Was it a huge shock to anyone that My Dad is Better Than Your Dad bombed? I honestly think (and it’s probably true) that some major Hollywood players, like Mark Burnett, can pitch a show with the flimsiest and, to be honest, dumbest of concepts and get it picked up because that’s the person that’s making it. This show just did absolutely nothing for me. It was a stereotypical stunt show that seemed like a tamer version of American Gladiators with children thrown in.
I say it over and over: I really don’t like to complain about prizes, but seeing a show where people fight for $50,000 max after a show that gives away money like it’s nothing makes My Dad seem extremely cheap. The Singing Bee could get away with it because it felt like a syndicated show that was placed in primetime television. I don’t know where you’d throw My Dad is Better Than Your Dad, but it definitely felt completely wrong for a primetime show.
The show did nothing outright wrong, it just felt awkward to me. The host, Dan Cortese, was annoying. Just a regular talking head. And not the good David Byrne type of Talking Head. A good deal of the kids were annoying. I think that word describes the show best: annoying. I said the show was Double Dare taken too seriously and too far, and I was right on the money on that one. Lighten it up, get a different host, put it on a channel like Nickelodeon or some other family oriented network and I think you could potentially, with work, have something. It just felt completely wrong on primetime television.
And a good deal of America thought that too. First off, Deal or No Deal had an unbelievably strong night with over 16 million viewers and a 10.0/16. I tried dropping some hints before: executive producer Scott St. John said he’s not adding any more $1,000,000 cases after 13. They didn’t say the mission was over. Watch on Wednesday’s episode. My Dad lost 48% of Deal’s audience; down to 5.3/8. They should be happy that Hollywood is still recovering from the strike or it have been gone sooner than expected. It still might be.
I went a bit lazy, but the ratings page has a massive update. The Singing Bee keeps slipping down, as it’s now at 1 VS 100 new episode levels. However, Don’t Forget the Lyrics! and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? keep going up. Also, Without Prejudice? had a very strong debut, doing equally as well as GSN projected. GSN’s ratings for June stayed basically the same, though. Syndicated ratings had barely any change as well. Click here for the page, or click the link in the top right corner, which is easier.
GSN’s relatively popular word game, That’s The Question, is no longer rumored to be renewed for a second season: it has been. The second season will start on September 10th and will air Monday through Friday, states GSN. No word on tape dates or tape location just yet, but more information about the renewal can be found when GSN announces all of their news at the Television Critic’s Association meetings during this week. On That’s The Question, contestants have to answer questions while trying to uncover a question to an answer given. It’s a weird mix of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune and, to be honest, it’s one of their best shows since the rebranding.
GSN’s had no great luck with original programming recently. Currently, GSN’s highest rated show is High Stakes Poker and that only manages to get a .4. Shows like Chain Reaction and I’ve Got A Secret, while attracting some audience, haven’t exactly caused droves of people to be tuning in. In fact, the last time this happened was back in 2003 with Who Wants to be Governor of California?: The Debating Game. GSN needs a hit badly, and it’s no surprise they are pushing their new original program Without Prejudice? into the limelight more than any show they’ve ever aired. To be exact, they are using a $5,000,000 advertising campaign to get word out about the show and draw eyeballs in. This is 30% more than any for anything else they’ve ever done. What are they using this for exactly? Read on after the break for information courtesy of Multichannel and GSN.
Continue reading ‘“That’s The Question” Renewed + GSN Shows Pride in “Prejudice”’
We might be on the road to our second one-and-gone game show of the season. National Bingo Night scored a 3.7/7 on its debut. That’s about a point to a point and a half worse than Show Me the Money’s final episode. If the show survives another episode or two I will be amazed. They will do better with a rerun of Grey’s Anatomy reruns, and I can’t even stand the show. You know, I won’t gloat about how I and others were right about this show’s failure, but did ABC actually think Bingo would be popular? We expect a cancelation notice within the next few days. If not, I’ll be utterly shocked.
I know people have to get angry with me constantly mentioning this, but I will just never understand why they won’t bring back Super Millionaire. They apparently want a game show. Every single Deal or No Deal clone has bombed. Millionaire wasn’t blowing the socks off of the ratings when it came back three years ago, but it easily helds its own and would probably do better before 10PM ET. There’s a reason 1 VS 100 and Fifth Grader have been successful: they are rather different from each other. If TV executives haven’t realized it yet, I’ll say it loudly: THE CLONES AREN’T WORKING. They should have learned during the Millionaire era. If they need a game show, bring back the most reliably high rated game show around. You’ll get more praise than hell from people, trust me.
