24Mar2010
Ratings Report: Everybody’s Down
Sweeps are over and back-to-normal ratings are coming in. I feel like mentioning Wheel of Fortune first. By the way, all the ratings come from the week ending March 14th. Wheel was only down 1% to a 7.3, and of course it was still the highest rated syndicated show. The interesting thing is that they really didn't save the big money wins for Sweeps like everyone else tends to do. They've apparently had a few $100,000 winners in the past week or so. It's a bit interesting that they didn't put these in the month that really mattered at this time: February sweeps. But I don't think Wheel really has to worry about that. Out of all the syndicated shows I don't think they need much help getting anyone. Jeopardy!, Wheel's very exclamatory
Read MoreView Comments (8)23Mar2010
“Family Feud” Auditions in Orlando and Cabazon; New Facebook Game
UPDATED: Family Feud has added some more audition dates. They will be in Boston on April 17th and 18th as well as Miami, Florida, on April 24th and 25th. The contestant hot line as always is 323-762-8467 so keep checking for constant updates on those. Check with your local events calendar also. We're getting all set up for an amazing twelfth season of the syndicated game show Family Feud. The biggest change, of course, is that host John O'Hurley is leaving and being replaced by comedian and actor Steve Harvey, who looks like he'll be doing great. And since we're so close to show time the show needs contestants. Two auditions on both sides of the country are being held. We went to one of these auditions last season to show you what
Read MoreView Comments (33)23Mar2010
NBC’s “Minute to Win It” Now Casting
I know we've got some people here who enjoyed Minute to Win It, airing Sundays on NBC. If you're one of those who liked to play the games at home or in your office, that practice may have come in handy. NBC is holding an open casting call for contestants this Sunday at the Universal City Walk in California. Here's the notice NBC sent us. If you go for it, good luck. Want to win a million dollars!!! NBC's Minute To Win It is hosting an OPEN CASTING CALL this Sunday at Universal City Walk!!! "Minute to Win It" is a new family-friendly competition series, hosted by Guy Fieri, featuring 10 deceptively simple games that require savvy contestants to complete under pressure with a prize of $1 million awaiting the winner. Competitor
Read MoreView Comments (11)23Mar2010
Jerry Springer Hosts GSN’s “Baggage”
UPDATED: Either it's an incredible coincidence that GSN just formally announced Baggage or we pressured them into it. Regardless I'm sure that's another dart in the board with my face on it there. Baggage will debut Monday, April 19th, at 6:30PM ET. Don't worry about Catch 21, I'm hearing it'll be back. Be on the lookout for another original after that. Baggage sees three contestants with their dating "baggage" eliminated down to one, and the potential date must reveal some of his or her own baggage. I just want to bring up one amusing point, and something I'll be discussing a lot whenever I mention the show? They are unbelievably adamant in casting notices that no one will be going out on a date and that you don't have to be singl
Read MoreView Comments (35)22Mar2010
“Minute to Win It” Slides in Week Two; Major Show Edits
I've got a few Minute to Win It news flashes for you this evening. First is the second week ratings. It's well established that the second or third week ratings for any new show are what matters, because you can see a viewing pattern. If we are to take the second week ratings into account, it's not looking good for the Guy Fieri hosted NBC game. Minute sank to a 2.9/5, with 5.2 million viewers. That's down two million viewers from last week. It lost the hour in overall ratings as well as the key demographic, which plummeted 25%. If we see it go down much more I doubt the show will even finish its run. I don't know if it'll have much effect on The Cube since I'm getting more hints that it was officially greenlit, but you never know.
Read MoreView Comments (16)22Mar2010
Monty Hall Returns to “Let’s Make A Deal” Today on CBS
Just a small reminder that Monty Hall will return to his original home, Let's Make A Deal, starting today on CBS. Check your local listings since air times vary across the country.
