20Oct2009
“Fresh Prince of Bel Air” Reunion on “Catch 21″ Thursday, October 22
GSN's going to continue to throw the celebrity shows at us with a special version of Catch 21 featuring ames Avery (Philip Banks), Tatyana Ali (Ashley Banks) and Karyn Parsons (Hilary Banks). Will Smith was too busy doing, you know, movies and stuff. Alfonso Ribiero, who hosts the hit GSN game show, was also on Fresh Prince so this special practically wrote itself. The three actors will play for $25,000 for their favorite charities. The fantastic Mikki Padilla is the dealer as always. The special will air Thursday, October 22nd, at 6:30PM ET on GSN. OK, now that we have the plug out of the way: is anyone getting sick of these constant celebrity specials or is it just me? I mean one or two, maybe three, a season is fine. But there
Read MoreView Comments (9)12Oct2009
“Newlywed Game” and “Catch 21″ Begin New Seasons Tonight on GSN
We've had new game shows debuting just about every week since the beginning of September it seems. Tonight GSN is adding its new seasons to the mix. Two of its most popular games are back. Newlywed Game with Carnie Wilson and Catch 21 with Alfonso Ribiero and Mikki Padilla return at 6:00PM ET and 6:30PM ET with replays later that night. Both shows essentially stay the same from last season, but there's a lot of celebrity going around each. First, on Newlywed Game, as many of you are aware the first ever same sex couple will appear on the show Tuesday, October 13th at 6:00PM ET with an encore at 9:00PM ET. Competing couples will be Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry along side Damien Gurganius and wife Nicole Brewer. Future celeb
Read MoreView Comments (4)16Sep2009
“Catch 21″ and “Newlywed Game” Add Celebrity Shows; “Newlywed Game” Brings First Gay Couple
If we can keep this a bit away from hardcore politics I'd be happy, but I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that Newlywed Game is adding the first gay couple in the show's history. Both Catch 21 and Newlywed Game are doing celebrity shows. Newlywed Game will feature several matches between celebrity couples such as Christopher Knight and Adrienne Curry, Glenn Cadrez and Brande Roderick, and most exciting to me George Takei and his husband Brad Altman. I'm glad the show is getting modern and inviting all marriages to fit with the current theme and feel. Of course I'm unbelievably liberal so those who aren't may have differing opinions. I'm just glad to see GSN put this addition into the show, so thanks. We're hearing that the ga
Read MoreView Comments (24)11Sep2009
Audience Needed for “Newlywed Game” and “Catch 21″ in Los Angeles
Sorry for the delay in this post. We've been covering the season premieres so much we neglected to mention this. As you can probably tell from the image in the featured news player above, GSN's second season of The Newlywed Game is taping its second season in Los Angeles, instead of its original base in New York City. The show started taping on September 9th, and the next tapings are on September 15th. You can be in that audience. Either click this link to apply, thanks to our friends at Onset Productions, or click the image above. I raved about my experience on the set of Newlywed Game and I still stand by it. It was hysterical and just a lot of fun. I know I've said this before also but the show was edited to be so fast paced be
Read MoreLeave a Comment14Jul2009
Fall 2009 Game Shows Roundup
It's my favorite time of year on this site. The boring summer where I barely have anything fun to offer is almost up and it's time for all your favorite game shows to come back for a new season of tapings. The casting is basically over but you can still be in the audience, which is a lot of fun. Many shows are leaving Los Angeles to go across the coast so if you're near the New York City area, there's lots of chances for you to get in the action. Not only that but we get lots of emails asking us about their favorite shows. Here's a list of the big game shows last year and if they are returning or not. Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?: If you're looking for the primetime million dollar version, I wouldn't count on it. It's basic
Read MoreView Comments (22)05Jun2009
Contestant Wins $50,000 on “Catch 21″
I don't know if you've been watching Catch 21 at all this week (6:30PM ET on GSN), but they've been having fun with the prizes. Simply put, the show was apparently way under budget so they were nice enough to throw money wherever they could. All this week (and June 15th) they rose the top prize to $50,000. They only had one $25,000 winner this season in a period of time they had four grand prize winners last year. Of course they had to have a big win during this week. It was a really fun and nice moment. I really hope the show comes back for a third season; if you're a regular reader you know I'm a big fan. I just hope they cast better contestants next season. It's amazing once you get a contestant that can, you know, count, they gi
Read MoreView Comments (18)22May2009
A Plea to GSN and “Catch 21″ Producers
EDIT: After last night's episode which included a puppeteer and his puppet on stage, this needs to be brought to the top again. It was about as bad as it could have gotten last night. Last week was a rough week of Catch 21, GSN's hit quiz/card game. There was a bonus situation with a, uh, less than aware contestant who blew an easy $25,000 in an end game which essentially playing three hands of blackjack at once. The real point of aggravation last week, though, was when a contestant gave away a card which gave another player 21. It wasn't a move of, "If I take this card, I bust." The contestant couldn't add 13 and 8 together to equal 21. The video of it is below me. Not only that but that same contestant clearly had no idea how th
Read MoreView Comments (13)18May2009
Catch 21 – Busted Brains
One of the episodes of Catch 21 last week proved to be more memorable than most, mainly due to one contestant who should probably be bleaching her hair.
