This is a rumor control, but one I’d bet money on and basically confirm. There’s no official press release out yet, that’s the only thing, but I can basically guarantee this is happening. We’re so confident we’re putting a new category up for it. An extremely reliable source tells and shows us that GSN picked has up the trivia/blackjack show we were previously discussing, and the show is called Catch-21. It’s a remake of sorts of the classic game show Gambit and should be debuting in July 2008. They are now casting.
The show is, essentially, the Casino pilot that Distraction Formats taped ages ago. Casino is, essentially the retooling of the old game show Gambit to fit snugly in a half hour time slot. In Catch-21, contestants answer multiple choice questions to earn cards to add to their blackjack hand. After a right answer, the player can keep the card or pass it off to someone else in hopes that they will bust. Each round won earns a “Power Chip” (another item stolen from World Series of Blackjack) which can be used in the end game to trade out bad cards. Speaking of the end game, after three eliminator rounds, the sole survivor goes against the house with four chances to get 21 and a chance at a $25,000 cash jackpot. This is down from the $100,000 in the pilot but that’s to be expected. The pilot had way too much money involved and seemed extravagant even by today’s standards.
I think when I posted about this pilot a while ago the feedback was extremely positive, so hopefully we have a winner here. It’s a shock it’s taken this long. And if anything this should give hope to the people clamoring for Russian Roulette/Whammy! to come back. GSN’s CEO David Goldhill is obviously willing to look back at past shows and bring them on in full force, as is evident with Russian Roulette and now Catch-21. It’s also nice to see some money being thrown at more originals instead of just one. I’ve said it over and over and this is exactly what they need. If they take some chances on some young, fresh, cool game shows with an interesting concept anyone can love and some money that means something, people will take notice. Again, the show is currently casting (apply for it here) and we’ll try to get some more news as soon as possible. The show is now also up on our casting page.
Update: ABC gave us a response with sadly not much more information beyond “chatter rumors, nothing to confirm,” so it’s at least being thought of making the Craigslist post a bit more believable. Still a rumor until we get some official confirmation, though.
ABC never fails to shock me with renewals. Craigslist just posted a new casting notice for season two of Duel. Still no confirmation as of yet, but we’ll try to find it out as soon as possible. In the season two casting notice there’s no mention of a huge cash jackpot like there was for season one. All it says is “huge cash prize for winners.” Maybe we switched to the British version in terms of how to get the jackpot?
I enjoy the basic idea of Duel, but ABC completely screwed up in the execution in my book. There was no drama until the final match (and even that barely had any because of how it ended), Mike Greenberg was too robotic and had a pen stapled to his fingers, contestants were annoying, and the questions were either really hard or really easy; never a happy medium. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: tournaments just do not work for primetime game shows. There’s no drama until the ending. Maybe if they had another tournament format we can talk. What they had was a really horrendous tournament format.
I’d really like just to see them change to Engand’s game play for season two. It takes four wins to get the jackpot. After each game you can take some money and leave or play on. At least throw in a tiny bit of risk and drama. The idea was fine, but the execution was hideous. It needs some work. If they can realize it, see why people continually turned away from the show, and fix things we might have one of the better quiz shows in recent times.
What would you like to see different in season two?
We haven’t done a Rumor Control in a while. We’ve seen lots of postings recently for contestants needed for The Newlywed Game. We were looking at Craigslist today and spotted one with the email of @embassyrow.com. Has Michael Davies gone game crazy and picked this show up too? Honestly, I’m not a fan of this show at all and I’m hoping there’s some misunderstanding, but who knows.
Edit: We just found enough information to make this a major story. Apparently he picked up The Dating Game too. Didn’t this happen in the early 90s? Some company remade both of the shows? I can’t quite remember. Anyway, if you want to be a contestant for what is probably a pilot of The Dating Game or The Newlywed Game for what I’m guessing is GSN (could be wrong), click here for Daters or here for Newlyweds.
Thanks to reader Will Matthews for giving us this information. Bob Saget was apparently on Howard Stern’s Sirius radio show today. He stated he is going back to the studio to tape episodes of 1 VS 100 in two weeks. As we know things can change easily and Bob may just be going by some old information. However, at least we have some actual source rather close to the show giving us some decent information. If anyone has HBO, be sure to look for Bob Saget’s latest stand up special, as it’ll be repeated a lot within the next few days. I caught it this morning and it is hysterical.
I don’t know if any of you recall this show at all, but LMNO Productions piloted something called “Double or Nothing” a while ago. The game is basically one player sells everything they have and bets the cash on a roulette wheel: red or black. You get the point of the show from there. Looks like we have our first GSN pick-up we’ll hear on July 14th’s TCA announcements. According to a New York Craigslist posting, GSN has picked up the show. This still could be for a different network, another pilot, or something meaning the show isn’t officially picked up, but judging by the fact that the email address is gsncasting@yahoo.com, it looks like it is for GSN.
