15Sep2010
News Flashes: Syndication, Videos, and More
Nothing big today beyond the very exciting Jeopardy! from last night, so here are a few news flashes. As a teaser, by the way, we'll have exclusive interviews with @Family_Feud host Steve Harvey and Who Wants to be a Millionaire executive producer Rich Sirop coming very soon. In this news flash we look at the final ratings for the summer season, a behind the scenes video of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, a small 1 VS 100 update, and the return of two popular British shows. Read more to find out everything.
Read MoreView Comments (6)23Aug2010
News Flashes: “1 VS 100″, iPad Apps, and “Family Feud”
Nothing big yet so here are some early morning news flashes for you. We'll have an interview with Who Wants to be a Millionaire host Meredith Vieira later so stay tuned. Our American news flashes include a veteran game show producer consulting for Millionaire, exclusive word on an offer placed on a host for GSN's new season of 1 VS 100, new iPad game show apps, and a new clip of @Family_Feud and Steve Harvey.
Read MoreView Comments (10)11Aug2010
GSN REVIVES “1 VS 100″
We reported weeks ago that 1 VS 100 would be coming back to television, but we could not say the network. We can now confirm that GSN has picked up the incredibly popular Endemol game show for a new series of episodes. The show has been off the air since 2008, but it came back for an XBox run until 2010. The show will now return to television. 1 VS 100 is now casting for its new season. Click here to be a contestant or, possibly, a Mob member and win huge money. Read on for all the exciting details and updates regarding the show, and leave a comment to say what you think.
Read MoreView Comments (42)15Jul2010
XBox “1 VS 100″ Dead
The world has gone 1 VS 100 crazy recently. First we got the exclusive word that an American television network is looking at picking up 1 VS 100 for a brand new (and cheaper which will probably work better) series. Today, though, we get bad news. XBox has announced that it's 1 VS 100 live arcade game has finished after two seasons. The show seemed strong, with tens of thousands playing for real cash and prizes each week. The outcry for the death of 1 VS 100 has been very visible, too. Check out any tech blog and you'll see an overwhelming if not unanimous declaration of sadness to see the show go away. It was very popular and done unbelievably well. It opened the door for a lot of social game show programming. I doubt we would have seen stuff like the Family Feud Facebook game without it. Read on for more information.
Read MoreView Comments (6)13Jul2010
Format Update: “Baggage”, “1 VS 100″, and “Pass the Joke”
I've got some small updates about various formats. Let's start with the most exciting. *I'm hearing from very reliable sources that 1 VS 100 is looking to make a television network comeback. It won't be on NBC, though. 1 VS 100 has been a major player for GSN, achieving big ratings for the game show network even though it has few episodes. Next, GSN has a hit with Baggage in America, and it's starting to sell abroad. Our friends at K7Media forwarded us to a report that the French network NRJ 12 has picked up Baggage for a 30 episode run. It will debut in France in September. Finally, A new unscripted TV production company, Shevick Zupon Entertainment, just got a show commissioned by GSN for a pilot apparently. According to C21Media, the company is developing the show Pass the Joke for the network, which is based on a 1972 format originally hosted by comedian Milton Berle. Read on for full details and more exclusive inside information.
Read MoreView Comments (29)05Jul2010
Video Games: “1 VS 100″, “WCG” and NBC Gaming Show
I know we've got a lot of people who are big video game players who read. Thought it would be a good idea to do a video game update which vaguely ties in to the idea of the site. Vague is what we do best. We've got updates on XBox's 1 VS 100, the World Cyber Games airing on Spike, and NBC's new video game primetime show.
Read MoreView Comments (10)10Nov2009
“1 VS 100″ Returns to XBox Live For a Second Season on November 19th
I'm guessing many of you XBox owners who had the option to got the 1 VS 100 game for XBox Live. It seems to have been wildly successful and popular. Good news for you all. The game will be returning for a second season on November 19th at 8:00PM ET/5:00PM PT. They'll have differently themed "Extended Play" games each night so look out for those. You can win some nice prizes, too. Actual prizes; not those fake virtual ones. No reason not to play. Click here for all the details. The game plays pretty much like the show. The "One" has to answer multiple choice questions correctly to stay in the game, and each of the 100 people in the mob that gets it wrong is out. The contestant earns Microsoft points the more he or she eliminates
Read MoreView Comments (9)02Jun2009
The Dutch are Better Than Us: “Een Tegen 100″
The Dutch have a lot of fantastic things, but they seem to be the new England in terms of exporting game shows. Deal or No Deal came from there, as did fan favorite 1 VS 100. Their version, Een Tegen 100, really trumps all other versions. The game basically plays like everywhere else around the world with some small but very crucial and fantastic tweaks. The One is picked from the Mob. A category is given and the contestant can choose a Medium or Difficult question. If the One is right, the One gets money based off of the formula (€50,000/Number of Surviving Mob Members) x Mob Members Eliminated. Meaning that first question is worth €500 for each Mob member eliminated, and it goes up the further you go along, and the final question,
Read MoreView Comments (15)07May2009
“1 VS 100″ for X Box Live is Almost Here!
