Sorry for the slow and late updates during the week. If you’re in college like me, it’s midterm probably, so I’m exceptionally busy. But we have time for a nice little video for you. Reader Chris R. sent us this YouTube video of the Trivial Pursuit pitch tape. You get what’s essentially the game as of now: pretty decent gameplay, stereotypical modern but nice looking set, nice money which is bound to be drastically lowered when the show gets to air, and we have Mark Walberg hosting so we get a big thumbs up. Take a look and tell you what you think.
Archive for the 'Syndication' Category
A good struggling show just got another life. Program Partner’s Crosswords has been renewed for a second season according to TV Week. The show has been averaging a 0.8, but got a 1.0 recently. However, the market might be a bit tougher next year having the inclusion of sure-to-be-a-hit Deal or No Deal and potentially Trivial Pursuit into syndication. “‘Crosswords’ ratings are building continuously and now hitting season-to-date highs,” said Ritch Colbert of Program Partners. “This renewal is a testament to our amazing production team and to the power of Merv Griffin’s original vision.”
The show has been renewed in 40 of the top 50 markets including NBC O&Os, Belo, Four Points, Gannett, Gray, Guardian, Hubbard, McGraw-Hill, New Age, Raycom, Sarkes Tarzian and SagamoreHill groups. Show representatives said they are planning to bring more excitement into the show next season. How about giving away a tiny bit more money?
I’m not really one to bitch about a budget, but my god is this show’s absolutely tiny. The spoiler system could use a bit of work too. I like it, but it just comes off extremely unfair in some situations. What would you change for a second season? And be relatively realistic?
Number one on my list? New theme song. The thing they have right now is a bit annoying.
Also, no word on Temptation’s renewal, but I wouldn’t count on it. NATPE is this week, so be expecting a lot of news.
Thanks to reader John Moss for pointing out a recent article from Media Life Magazine which talks about the current syndication market and next year’s. Very few shows are on the bubble to be picked up for a second season. The only two shows listed are Montel Williams and Crosswords. Interesting, as on the official Crosswords blog, they have been heavily promoting starting taping for season two in the not to distant future. Also, Crosswords just got up to the 1.0 mark, a new high, so that should be worth something.
Meanwhile, at the bottom, it lists the unimaginable:
“[Twentieth Television's] foundering game show “Temptation” is also expected to return.”
Temptation has been hovering around the 0.5 mark, going up to a .6 at best, since its start and has never been a real hit. Let’s also factor in that the show is one point lower than what was said to make the show be profitable. However, I’m pretty sure I can pay the show’s prize budget (and production values) with what’s in my wallet currently. Then look at the major issue with the writer’s of the show. Yeah, Crosswords has had lots of game tweaks through the season, but Temptation has been a complete disaster. If it makes it and Crosswords doesn’t, I’ll be amazed.
Don’t forget that next year we are definitely getting Deal or No Deal in syndication ($250,000 and 22 cases with potential contestants holding some) as well as potentially having Trivial Pursuit which has cleared in 55% of the country.
Update: Mediaweek is calling it a firm go. Welcome to the team, Trivial Pursuit. You can’t be much worse than Temptation, so we have faith in you.
This didn’t take long, did it? Denbar-Mercury has already cleared 55% of the country, including eight of the top ten markets, to air in the Fall 2008 season. The pilot, hosted by fan favorite Mark L. Walberg, saw contestants answer questions sent in from home viewers. Some markets, courtesy of Broadcasting and Cable, are:
Fox affiliates in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore on board. Stations from Cox Broadcasting, CBS, Belo, Gannett, Scripps, Raycom Media and Weigel Broadcasting are also signed up.
The show will be taken to NATPE this year where it will be hopefully sold internationally as well. I think I might be so bold to say that it’s looking like we have a second new syndicated show for Fall 2008! I’m curious to see what they will follow more: the old 90s version or the recent ESPN version, that of which I much preferred (I only saw clips of the old version on YouTube, so my opinion may vary).
Game show fans who have the way overpriced and overrated Microsoft XBox (sorry, I’m not a Microsoft fan of anything) can be on the lookout for new Crosswords games for XBox Live and 360, and also the Playstation 2 if anyone cares about that thing anymore. Program Partners licensed the game to the THQ brand on Monday.
These games are due out in….2009? Isn’t that a bit late? I mean I’m going to say it’s relatively safe to assume the show can get a second season. But the ratings aren’t exactly great right now. Do you really think the show can survive two seasons with a 0.8? I’m not so sure.
Hasbro is also creating a DVD home game for the scrappy new syndicated game show, as well as Oberon Media working on a long overdue online for the Crosswords website.
Hard to believe that the little syndicated show that could, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, is going on its 1,000th episode in two weeks. Hosted by Meredith Vieira, the show has had over 1,800 contestants and has given away over $42,000,000. That total could be more but they haven’t given away a million for nearly five years. Admittedly they did make the show a lot harder after season one, but someone should be able to do it, right?
