeper arm can do some interesting things; in the second, an extraordinary finish to the Dizzy Dummy round. EDIT: Hey, these actually work now. [stream flv=x:/flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/WipeAus1.flv width=420 height=240 img=x:/flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/WipeAus.jpg bandwidth=med mp4=x:/flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/WipeAus1.m4v /] [stream flv=x:/flashgamesho
Read MoreView Comments (5)23Oct2009
Wayne Brady Wants His Reese’s on “Let’s Make A Deal”
It took a few episodes but CBS's Let's Make A Deal is really shaping up into an incredibly entertaining and fun daytime show. In that first week they went really by-the-book with the format and didn't try to mix it up at all. But by this week we're starting to have some fun with it and we're seeing some different games thrown in. Wayne Brady is also loosening up a bit and showing us why he is so popular from his Whose Line is it Anyway? days. His co-host Johnathan Mangum is great with him as well. Take a look at a game from this week involving three pinatas, some of which could be holding $5,000 cash or some candy that Wayne really wants. If they can keep this up I can see Let's Make A Deal lasting a while. And no one takes Wayne B
Read MoreView Comments (6)23Oct2009
Weekend Video: Deal or No Deal 10/19/09
We're gonna have a boatload of videos for you this weekend, including a few clips from Wipeout Australia and Dutch Wheel of Fortune. We start you off with this one from Monday's episode of Deal or No Deal, where a contestant has a shot at $100,000 during Halloween week. [stream flv=x:/flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/DoND1cent.flv width=630 height=343 img=x:/flashgameshows.com/wordpress/biglogos/dealornodeal.jpg bandwidth=med mp4=x:/flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/DoND1cent.mp4 /]
Read MoreView Comments (5)23Oct2009
Have You Seen: Science Channel’s “Head Games”
It seems like new game shows are popping up everywhere constantly, which is fantastic. The newest one is a Science Channel show which we discussed a while back when they were casting. It's called Head Games which airs Saturdays at 9:00PM ET and it's executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg so you know it's going to be pretty funny and interesting. The host is Greg Proops, one of my favorite people on the planet. He's a brilliant comedian (stand up and improv) and you probably know him from Whose Line is it Anyway?. It's great to see him in something new. It's Science Channel's first game show and they picked a good one. Head Games is a quirky and weird trivia show. As you can guess it's all about science. We're not getting into nerd
Read MoreView Comments (5)23Oct2009
“Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” Adds Celebrity Questions in November
Thanks to Millionaire's Facebook page for the heads up on this. Who Wants to be a Millionaire will be tweaking the show a bit more come November. The press release says it best: "Meredith Vieira won't be the only person asking the questions". Starting on November 9th there will be questions asked by special celebrities around three to four times a week. The questions will be in the second tier ($7,500; $10,000; $12,500; $15,000; or $25,000 questions). I hate to say shockingly, but shockingly they have some actual celebrities showing up! It's not from the usual Kathy Griffin bargain basement of celebrities. Although ironically Kathy Griffin will appear. Other celebrities listed are Kathryn Morris (Cold Case), Rob Morrow (Numb3rs),
Read MoreView Comments (8)23Oct2009
R.I.P. Soupy Sales: 1926-2009
We lost a game show personality on Thursday. Actor, personality, and comic Soupy Sales passed away at the age of 83. There are most likely one of three things you may remember him from. Soupy had a very popular children's show for some time called Lunch with Soupy Sales/The Soupy Sales Show. Reading about it on Wikipedia it seems like it was really popular and had some rather large celebrities on it. Read about it here if you're interested. You may know him from his prank where he told children, in pure joke, to send money to him. When the kids actually did he donated it all to charity and explained it was a joke. But around these parts you probably know him best from his work in game shows. Soupy Sales was a panelist on a lot of
Read MoreView Comments (3)22Oct2009
“The Price is Right” Sees Largest Audience in a Year
Great news for The Price is Right on CBS and even better news for me to laugh at all the doom-and-gloomers. The long-running daytime game show recently saw its highest ratings in a year which is fantastic news. They split the show's ratings into each half hour so bear with me. Price's second half hour (usually 11:30AM ET) averaged 5.51 million viewers during the week ending October 16th. This is the highest it's been since Christmas week last year. Ratings apparently go up around that time so we should be seeing some new highs then as well. In the key demographics they look for, with women 25-54 the show had a 1.6/10 rating and in women 18-49 it had a 1.3/9. These are both highs since the summer. Fantastic job there. The first h
Read MoreView Comments (12)22Oct2009
Have You Seen BET’s “Pay It Off”?
I think the title speaks for itself: have you seen BET's new game show Pay It Off? I feel like I haven't seen or heard much about it beyond the initial release made for the show. Regardless, try to check it out Fridays at 10:00PM ET on BET. It's a neat little show with incredibly good production values and money for a cable show. This show actually has a few GSN connections. Pay It Off is hosted by Kim Coles who was the host of the pilot of The Dating Game pilot for the network. I also heard through some connections that Pay It Off was originally pitched to GSN but they turned it down. I think they could end up regretting it, as it's a fun and different quiz show. It's not without its faults, though. The basic idea is you play se
Read MoreView Comments (7)21Oct2009
Carnie Wilson Getting “Unstapled” Reality Show on GSN
I'm going to be hiding in a panic room for a few days to shield myself from the onslaught of angry GSN viewers regarding this nugget of information. According to Josef Adalian and his always entertaining TV MoJoe column at The Wrap, GSN's getting back into the reality show business. Not the competition reality show like Survivor. The really annoying kind like Jon and Kate Plus Eight. Carnie Wilson, host of The Newlywed Game, will be featured in what they are calling a new docusoap called Carnie Wilson: Unstapled. It's looking to premiere in January right around when the previously announced Bob Eubanks-hosted episode of The Newlywed Game will air. Unstapled will feature Wilson and her different roles as game show host, media persona
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