BREAKING NEWS: Rich Cronin Resigns from GSN at the End of July
GSN’s president and CEO, Rich Cronin, is resigning from the network at the end of July. Until then, he will be working closely with GSN and its clients to insure a smooth transition. Cronin joined the network in 2001 and in his six years. During this time, GSN’s distribution has expanded from 31 to 64 million homes, helped pioneer interactive and participation television, and transformed GSN.com into a destination for gaming instead of just a promotional site. Under Rich Cronin, GSN developed several hit game shows such as Lingo, High Stakes Poker, World Series of Blackjack, and the National Vocabulary Championship. In addition, Cronin brought the World Poker Tour to the network in 2008 and has worked closely in launching new and returning shows such as Without Prejudice?, Grand Slam, and That’s The Question, all of which debut between July and September. Also, Cronin saw the rebranding of Game Show Network to GSN. Commenting on his decision, Cronin said: “I am honored to have led a great team of creative business people in pioneering interactive television games and in growing GSN so dramatically. Together we have built a strong business that combines GSN television, GSN.com, mobile/text participation and other digital media.”
When he leaves, we’ll probably see a big change in GSN. The question is: will it be good or bad? Only time will tell…
My magic 8-ball has a troubling response:
“OUTLOOK NOT GOOD”
He’s leaving at a pretty bad time for GSN. Their ratings are mediocre, if not downright bad, and they still have the same identity crisis they had six years ago. The only good thing is that the number of viewers more than doubled.
Hopefully, the new CEO can find a consistent identity for the network, and cut out the tacky look, i.e. obvious speed-up and slowdowns, and cutting off the ending in the middle of the credits. That’s not a rant on the credit squeezes, it just looks cruddy.
Good tiddance. I am not a fan of this man, and I never will be. That’s the Question and Grand Slam are the best things he’s done in recent memory. I personally hope his baby Without Prejudice fails as a last laugh on him.
Maybe now we’ll finally see something done with the endlessly-rerunning Whammy as well as the return of Barry and Enright….
Fix that to “riddance,” my mistake. My happiness at seeing him go overwhelmed me :\
I wonder what will happen to Lingo and the Playmania block.
Well Adam maybe it will be like when Cronin came. If you can remember in 2001 Cronin got rid of every original on the network at the time. This included “3′s a Crowd”, “Inquisition”, and “Hollywood Showdown”.
I just hope who ever comes in, is a Game Show lover. Hey maybe they could offer Bob Boden a whole bunch a money. That would for sure be great for classic fans. But I think he is probably happy over at Fox Reality.
Good Riddance, Cronin is gone!!!!!!
Finally! A change in management. I just hope that GSN will retool its schedule to have more classics. I missed the Wheel of Fortune reruns when they stopped showing them, and I’ve just gotten sick of “Whammy!” The credits crunch is just killing me because I like to see the endings, so maybe they need to get rid of THAT too.
I do hope they include more originals rather than the reality and poker/ blackjack crap they have been showing now that Cronin is leaving. Way back before GSN (for those who don’t know this), he was a contestant on “Password Plus”, winning $3300.
I had no idea this guy was so disliked in our game show community. Cronin brought Michael Davies on board and made other moves favorable to those who like traditional games, especially word games, some of which are only now bearing fruit. Look at those great documentaries! Really, I think people are too eager to skewer this guy. Now if they can only get Bob Boden back into the fold, as losing him was the greatest sin of Cronin’s tenure.
I don’t have a problem with Poker (which is very well done, for those who like that…sure beats WSOP repeats) and Black Jack is OK (not my cup of tea). The key is getting rid of all the the Kenny and Spenny, Dog Eat Dog-type crap that had been on the air. Face it, it is no longer Game Show Network and probably never will be again. But more classics in the overnight hours would be a great thing. (Or more old pilots, or Brilliant-but-cancelled type episodes).
Cronin left GSN better than it was when he came to it, so we have the opportunity kvetch all we like instead of mourning the loss of the cabler altogether.
I think the man is so hated because of what he did to the network in 2004. The stuff he did was unforgivable to the Game Show Die Hards. He had a great thing going with Game Show Network and changed it into a bunch of trash. Sure the network is in the black and has doubled the number of homes it is in, but the ratings just plain stink. In May they had a rating of a .3 and 173,000 people watching. That really stinks.
You know I really hope they bring Boden back. But as I said, he probably doesn’t want to. I can only hope.
Here’s my view, take it or leave it:
GSN loses 23% (or something like that) of it’s viewers.
It’s signature show, QuizNation has been a mess. (Probably trying to keep Optimistic a float)
Cronin “resigns.” 3 of the last 4 QN shows have been “watchable.” (Main problem last night was stupid answers anqd people not paying attention–no real stalling or Zombie mode)
The question I have: Did he actually resign freely, or has Sony/Liberty Media finally had enough.
Cronin actually did do some good things. He brought us Russian Roulette, Lingo, CR, TTQ, Etc. and you can’t complain about Camouflage, NVC, and we know Grand Slam is going to be good. Also, GS themed documentaries have been a long time coming, and we finally got those.
The new guy (or gal) must realize that this is still a network where game shows are still the main product. I don’t mind a bit of Poker or reality mixed in, but strike a balance somewhere. There needs to be more of a healthy balance of classic and original programming.