For all you game show fans who have a Microsoft X Box, I doubt you're going to want to miss the live 1 VS 100 game. This thing has been in development for a very long time under a few different companies and outputs, but it's settled on the Microsoft gaming system. If you're a gold member, you get to play for free against the Mob for a chance at actual prizes. Can't beat that. First off, take a look at the picture of the look of the game. They did a beautiful job rendering everything and making it a very intense and fun experience for anyone who wants to play an actual game show at their home. It plays like the television show. If you know how that works, you're good. If not, all you do is answer trivia questions. If you get one
Read MoreView Comments (16)28Apr2009
GSN Schedule Changes; “Deal or No Deal” and “1 VS 100″ Get Debut Dates
We've got lots of exciting GSN schedule changes coming up for you. First, let's talk about the awards. As we said before, the 2009 GSN Game Show Awards will debut on June 6th at 8:00PM ET and air through 10:30PM ET. Rerun times are varied. First you can watch a full rerun directly following the awards at 10:30PM ET. A special two hour edition of the awards show, without the red carpet and winner interviews, airs on June 7th at 4:00PM ET. Now onto the big news. Yes, as we reported before, Deal or No Deal and 1 VS 100 will be on the GSN schedule in June. You can see Deal or No Deal Monday through Friday at 7:00PM ET starting June 1st replacing Lingo and Pyramid. It will rerun weekdays at 11:00PM ET replacing Lingo, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00PM ET replacing Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and 8:00PM ET on Saturdays replacing Family Feud. I haven't seen the first episodes of Deal or No Deal in ages, and those early shows were miles better than the later ones, so this is a nice change. The one I'm most excited for, and I have a feeling a lot of you are excited for as well, is the return of 1 VS 100. Not a lot of episodes exist but GSN scheduled it nicely. 1 VS 100, NBC's hit quiz show, will air Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00PM ET starting on June 6th replacing Lingo, 6:00PM ET on Saturdays replacing Pyramid, and Saturdays at 2:00AM ET replacing Dog Eat Dog. Any 1 VS 100 is such a welcome addition. There's some daytime shuffling here as well. Whammy! will air weekdays at 11:00AM ET starting June 1st replacing Let's Make A Deal which is apparently now under Fremantle's control. Pyramid will replace The Weakest Link at 4:00PM ET weekdays, and the syndicated version of Millionaire will air weekends at noon replacing Let's Make A Deal. We're still not done, believe it or not. Saturdays get a major redo starting June 13th. The new show 2oQ, which hasn't gotten any good word from literally every single person who audioned that got back to me , will debut June 13th at 8:00PM ET. It's an hour long show stretched to an hour and a half because of GSN's Big Saturday Nights. Again, the initial buzz isn't good for the show but we never know until we see it. The Money List which taped nearly a year ago starts the same night from 9:30PM ET to 11:00PM ET, again because of stretching for the special evening. This is really long-awaited and I couldn't be more excited to see it show up. Starting Sunday June 14th, 2oQ will run for just its hour at 4:00PM ET, The Newlywed Game and Catch 21 air at 4:00PM ET, and The Money List at 5:00PM ET. Not only that we've got a Father's Day marathon of Super Password on Sunday, June 21st, from 9:00AM ET to 1:00PM ET. I know this is a huge amount to digest so we've got a picture of all the changes all scheduled out for you, after the break. (more...)
Read MoreView Comments (26)14Apr2009
Rumor Control: “1 VS 100″ Coming Back?
We've got an interesting scoop from our news feed in a message we received; some very big news which will probably excite a lot of people around here. Apparently 1 VS 100 is being poised for a return. We were asked to keep the source anonymous for now, but the source has absolutely no reason to lie. We actually have 20Q to thank for this, amazingly. That new GSN show is from Endemol, who makes Deal or No Deal and 1 VS 100. When casting for 20Q, apparently some casting people let it slip that 1 VS 100 is coming back with the same team as last time and casting will begin for that show whenever they get the word to start. We've got some people commenting on here about the 20Q run-throughs which sound dreadful, so this is redemption. Let's just see how they handle the show and what version of the rules they go to. But we may be getting ahead of ourselves also. Nothing's official until the final say. As with all our stories that are from people casting shows in a company, that's a revolving door and we can never be completely sure until we're given the word. Again, all the names are edited out to make sure nothing bad happens to anyone, but I was told it's fine to post the story. I don't 100% believe it yet, but I want to. I want to very badly. Plus NBC could really use anything, and 1 VS 100 was an honest hit for them before they shuffled it away for treasures such as Howie Do It. I'll be calling NBC and Endemol all day tomorrow to figure out what's going on and any truth they can give us. Knowing how this stuff works we'll keep getting, "No comment," but at least there's some positive news here.