Read MoreView Comments (5)22Mar2010
“Millionaire” News Roundup: UK, Australia, Norway, and USA
I've got a bunch of news for all fans of the world's best quiz show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, today. Let's start nationally. We're finally back to new episodes after a lot of reruns and specials! Starting Monday we'll see one of the show's most memorable and enjoyable contestants in years, Susan Filer, go for $100,000. She's got an amazing story and it's one of the more emotional contestants in a while, so check it out. All this week as Expert is pound-for-pound one of the funniest people in America, Greg Proops. He's a smart guy so he should be pretty helpful. Moving to England now. As we previously reported, the English version of Millionaire will be going a little bit American. They added the clock, and removed Fastest F
Read MoreView Comments (18)19Mar2010
GSN Picks Up “Million Dollar Password”, Adds Classic “Card Sharks”
So GSN may suck at originals these days, but they do really well with the acquisitions. We've got schedules updated for the week of March 22nd and March 29th. Not much happens the week of the 22nd, but the 29th has some interesting changes. Lots of daytime changes starting, of all days, April 1st. It's like some sort of joke, but it's the same on April 2nd. April Fools? We were just kidding to be crappy for a few months? 9:00AM ET: Dawson Family Feud (replaces Match Game) 9:30AM ET: Eubanks Card Sharks (replaces Match Game PM) 10:00AM ET: Perry Card Sharks (replaces Family Feud) 10:30AM ET: The $25,000 Pyramid (same) 11:00AM ET: The $100,000 Pyramid (replaces Hollywood Squares) 11:30AM ET: Match Game (replaces Jeopardy!) It
Read MoreView Comments (58)18Mar2010
“Millionaire” Goes “Dancing With the Stars” March 29th
Who Wants to be a Millionaire has yet another themed week for fans coming up at the end of the month. This time, if you're a fan of the hit ABC show Dancing With the Stars, you aren't going to want to miss the show the week of March 29th. The syndicated quiz hosted by Meredith Vieira will present a special Dancing With the Stars edition, featuring the cast of the show and more. Fans of the show have been selected to compete this week, facing the show's general trivia questions for a shot at winning the $1,000,000 top prize. Special questions about Dancing With the Stars have also been thrown in to help these fans get higher up the money chain. Celebrity Questions the week of March 29th will showcase various Dancing With the Stars cas
Read MoreView Comments (4)17Mar2010
“Price is Right” Gives Away First Double Showcase of the Season
It's always exciting to see someone come within the $250 range in the showcases on The Price is Right, winning them both. It hasn't happened yet, and frankly despite the complaints it should be really hard to win. They're giving away a ton of cash and prizes with that. You don't want to see it go away too often. You want to build anticipation. The months of anticipation and several extremely close overbids (one yesterday) finally came to a close. Contestant Kendra Cross, a Marine from Dallas, was the first person this season to win the lot. She won cash, a Mini Cooper Convertible, a few trips including one to Ireland for the St. Patrick's Day special, and more. It's great to see these rare giant wins on the show. Enjoy below.
Read MoreView Comments (20)17Mar2010
Ratings Report: Big Gain For “Jeopardy!” and “Millionaire”
The sweeps period is over with a bit of a whimper rather than a bang to be honest, but I digress. The Winter Olympics didn't help the genre much. Ratings are in for the most recent period and the shows that reaped the most benefits are Jeopardy! and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Jeopardy!, the age old quiz show, finished at a 6.3 for the month of February. It's down a tiny bit from last week, but overall the show saw year-to-year increase. It rose a big 9% from February 2009. Its sister show Wheel of Fortune finished at 7.4, flat from last week. It did go up 3% year to year, though. I bring this up because I can't remember a time that didn't involve Ken Jennings where the Jeopardy! ratings have been so close to Wheel. Good for the
Read MoreView Comments (11)17Mar2010
“Don’t Forget the Lyrics!” Casting; $100,000 Top Prize
Don't Forget The Lyrics! will be returning from the dead, paired with Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? in syndication (in many markets) as well as MyNetwork and VH1. We're rapidly approaching production time, and it's time to start casting. Lyrics! is now looking for contestants interested in playing the karaoke game. The only real requirement is, as they say, to, "be knowledgeable of song lyrics and sing your heart out." There's a $100,000 top prize also which should be pretty good incentive. If you're in the Los Angeles area and are interested, click here to apply. Good luck, and tell them we sent you.
Read MoreView Comments (7)15Mar2010
“Minute to Win It” Debut Ratings and Episode Alert
Two things about Minute to Win It, which debuted last night at 7:00PM ET on NBC. We'll look at positives and negatives. One negative is that it was in third place for each half hour. A quick positive, though, is that it did manage to gain viewers each half hour. It's always encouraging when a show doesn't lose viewers each half. Next negative: the overall numbers were just not very good. The 7:00PM hour averaged 4.57 viewers and the 8:00PM hour saw 7.2 million. It did grow but neither number was very good. Another positive is the key demo rating. It maxed out in 2nd place and a 2.6 rating (nearly 8 million viewers total). And the show's incredibly cheap to do. If it can stay in this area then it may be safe. But shows typically
Read MoreView Comments (14)14Mar2010
LIVE CHAT: “Minute to Win It” Debuts Tonight at 7:00PM ET on NBC
Just a small reminder for everyone that NBC's newest game show, Minute to Win It, will debut tonight at 7:00PM ET. We've gone over every conceivable opinion of the show that I have, so no point getting into that. Instead, be sure to tell me what you think and if nothing else we may get more incognito NBC people commenting. Like it? Hate it? In between? Think it's a huge The Cube copy? Leave your comments during the show (or after of course) and let the world know. Feel free to post spoilers, so read during the show at your own risk.
Read MoreView Comments (31)14Mar2010
Rumor Control: “Deal or No Deal” Coming Back to NBC?
I've got a pretty big rumor for you today. We got an interesting email on Saturday. Apparently there are targeted casting notices going out for Deal or No Deal. Not the now-canceled syndicated edition either. The notice specifically states NBC and specifically states a $1,000,000 top prize. Again, this is a very targeted casting notice. People are being specifically messaged on some talent hunting websites which means, if this is for real, they want people extremely quickly. Having a full casting session would add a lot of time (and cost) to this. The notice expires on Monday. Also the notice is sent out by a legitimate verified big industry person from the Los Angeles area, so it's not some joke being pulled. I won't post the not
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