Actually I could complain about NVC. That was as boring as their Online Games tournament. And I agree with you on Poker. As long as it still brings in the ratings, I don’t mind it on the network. Its shows like DED, Whammy, and Chain Reaction that I hope the new President gets rid of.
Xavier, you are right about Whammy (hard to believe it is still in repeats for as few shows as were made). Really a bastardization of the original. Probably the reason Todd Newton will NOT be the next host of TPIR. As for Quiznation, I’ve never watched it and I’m not interested. Seems too low-budget and cheezy. Also, get rid of the Infomercials and run real shows instead in the early morning — imagine how they could counterprogram to the Today show, etc.
I am a huge game show fan. If I had control of the network I would run more of the classics. Granted I would keep shows though like Lingo, chain reaction, that’s the question, russian roulette ( which i wish would have stayed on longer). I would keep the Goodson- Todman Library and add Barry and Enright along with some of these shows ( Debt, SuperMarket Sweep, Caesar’s challenge, Sale Of The Century, Scrabble, The Challengers, High Rollers, Wipeout, Remote Control and Singled Out which i would put on at night.
yy, Playmania has been sucky since Mel Peachey left, and it’s good that Let’s Make a Deal returned this summer, but we need more classics to return to GSN (B&E, Wheel of Fortune $25,000 Pyramid, Go!, Hollywood Squares (Not Bergeron)and others not seen in a LOOOOOOONG time) I hope Match Game 90 returns
AND DITCH THE STUPID POKER SHOWS AND THE WORLD POKER TOUR, Blackjack can stay I love blackjack, BUT WE NEED POKER AND DED AND THE AMAZING RACE TO GO, AND BRING BACK WHAT WE GSN FAN MISS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANYONE AGREE?
What many fans fail to realize is that, in spite of his flaws- Cronin took a network that people didn’t even know existed (you don’t know how many times I would talk about watching stuff on GSN as recent as 5 years ago and people would say “there’s a game show network?”) now at least people know what it is and its presence is at least more known than it was before.
Everyone talks about a “he had had a great thing going with game show network and he ruined it” yeah, he had a great thing going…for US. Game show diehards are the minority. If they had stayed the course prior to the name change, we wouldn’t have a GSN or Game show network now, because the number of homes wouldn’t be as high as it is today.
Cronin seemed to try and convert GSN too fast into something for the masses…fortunatley, when most of his experiements bombed (KvsS, Fake a Date, Videogames, vegas weddings) he and the staff realized that and came up with a hyrbid network of classics, modern classics, originals, casino and reality. A network that is a much easier sell to the masses.
So to him, I say best of luck- and his successor? Good luck.
The worse thing GSN had during the Cronin era was airing at 9 AM EDT/EST Arsenio Hall’s “Star Search”.
Oh, yy that replaced the $25,000 Pyramid, but thankfully, Star Search lasted 1 year.
The key is getting rid of all the the Kenny and Spenny, Dog Eat Dog-type crap that had been on the air.
KvS has been off GSN’s airwaves for a while now. DED, on the other hand, must still be doing at least somewhat well; otherwise, GSN wouldn’t be using it so often for filler. (That said, it’d be nice if they chose a different game show once in a while. ;))
Bob Boden now works for Fox Reality. I seriously doubt GSN can get him back.
AND DITCH THE STUPID POKER SHOWS AND THE WORLD POKER TOUR, Blackjack can stay I love blackjack, BUT WE NEED POKER AND DED AND THE AMAZING RACE TO GO, AND BRING BACK WHAT WE GSN FAN MISS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANYONE AGREE?
I emphatically disagree. Speak for yourself; don’t presume to speak for anyone else.
High Stakes Poker has been doing very well for GSN. IMO, picking up the WPT was also a very smart move. It’s pretty much on par with the World Series of Poker in terms of recognizability and branding, not to mention it’d be a better fit on GSN than it has been on the Travel Channel (at least IMO). TAR has to stay on GSN for at least another two years (which is when its contract runs out). Meanwhile, the only thing I really “miss” on the schedule is Combs’ Feud, but I’m not as adamant about wanting it back as other fans of it are.
And the worst scheduling for the last weeks/months of Rich Cronin’s GSN head reign was acquiring ABC’s short lived “Show Me The Money” with William Shatner that included the 5 aired episodes and the 2 unaired episodes. Only the first 2 “Show Me The Money” episodes aired over a 2 week span in June 2007 on Tuesdays then got canned by GSN not making it to the 2 unaired episodes (where the contestant on the last aired show needed only 2 more correct answers and had about $600,000ish) and was replaced by a WWTBAM episode for a week and now is replaced by Dog Eat Dog.
Thank God for Pageoclips.com when I need a classic game show fix. Something tells me that the new guy (or gal) at GSN will be putting fewer of the classics on. I think I won’t be B & E or the Bob Stewart games on regular rotation for quite some time to come. I’m watching $20,000 pyramid right now as I speak. That’s the way game shows should be done. Good times, good times.
Hopefully the new guy (or girl) would step back and not screw up the network.
Well, Rich did a great job to bring new programming to this network. I hope that the addition of the WPT and Without Prejudice? will improve the network’s ratings as a good send-off and that David Goldhill will follow in his footstps.
Well they announced a new president. I am sure Alex will have more on him in a little bit. Right Alex?
One more thing to mention: If that’s a picture of Rich Cronin, than he looks strangely like a bald(ing) Bil Dwyer.