The ratings are in and the public has proven that Bob Barker and The Price is Right are forces to be reckoned with. Wednesday night’s Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular scored a 9.0/15 at 8PM ET which easily won its time slot. It was also the second most watched television show on Wednesday primetime only losing to the music bastardizing show that is American Idol. The ratings improved on Thursday night with a mini episode of The Price is Right mixed with a tribute to Bob Barker. Thursday night at 8PM ET achieved an 9.4/16 which won its time slot and only lost to Grey’s Anatomy and CSI. Last night’s special was much better than the million dollar episode if you ask me. I’m not a huge fan of The Price is Right but I do fully respect Barker for the legend that he is and it was a very touching tribute episode.
I expected FOX’s new game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” to bask in the limelight of “American Idol”, but not this large. “American Idol” from 9PM to 9:30PM received a 18.5/27, while “Fifth Grader” retained a good portion of the audience, scoring a 14.8/22. I have to say, after watching it, that’s a bit depressing. There were only two good things I could pick out of the show: the set and, shockingly, host Jeff Foxworthy. He was a lot better than I anticipated. However, the gameplay was as boring as hell, yet another stupidly set up money chain, “Cheats” which are almost identical to the Helps on “1VS100″, crappy music (in my opinion), and just crap all around. The show seems to have an identity crisis. It wants to be funny, but it’s not working. It wants to be serious, and it’s not working because there’s no drama in answering a question a first grader can answer. The sad part is that this will last at least a full season unless audiences realize that it’s a pretty bad show overnight. It’s amazing that we had “The Rich List”, that was a show that wasn’t without its flaws but was at least exciting and dramatic, and yet this will stay around a lot longer. I never thought I’d wish “Show Me the Money” was still around. What did you all think?
Australian news source The Age released on ratings today, and “1 VS 100″ is currently beating “The Rich List”, but only by a bit. “1 VS 100″, which is hosted by Nine Network chief executive and former “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” host Eddie McGuire saw 1.42 million people watching the show, making it the fifth most watched show. “The Rich List” on Channel Seven, though, had 1.39 million viewers. However, “1 VS 100″ was the most watched show in Melbourne with 472,000 watching one player take on the Mob, while the unfinished business of “The Rich List” had 426,000 Melbourners watching.
The first episode of the English Canadian “Deal or No Deal” achieved history on the first night: Global said that it was the highest rated Canadian program of all time on the channel. The Super Bowl had 3.4 million, and “Deal or No Deal” managed to hold on to 2.7 million of those people. On the first episode, Brian Traynor won a big $109,000. He was the first contestant out of over 120,000 applicants. You can check out a clip of Canadian “Deal or No Deal” right here. I have to say I do like their set. The maple leaf is a bit out there, but their set is pretty cool. The audience is incredibly enthusiastic as well, which is nice to see, and Howie looks really charged and refreshed; much more than he is with NBC’s version.
The ratings for the month of December just came in, and it’s just about the average GSN always has. The Network For Games got the usual .04, with 218K headcount. They better watch out, though, because CNBC’s catching up. The network that religiously reruns “Deal or No Deal”, “1 VS 100″, and “Identity” had a .2 but 202K headcount. If we want to go by the point ratings, GSN did better than a lot of networks, like HLN, TVGuide, Oxygen, and others, but those were ahead in the number department.
-Monday 9 p.m. (out of Deal or No Deal) – Viewers: 12.26 million, A18-49: 4.4/11
-Tuesday 8 p.m. – Viewers: 8.21 million, A18-49: 2.9/ 8
-Wednesday 8 p.m. – Viewers: 8.76 million, A18-49: 3.0/ 9
-Thursday 8 p.m. – Viewers: 9.51 million, A18-49: 3.1/ 9
-Friday 8 p.m. – Viewers: 7.83 million, A18-49: 2.4/ 9
As the last ratings post was for Wednesday, here’s a summary of Identity’s ratings. The report for Thursday were the highest without a Deal or No Deal lead-in. Nearly getting 1 million more than the previous two nights, getting second place for the night. While Friday’s dip seems really bad, Identity actually helped win NBC the night, as Identity had the most viewers of any show last night. The 18-49 demographic is doing great, therefore expect to see this back sometime next year.
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