Next week they will be doing away with the first five questions and letting people be ten away from the million off the bat with $1,000 in their pockets. Personally, I’d be fine with this if they’d put the Fastest Finger back in. Just give that winner the $1,000 and let the group of ten stay for the entire week and weed through them all. I don’t expect them to do it, but just a thought. As long as we don’t become Dance Party Millionaire, but I trust Michael Davies enough to fight it. Also, if you registered in September you may be on your way to winning money, as 100 lucky home viewers will win $1,000 each.
Again, it’s been ages since the last Millionaire. I’m usually not a person who’s begging for tons of money left and right but come on. Surely someone can do this. Our good friend Ogi Ogas, one of the smartest people we know, almost did it in a heavily spoiled event last year. Disney-ABC Domestic Television may have done it again. Who knows?
Highlight below to read….
OK, for the rest of you. Yes, a million dollar question will be given next week but of course they won’t say when. We’ll have a clip up here as part of BuzzerVision next week. In Disney-ABC’s great stupidity to be like NBC, in the press release they sent they gave away the million dollar question and answer. But we aren’t that mean. You’re going to have to wait to see it. I will give you a slightly vulgar hint: It’s fucking hard. HARD.
Photo courtesy of Valleycrest Productions, Ltd.
Edit: Fixed a tiny error at the top. It’s obviously already on its 6th season. It’s going on its thousandth episode in two weeks.
Temptation might be on hold for a bit, but the better of the two new syndicated shows, Crosswords, will be holding auditions on the other side of the country so more people can try out. Auditions will take place at the NBC Towers in Chicago. The Crosswords crew will find 50 contestants, fly them to Los Angeles, and have them compete on national television for thousand(s?) of dollars and trips to (exotic?) places. Auditions will take place on Saturday, October 13th at 10AM. The exact address is NBC Towers, 454 North Columbus Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60611. There are a few stipulation, of course: you must be 18, you cannot have been on a game show in the past six months, and you can’t know anyone who works for Program Partners, William Morris Agency, Merv Griffin Entertainment, or anyone on the show’s staff. Good luck to all that try out!
Has anyone else been extremely disappointed with this year’s syndicated offerings? They are both severely lacking, especially Temptation, and if we see any last a season, let alone past January, I’ll be amazed. Luckily next season we might have a very interesting syndication front. Three popular game shows are being worked out for syndication, one already cleared in 50% of the country. The shows: Deal or No Deal, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, and Power of 10.
Daytime Deal or No Deal is old news, but a few new items have poured in. Right now they are committing to 32 weeks of the show and possibly up to 36. $250,000 is going to be the top prize and, good news, contestants are going to be holding the cases. There are only going to be three models as of now and future contestants will be holding the other cases. How many cases? Who knows. Might we suggest 22? There’s no way you can fit a meaningful 26 case game in 20 minutes, not including talking. Each contestant will have the half hour to themselves meaning games will be a bit more predictable. However, I’ll gladly take a predictable ending instead of a far-too-long, overly gimmicked one. This is one show I see being much better in daytime.
The other show I see being better is Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?. Yeah, no one’s won the million yet. However, the show has never been a million dollar prime time show. I think one of our regular readers, David Howell, said it best, that it’s like a Comedy Central show shoved in prime time. Speed up the game play and knock the prize down to $100,000. I think the game will be actually enjoyable and not as nauseatingly dramatic. The only show I worry about is Power of 10, but in a good way. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the show, and I think a majority of the readers here are. However, the easy syndication fix to the budget is dividing the prizes by ten. We had an overwhelming amount of $1,000 and $10,000 winners. Transfer this to daytime and that’s a lot of $100 and $1,000 winners which just seems cheap. I’m all for seeing the show as much as possible, but I’d need to see how they are going to the budget first. If they can somehow be brave enough to keep it as a $10,000,000 show in prime time, I’ll be completely amazed. A majority of the winners were within budget for daytime shows. If Sony has the guts, they could do it. Do they? We’ll see. At least it’s better than Sony’s syndication offerings of last year.
10
Sep
New Show Opinions
Instead of creating a different post for each show, let’s just do it all in one.
In case you aren’t aware, every game show under the sun starts a new season today. Wheel of Fortune begins its 25th year celebration, Jeopardy! starts a new one, Family Feud gets a new, nice logo with the same fantastic host of John O’Hurley, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? begins its sixth season on its way to its thousanth show, and finally we have the debut of Crosswords (which is quite good) and Temptation (which isn’t quite good to me). Don’t forget tomorrow GSN will start a brand new US season of That’s The Question with a nice set and actual writers! That makes it exponentially better off the bat. What did you think about all the new shows, changes, and such? Mainly, what did you think of Crosswords?
Photo courtesy of Valleycrest Productions.
Just in time for the season premiere of Merv Griffin’s Crosswords, their website is finally up. It is just absolutely AMAZING. They have photos, videos, bios, a complete affiliate list, and more! Check it out!
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