30Jan2010
John McCain Asks Celebrity Question February 1st on “Millionaire”
Who Wants to be a Millionaire adds another big name to ask the newest Celebrity Question. John McCain will shuffle over to Millionaire and ask contestant Matt Rodrigues of New York City a $10,000 question. Take a look below. This is a bit of a spoiler so if you don't want to know what happens be careful about watching all of it.
Read MoreView Comments (4)28Jan2010
Neil Patrick Harris Hosts “The Cube” Pilot for CBS
Developing story and I'll add more to it as I read more, but the always great TVMoJoe at the equally great The Wrap has confirmed that CBS is the new home for the hit UK game show The Cube which is shooting a pilot next week. To add to it, Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother is the host. So CBS has bested NBC's ripoff Minute To Win It in format and host. In addition to hosting, Harris will be executive producing the hit show, which says to me he's a fan of it and helped it get to where it is.
Read MoreView Comments (67)28Jan2010
WGBH Debuts “High School Quiz Show”
It's always nice to see new local game shows. There's a long history of the high school academic quiz programs airing around the country. Boston's WGBH is starting a new one called High School Quiz Show. It debuts March 22nd on that channel, so be sure to check it out if you get a chance. Twenty schools have been selected to take part in this competition. “To make it fair – and fun – we wanted a complete representation of schools in Massachusetts,” said High School Quiz Show producer Hillary Wells.
Read MoreView Comments (45)28Jan2010
GSN Asks What Viewers Want in New Survey
If you've got some free time I strongly urge you to take this survey GSN recently launched that asks such questions as what type of programming you want to see on GAME SHOW NETWORK and if you consider stuff like Carnie Wilson's reality show to be a game show. What this survey is actually saying is, "We have no clue what our viewers want to
Read MoreView Comments (34)27Jan2010
Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Debut Week Ratings Comparison
SECOND EDIT: After the break we have the comparisons for Hidden Agenda, like promised. It's more brutal than Carnie Wilson. It's downright ugly. Edit: Fixed dates Thanks to the great people at PIFeedback, we've got a comparison between Carnie Wilson: Unstapled in each of its time slots and the show that was there on the week of January 4th, the last published. If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter you saw that Carnie Wilson debuted to a .3 rating. We had messed up ratings we previously published, and we apologize. The .3 was correct, but we just wanted verification before we publish again. Aren't you glad GSN replaced so many other shows, including completely axing some classics for all of you out there that like those older shows, for this? Unstapled dropped in every single time slot. Some slots it was in the hundreds of thousands lost. We'll have a comparison for Hidden Agenda soon. Look, I'm not trying to be an ass to GSN or Carnie. I like Carnie. I like some people there and I'm guessing there's one or two left there that can tolerate me. But every single person, critic or fan, repeatedly warned you about these shows, how they did in the past, and why they would not work. And we were right. I didn't figure we would be this right, but we were right. I heard from the same sources at the same place that gave me these ratings that the numbers tumbled in week two. What's going to happen after that? I'd be reconsidering Life At Stake and the Bunco show. Your viewers have spoken. You do well in the game show department. That's a clear fact. Catch 21 and Newlywed Game are fun and popular. Even the shows that were on the failed Big Saturday Night were really good, but just got messed up because of the programming. You can expand the brand to other games. We saw that during the rebranding a few years back. Solitary will be looking for a new home soon. The Poker and Blackjack shows were successes. This is not the way, though. History has shown that whenever we try to distance ourselves from the genre, we end up crawling back to it, clinging on to whatever viewers we can. Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Wednesday 1:00AM 80,000 Jeopardy! Wednesday 1:00AM 188,000 Viewers Lost 108,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Wednesday 10:00PM 183,000 1 VS 100 Wednesday 10:00PM 556,000 Viewers Lost 373,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Saturday 10:30PM 203,000 1 VS 100 Saturday 10:30PM 445,000 Viewers Lost 242,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Tuesday 10:30PM 195,000 1 VS 100 Tuesday 10:30PM 385,000 Viewers Lost 190,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Friday 11:00AM 73,000 Catch 21 Friday 11:00AM 108,000 Viewers Lost 35,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Thursday 11:00PM 142,000 Deal or no Deal Thursday 11:00PM 368,000 Viewers Lost 226,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Sunday 11:30AM 79,000 Catch 21 Sunday 11:30AM 283,000 Viewers Lost 204,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Tuesday 12:00AM 165,000 Millionaire Tuesday 12:00AM 316,000 Viewers Lost 151,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Saturday 12:30PM 96,000 1 VS 100 Saturday 12:30PM 353,000 Viewers Lost 257,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Saturday 2:00AM 103,000 Deal or no Deal Saturday 2:00AM 219,000 Viewers Lost 116,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Wednesday 2:00PM 47,000 $100,000 Pyramid Wednesday 2:00PM 262,000 Viewers Lost 215,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Thursday 3:00PM 116,000 Lingo Thursday 3:00PM 268,000 Viewers Lost 152,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Friday 3:30PM 211,000 Lingo Friday 3:30PM 385,000 Viewers Lost 174,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Sunday 4:00PM 186,000 Newlywed Game Sunday 4:00PM 499,000 Viewers Lost 313,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Tuesday 4:00PM 136,000 Family Feud Tuesday 4:00PM 363,000 Viewers Lost 227,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Sunday 4:30PM 189,000 Catch 21 Sunday 4:30PM 379,000 Viewers Lost 190,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Saturday 5:00PM 180,000 Millionaire Saturday 5:00PM 337,000 Viewers Lost 157,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Thursday 8:00PM 361,000 Family Feud Thursday 8:00PM 449,000 Viewers Lost 88,000 Carnie Wilson: Unstapled Friday 8:30PM 270,000 Family Feud Friday 8:30PM 505,000 Viewers Lost 235,000
Read MoreView Comments (41)27Jan2010
Jane Lynch from Glee Asks Question on “Millionaire” January 29th
All you fans of Glee on Fox are definitely going to want to check out Who Wants to be a Millionaire this Friday, January 29th. Jane Lynch will be reading a $10,000 question to the contestant as part of the show's new Celebrity Question gimmick. Jane, from the set of Glee, will ask a question to the contestant Clyde Wheeler, and tell him if he's right or wrong. In addition to Glee, Jane also starred the great movies Best In Show and For Your Consideration (two of my favorites) as well as many others. Disney/ABC provided us with a clip to give you a glimpse as to what you can see tomorrow on the show. Take a look.
Read MoreView Comments (42)27Jan2010
“Price is Right” Contestant Faints
Price is Right has been filled with a bunch of crazy/interesting moments recently, hasn't it? Last week we had one of the most painful, depressing overbids in the show's history. Then days later we had another contestant overbid for even less (though with prizes not nearly as cool). A few days ago the show had yet another one of these moments which is making the viral video rounds. Meet Nancy, who's apparently very excited about making it to the Showcase. She goes through the usual crappy gift introduction, waiting for the reveal of the car or trip which everyone wants to see. I haven't seen it happen before, but the car shocked her quite a bit. So much so that she fainted.
Read MoreView Comments (9)26Jan2010
“Solitary” Begins Final Fox Reality Season January 30th
One of my favorite shows on cable, Solitary, looks to be coming to a close. With Fox Reality closing shop, the cult hit reality show wrapping up its run on the network with its fourth season. It begins Saturday, January 30th, at 10:00PM ET. If you haven't see it yet, definitely check out Hulu to catch up. It's fantastic. Simply put, nine people are kept in individual isolation pods, shutting them off from essentially everybody and every thing from the outside world. Players compete in challenges that test them physically, mentally, and emotionally until someone cracks and is eliminated. At the end of the series, the final surviving contestant leaves with $50,000. It's a great, tense show.
