30Nov2009
Rumor Control: Fox Drops “The Cube”, “Perfect 10″ in January
While we just discussed Millionaire giving thanks for a nice increase of ratings which is definitely needed this season, we give a large un-thanks to Fox in Rumor Control today. We can't get it confirmed but we have close reliable sources telling us that Fox's deal to bring the hit UK game show The Cube to America have fallen through. I have absolutely no idea what would cause it, but to put it lightly it sucks. This comes just a week or so after Fox announced a new game show, Our Little Genius, which will begin airing January 13th at 9:00PM ET in the post-American Idol time slot which is good news for them. So what it's starting to look like is the deal for The Cube, which would have gotten that slot, fell through and Fox placed anot
Read MoreView Comments (28)30Nov2009
Regis Philbin Guest Hosts “Millionaire” This Week; No Phone A Friend Lifeline
The original host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Regis Philbin, will return to host the syndicated daytime version this week only, starting November 30th. Check your local listings; it's going to be a fun week. Also the Phone A Friend Lifeline will not be present this week. This week of shows was recently taped, when the lifeline was removed. So this week there will be no Phone A Friend. Phone A Friend will then return until January before its permanent removal. Confused?
Read MoreView Comments (22)30Nov2009
Ratings Report: “Millionaire” Tournament of Ten Sees Increase
I'm back from a little Thanksgiving vacation. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Game shows had a lot to be thankful for with the recent ratings for the week ending November 15th. Basically everyone, but Deal or No Deal, was up. There are two notable rises. The first is Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The week ending November 15th, which had the first five games of the Tournament of Ten, rose 4% from last week to a season high 2.6. If you're a viewer (or even a reader here) you know that thing was heavily plugged, and for a good reason. Ratings fluctuate constantly and it's hard to tell if there's a direct causal relationship between the ratings and the Tournament of Ten, but it's a really positive sign. That first week had the
Read MoreView Comments (31)29Nov2009
QI “G” Series Episode 1
Hooray, it's finally back: QI, the show of goofiness and godawful guff. And besides, how can you not love set destruction? (-10 if you said "because you hate it.")
Read MoreView Comments (6)25Nov2009
Ellen Degeneres Starts New “Russian Roulette” Themed Game “Know or Go”
If you've been a long time reader you're probably well aware that one of my favorite games was the unfortunately short lived GSN original Russian Roulette (which I'd still love to see some network pick up a big money version of, and I think it would do pretty well, but I digress). Ellen Degeneres often plays game shows on her talk show, giving prizes away to audience members. Her newest one should have many people happy. It's really a huge Russian Roulette throwback called Know or Go. It follows the basic structure of the game show's end game Killer Questions, where you have to answer a series of questions to stay alive. Miss one and you drop through a hole in the floor. Take a look. Makes me really wish some network would take
Read MoreView Comments (21)25Nov2009
Regis Philbin Guest Hosts “Millionaire” Next Week, November 30th
All fans of Regis Philbin can rejoyce! The original host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire will be guest hosting the daytime syndicated edition starting next week, November 30th, around the country (check your local listings). It's the first time he's ever hosted the daytime edition and the first time since August he's sat in the host's chair. To add to the fun, LIVE! With Regis and Kelly executive producer Michael Gelman will be the Expert used in the lifeline Ask the Expert next week. The release says, "Gelman appeared via Skype from his office at LIVE and told contestants that his trivia strengths included history, pop culture, science, geography and food. He cited his weaknesses as literature and sports." And of course we'll be t
Read MoreView Comments (10)24Nov2009
The “I’m Out of Town” Video of the Day
So as the title says I'm out of town today and can't update until Wednesday. I'm in New York City doing some hardcore investigative reporting on the season finale of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Well, actually I'm just in New York for fun and thought stopping by was a smart move to have a nice story on the end of the season and the evolution of the show. But no one needs to know. No one important reads this, right? If something pressing comes up I'm sure one of my faithful elves will cobble together a post while I'm away. Until then here's just some really stupid jokes Alan Davies told on what is in my opinion the best show on the planet currently, QI. The new season starts on Thursday on BBC and we'll try to get some video of it
Read MoreView Comments (5)23Nov2009
Let’s Make A Deal: Perpetual Motion Marilyn
I know there were some sore feelings that Pyramid didn't get picked up, and instead Let's Make A Deal did, but it's hard to flat out deny that Let's Make A Deal hasn't been a really good, really funny, really entertaining show. It took two or three weeks to find its groove but it's there and I'm hoping the ratings are equaling the quality of what we're seeing. They've also already provided one of the most memorable moments of 2009, and one of the most memorable game show bloopers in a very long time. Here's advice to all those dressing in costume for Let's Make A Deal: make sure you are wearing proper support if you're going to be wearing something very thin, like spandex. You're going to do a bit of jumping and moving around. Marilyn