Read MoreView Comments (26)28Mar2009
“1 VS 100″ and “Wheel of Fortune” Come to the iPhone and iPod Touch
Good news for all you iPhone or iPod Touch users like myself. Gameloft and Sony have come out with two fantastic new game shows for the system based off of Wheel of Fortune and NBC's 1 VS 100. I'll start with the better one first. Shockingly 1 VS 100 is by far the better game and, to be quite honest, the best over-all game show game released for the iPhone. The game follows the rules of the actual good version perfectly. It uses the three-questions-at-$1,000; two-questions-at-$2,000; one-question-at-$3,000-to-$10,000 format which was by far the best before NBC and Endemol decided they wanted a millionaire more than anything. The three helps (Ask the Mob, Poll the Mob, Trust the Mob) are there for your disposal and, again, work exactly like the show. The real nice part is the great lengths they went to to make the game look like the show. They brought in the real version of the great music from the show, the great graphics, a fully rendered 3D set, a host, and more. The best part is probably the fact that the questions are like the show's difficulty at that point in time (before NBC and Endemol got rid of the good writers) so it's very hard to win. It's going to take a lot of time. Obviously it's not the same as playing 100 real people, but it'll take you a good 15-20 questions to win if you can survive that long. It's only $4.99 and there are over a thousand questions. I've played it a lot and I haven't repeated one yet, which the Millionaire iPhone game has a problem with. I can't recommend the game enough for fans of the show, game show fans, or just straight trivia fans. It's one of the best quiz games for the iPhone, period. Click here to go to the game's page. Then comes Wheel of Fortune which is a bit confusing. They actually follow the rules of the current show pretty well. You get the two toss-ups, all the special wedges like the Jackpot and Mystery, and items like that. You also get the Million Dollar Wedge thrown in which is a nice touch. The puzzles are tricky and fun. You actually spin the wheel by dragging it with your finger. The only negatives are with the presentation. The graphics are a bit cheap looking, but they do the job. It looks like the show and it looks like the actually made an effort, more than the Deal or No Deal game developers did, so there's credit to them there. The real negative comes from the confusing sound effects and music. The game doesn't use any of the sounds of the show. It's basically either all sound-alike effects or music cues which don't really come from the show and sound like they were played through a really crappy cell phone and not good headphones. The game was licensed by Sony; it's not like they couldn't just ask for the effects. But the game's got a ton of puzzles. I've yet to repeat any. It's a very entertaining quick game for $4.99. Pick it up if you get a few free bucks. Click here to get it.
Read MoreView Comments (8)05Feb2009
Bob Saget Lands New ABC Sitcom
Good news for a former game show host. Bob Saget, formerly the host of the still-confusing-why-it-was-canceled-with-good-ratings 1 VS 100, will be on the new ABC sitcom Surviving Suburbia, which was scrapped from The CW because of their Sunday night problems and ABC thankfully picked it up. It's set to air Mondays at 9:30PM ET starting April 6th following Dancing With the Stars. Looks like ABC has some faith in this traditional audience-based sitcom.
Read MoreView Comments (6)17Dec2008
Best Holiday Gifts for Game Show Fans
It's amazing that Christmas is almost here, isn't it? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were welcoming in 2008, and 2009 is right around the corner. Christmas is only in 8 days and it may be time to get those last minute gifts for your family. If you have game show fans in your family, or just know people who like games, we have a list of our favorites items of the past year which will make anyone on your list happy. Recently released for the iPhone, iPod, and other mobile devices is the new version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? which will make a fantastic gift along with the DVD version. The DVD game is a pretty fun party game, including the multiplayer mode, but it's always a bit disappointing to see they can never include Switch the Question on any game using the old format. But beyond that, it follows the original version of the show very well. Click here to get it from GSNShop. In regards to the iPhone game, the format is exactly as it is on television currently. You have ten Experts available to use for Ask the Expert. Modern graphics and actual show music are used well, as well as a video introduction from host Meredith Vieira. For $4.99, it's definitely worth the purchase. Honestly, the only negative mark is that the categories repeat in one game more than they should, but the questions are different. Check the iPhone app store to get that. (more...)
Read MoreView Comments (6)06Aug2008
“Fifth Grader” Goes Syndie in 2009
It's been out there for a while but it's being made official now: according to Broadcasting and Cable, sources are saying that FOX's Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? will be going into syndication in 2009. It won't be the first daytime version. Over in England they've had one, as well as a primetime version. Seems to be running pretty well for them. I've never liked the show as a million dollar game show to be honest. It's always seemed like a lower budget show, so we'll see how this one goes. Host Jeff Foxworthy is probably going to sign onto it. No word on top prize, but I'd just expect a quarter of a million. It's not like Deal or No Deal where the odds are significantly stacked against you to win so they can offer half a million. Everyone theoretically has a good chance at winning and they can't realistically afford the risk of giving away a half million too much. Of course knowing the dumbasses they cast they could do whatever they wanted. I honestly haven't watched the show since its first few episodes. It's basic idea never interested me. FOX is mostly specifically casting morons (or former smart people and now morons) which just erases any drama for me. Add in the controversy with the original cast of fifth graders and the fact that the drama is so forced that it makes Duel look shameful, and it's never appealed to me. But I'm guessing some of you have. Is it worth it to give another chance next season? Fifth Grader was one of three primetime network shows being discussed for syndication in 2009. Others included were Power of 10 and 1 VS 100. Power of 10 bombed because of terrible scheduling on CBS's part so I'm not expecting it to show up, but I've been wrong before (and often). I
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