Read MoreView Comments (23)25Jan2010
“Don’t Forget The Lyrics!” Goes Syndicated in Fall 2010
This just in: The hit Fox game show Don't Forget The Lyrics! will be going into daily syndication in Fall 2010. It's been cleared in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Washington, D.C.. The singing game show will be partnered with Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? across the country. Coincidentally these shows were paired for much of their nice run on Fox, where they regularly scored good ratings. Former Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath will be host. Mark was also previously the host of the entertainment news magazine show Extra.
Read MoreView Comments (56)25Jan2010
TBI Lists Most Popular Game Shows in 2009
Don't we all love lists? Well, not really, but this one's pretty interesting. Television Business International recently compiled a list of the ten most popular game show formats of 2009. This wasn't based on their personal favorites or what the few random readers chose in a poll. This is all based off of which shows got the most eyeballs around the globe last year. A lot of the choices aren't surprises at all, but a few are really shocking.
Read MoreView Comments (16)22Jan2010
This Week on UK “Deal or No Deal”
So while our Deal or No Deal continues to flounder and drift into obscurity, the British version is chugging along rather nicely. January 18th's episode in particular was pretty exciting. Contestant Shell didn't have a particularly strong game to start. The top two figures, £250,000 and £100,000; were removed in the first round. It was looking pretty rough for her up to the final rounds of the game. And this is where our clip begins. It's a shame that we can't get stuff like this on our show. Deal is such a brainless, dumb show that it needs a few extra things pumped in that don't involve ponies being given away.
Read MoreView Comments (17)21Jan2010
American “The Cube” Pilot Shooting Soon
Thanks to our friends at Bother's Bar for pointing this out. All the complaining and moaning we did about how Fox dropped The Cube was not for nothing apparently. Audience service website Lost In TV has listings up for a new US edition of the hit UK game show The Cube. The pilot will be taping on the English set to save costs and we'll see where it goes from there. If you're one of our UK readers you can get tickets here. It tapes February 4th and you need to be there at 6:00PM. If you go and tell us who it's for we'll shower you with praise and adulation.
Read MoreView Comments (37)21Jan2010
John O’Hurley Leaves “Family Feud”; Steve Harvey New Host in Fall
Sad news to start the day off with. John O'Hurley has announced this is his final season on the popualr syndicated game show Family Feud. He's without a shadow of a doubt the best host that show has had since Richard Dawson and they are losing a major reason why the show is so enjoyable. He's been a great friend to the site over the past few years and an integral part of why the show still exists to this day. He will deeply be missed. The new host will be comedian Steve Harvey, who actually may be a fantastic fit. Steve will begin hosting in Fall 2010 when Family Feud begins its record setting 12th season. It becomes the longest surviving series of the show in the history of the franchise.
Read MoreView Comments (136)20Jan2010
Brutal Results on “The Price is Right” Showcase
The Price is Right isn't exactly a hotbed of excitement and danger. It's usually just people winning a dining room or smiling when they lose. Today, though, had probably one of the most painful and depressing moments I've ever seen on the show. It came during the Showcase round, with contestant Jeffrey playing for a Porsche, an extremely expensive and rare prize for the show. The usually groan-free happy show turned into face-covering depression as we saw the results. Take a look. I don't think I've ever heard a reaction like that on Price from an audience, but it was needed. What a brutal and heartbreaking incident.
Read MoreView Comments (51)20Jan2010
Twentieth Television Pitching Companion to “Fifth Grader”
Thanks to James D. for the update. TVNewsCheck has reported that Twentieth Television may be bringing a game new to NATPE, held next week. The show is being pitched as a companion show to Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, renewed for a second season in syndication. No word or information on the show yet. It may be late but don't count it out. A few years back Merv Griffin's Crosswords was a late announcement and it got picked
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