Read MoreView Comments (68)22Nov2009
GSN Plans Christmas and New Year’s Marathons
GSN has two upcoming marathons for those of you two are classic fans and people who like the newer shows. We'll start with Christmas. On December 24th GSN will be showing a marathon of the Ray Combs edition of Family Feud 9:00AM ET to 6:00PM ET. Episodes will consist of a Winner Takes All tournament as well as several Christmas themed special editions. On Christmas Day you can see a Richard Dawson marathon of Feud. It'll go on from the same times; 9:00AM ET to 6:00PM ET. The first two episodes are definitely Christmas themed. The rest don't have any special labels so I'm not sure. Some of you are great at reading the PDF schedules so I'm sure you can decipher it. The New Year 2010 marathons are a bit bizarre. The entire week of
Read MoreView Comments (38)21Nov2009
Sam Murray Wins $1,000,000 on “Millionaire” Tournament of Ten
We have a champion of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire Tournament of Ten, and his name is Sam Murray. Sam, a bartender from Philadelphia, was seeded eight of ten and was the only person in the entire series to risk the money previously earned and claim the $1,000,000 check. The only thing standing in his way today was the amazing Jehan Shamsid-Deen. Her question was the following: A rare example of a word that rhymes with “orange,” the Blorenge is a what? A: River in Ireland, B: Forest in Scotland, C: Mountain in Wales, D: Desert in Australia Jehan's previous winnings totaled $250,000, and a guess at the question risked a $225,000 loss if wrong. She wasn't positive and walked away. Unfortunately she would have guessed C, which
Read MoreView Comments (43)20Nov2009
QuickPlay: Catch 21 11/18/09
This has to be the luckiest bonus round playing I have ever seen. I think you'll agree. [stream flv=x:/www.flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/C21bonus.flv width=480 height=360 img=x:/www.flashgameshows.com/wordpress/biglogos/catch21.jpg bandwidth=med mp4=x:/www.flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/C21bonus.m4v /] Also, the ubergeeks may recognize the contestant playing this bonus.
Read MoreView Comments (18)20Nov2009
Sam Murray or Jehan Shamsid-Deen. Who wins the “Millionaire” Tournament of Ten?
Note: After the show airs in your area feel free to put spoilers in the comment section for discussion. Read at your own risk. Today's the day we've been waiting all sea...well ten weeks for. Today is the final day of Who Wants to be a Millionaire's Tournament of Ten. Sam Murray, seed eight of ten, has held onto the million dollar check for two weeks. The only person stopping Sam is number one seed Jehan Shamsid-Deen, a non-profit program officer from Concord, North Carolina. In her extremely tense and exciting first game she won $250,000 (the only person to do so this season thus far). It's earned her the top spot in the Tournament. All Jehan has to do is answer her million dollar question and she becomes the first person to clai
Read MoreView Comments (40)18Nov2009
“Millionaire” Tournament of Ten Day Eight: Jeff Birt
I think I'm starting to see a fascinating problem with Millionaire's Tournament of Ten: no one wants to risk their money to go for the million. The million dollar questions are so hard now (as they should be) that you're not going to find someone to randomly gamble on it. It happened once in this tournament essentially, to Sam Murray, and he really lucked out and is looking like the winner of the tournament and $1,000,000. But it's been amazing that practically everyone, during the hypothetical guesses from walking away, would have been right. I'm still enjoying the tournament and it's really been exciting, it's just becoming a bit predictable that if lower seeded players risking less money won't go for it, that people with $100,000 or $
Read MoreView Comments (4)18Nov2009
Pat Kiernan Starts Online Pop Culture Quiz
If you're a game show fan, you may know who Pat Kiernan is. If you're a New Yorkers, you probably know who he is also. Pat was the host of The WB game Studio 7 as well as, for two seasons, VH1's incredibly fun World Series of Pop Culture which I would love to see appear some time soon. Pat is starting a new daily trivia quiz every day on his blog Pat's Papers, which you should definitely check out. Each day at 11:30AM ET Pat will post a pop culture trivia question which you obviously then have to answer correctly. For the first week he will randomly pick one of the first ten to do so, and they will get an Amazon gift card. For example, a sample question of today is, "In the classic TV version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” the
Read MoreView Comments (6)17Nov2009
Ken Ober: 1957-2009
Very sad and shocking news this morning. Ken Ober, the host of the popular and influential MTV game show Remote Control as well as the incredibly fun short lived word game Smush (in addition to many others) died at the age of 52. As of this scheduled publication at midnight his death is unknown. Ken's manager Lee Kernis said he was found dead on Sunday after complaining of a headache and flu-like symptoms the previous day. As we said Ken hosted the incredibly popular MTV game show Remote Control which ran for five seasons. I don't fully remember the show beyond a few clips but it's clear he was incredibly good at hosting. His other show I really remember was the USA game show Smush. I know him more for his comedy, though, which he s
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