What do you all think of the idea for the show? I wasn’t a big fan of it when it was announced and I’m not a fan to this day. They provided a YouTube of the British version and I’m just not enjoying the entire idea. You’d think there would be some drama, but I feel nothing for a person that is stupid enough to bet everything they have on a roulette wheel. Plus I’m guessing some portion of this show is a lie. I’m doubting they make you sell everything, and if they do they probably give you some appearance fee.
This bit of news is a total surprise. According to Total Content & Media and 2waytraffic, GSN has renewed one of my personal new favorite shows, That’s The Question has been renewed for a new series of 65 episodes. The quote in full…
“”That’s The Question”, is also performing well with new deals in Finland, with Game Show Network in the U.S. where it has been re-commissioned for 65 episodes starting this summer and has just begun its first series of 60 episodes in the U.K.”
Now of course this isn’t official until GSN announces something, but it’s looking good. Again, it’s a rumor for now, but I’d be expecting an announcement during the TCAs on July 14th.
Checklist for GSN on this show:
1- Up the payouts maybe a tiny bit?
2- No more spelling or factual errors
3- Add more enthusiasm and excitement into the game
4- Have a nice set with an audience this time
Obviously this is unconfirmed until GSN sends out an official press release, but we’re hearing from people who have auditioned for the show and/or passed the test that the host of GSN’s new original game show Camouflage is Roger Lodge. Lodge hosted the long-running reality show Blind Date and also the severely underrated ESPN’s Trivial Pursuit, which deserved a much longer run than it got. On Camouflage, contestants are given a clue and the answer is right in front of the player’s eyes. However, decoy letters are placed in the middle. The point total drops as decoy letters disappear, so the quicker a player buzzes in, the better. The winner gets to play the bonus round for $5,000. The game feels a lot like That’s The Question, to be honest.
Speaking of That’s The Question, has anyone seen the new GSN bumper where Dylan Lane does the only passable thing he’s done on the network: play a game of fake charades? I see Bob Goen guessing along with Chuck Woolery and Shandi Finnessey. Beyond Catminster, which was basically a one time thing, is he doing anything beyond That’s The Question? Maybe we will hear about a new series of episodes in July during the TCA announcements.
This news might make game show fans jump for joy; I know it made me happy. A major production company is looking for New York (Midtown) based people to do a run-through of the classic word association game Password. You’ll get paid $50 a day to sit around and play Password essentially. This is Wednesday, May 2nd, and Thursday, May 3rd. If you’re interested, click here. I enjoy Password so I am rather excited by this. Now I just hope they don’t screw this up like 75% of the revivals in the past few years have been relative failures.
This one comes from Craigslist. They are looking for families (10 and older to compete) to play in a new game show. It takes place in their house with their family with prizes involved. The interesting part is that we’re seeing that the show is called Bet the House. We’ll try to find out more, because if this was announced somewhere before, I totally missed it.
We can’t 100% confirm it just yet, but we’re hearing from people connected to GSN that “Camouflage” has been picked up. “Camouflage” was one of the shows announced for development during the Television Critics Associated event. From Buena Vista Productions, this fast paced word game makes contestants find hidden words from a word puzzle, but there are extra letters in it. For instance, if you are given BRAINCHUORIC and the clue is “Newsperson”, reading the puzzle left to right reveals the word “ANCHOR” when you say it. Even more, we’re hearing it is going to tape from the beginning of April to the end of May. Once more official information comes in we will tell you.
Fatal error: Call to undefined function akst_share_form() in /home/content/m/r/g/mrgameshow/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes/redoable/footer.php on line 3
This is a rumor control, but one I’d bet money on and basically confirm. There’s no official press release out yet, that’s the only thing, but I can basically guarantee this is happening. We’re so confident we’re putting a new category up for it. An extremely reliable source tells and shows us that GSN picked has up the trivia/blackjack show we were previously discussing, and the show is called Catch-21. It’s a remake of sorts of the classic game show Gambit and should be debuting in July 2008. They are now casting.
Update: ABC gave us a response with sadly not much more information beyond “chatter rumors, nothing to confirm,” so it’s at least being thought of making the Craigslist post a bit more believable. Still a rumor until we get some official confirmation, though.
We haven’t done a Rumor Control in a while. We’ve seen lots of postings recently for contestants needed for The Newlywed Game. We were looking at Craigslist today and spotted one with the email of @embassyrow.com. Has Michael Davies gone game crazy and picked this show up too? Honestly, I’m not a fan of this show at all and I’m hoping there’s some misunderstanding, but who knows.
Posts