Read MoreView Comments (12)09May2009
Ratings Report: Primetime “Deal or No Deal” is Screwed
I'm back from a short personal break! Sorry for the delay. But we've got some interesting ratings for you. Deal or No Deal returned last Monday to NBC. Basically if you were a fan of the primetime version, you had to watch it to prove to NBC you wanted it back. The results are in and people don't want it back. The show barely broke four million viewers. I'm a bit stunned at this results, actually. I had heard that some promotion aired on NBC for it, but to get barely above four million viewers is beyond awful. I'd watch the next episode or two if you enjoy the show. Barring some unbelievable miracle, it's the end of the show. Daytime Deal is finally officially coming back for a second season, though, with its consistent ratin
Read MoreView Comments (20)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
Ratings Ratings Ratings!
Excitement over ratings! March sweeps is over, as well as GSN's two premieres of The Newlywed Game and Catch 21 are in the system, so ratings are coming in like crazy. Basically it was pretty normal everywhere. Deal or No Deal is still the one to watch, though, since that official second season greenlight hasn't been given just yet. The show stayed at its same 1.7 it last had, but hey, steady is better than dropping. The rest of the shows were, as Deal is, just about at the normal level. Wheel of Fortune stuck at a 7.2 and Jeopardy! went up a bit to a 5.8. Who Wants to be a Millionaire? is still lower than it was last year but far from out. It's went up to a 2.4. Just be happy we haven't had Millionaire: Hot Seat infiltrate our country yet. We'll see how that new abuse of the format does next week in Australia. The country Australia, not the Newlywed Game sex position Australia. Family Feud stuck at a 1.5. The show has another Big Money Tournament coming up shortly so maybe that'll boost things up. For GSN's shows, the network hasn't confirmed them for us yet but our usual inside sources are telling us the numbers and they've yet to be wrong. We're hearing The Newlywed Game and Catch 21 started higher than anything the network has had in a long long time, at a .6 and a .54, respectively. On GSN Live it was said that it's the highest ratings GSN has ever had. This is false, Russian Roulette, Lingo, and Whammy! all had initial higher ratings. We even heard that ratings went up on the second day, with The Newlywed Game reaching as far as .7. However, they have dropped back down to GSN's earth and at normal levels around .4. But still, great showing for the two shows.
Read MoreView Comments (2)08Apr2009
Game Show Ratings: “Deal or No Deal” Close to Number One Again
Ratings are out for the week ending on March 29th. We've got some ratings for GSN's two new premieres that we're trying to verify also. But we'll start with Deal or No Deal. It was number one for a long time but dropped down due to The Doctor's rising popularity. The ratings have been consistently around the same level they rose to this week: a 1.8. It's up 6% from last week. Deal has still not officially been renewed for a new season. Some new episodes did tape this week and, again, we're hearing if they go well it's basically a lock to come back. It's pretty certain right now and I'll be stunned if it doesn't, but it's just missing that extra boost of confidence. Millionaire went up from its season low of a 2.2 to this week's 2.4. Family Feud continues to stay in there with a 1.5. For how cheap the show is to make it'll be around for a lot more years if it can keep that rating level. Wheel of Fortune went up a tiny bit to a 7.3. Jeopardy! gained a nice 4% to a 5.7. Everything was up which is fantastic! Everything except ol' Trivial Pursuit which just cannot move whatsoever. It is, yet again, at a 0.6. The only way this show's coming back is if a network pulls a miracle and picks it up for a limited amount of new episodes. What are GSN's ratings for Newlywed Game and Catch 21? We're still trying to verify, but we're hearing it's some of the biggest they've had in years, for a game show.
Read MoreView Comments (9)06Apr2009
An Interview with Mikki Padilla and Carnie Wilson
In just around six hours at 6:30PM ET GSN will show the second season of Catch 21 which is vastly improved from the first season. Everything's bigger (and I mean everything) and better this time around. One thing that's been fantastic from the start has been co-host Mikki Padilla. I talked to host Alfonso Ribiero before season one started and he talked her up like crazy. I could see why. She was energetic, charming, fun, and great at teasing the contestants. After talking to her for a long interview on Friday which is now available for download or streaming online, I love her even more. She's the most enthusiastic person to host a game show I've ever talked to. You won't meet many hosts that remember the color of clothing a certain contestant wore and what cards they got on a specific episode number from season one which taped who knows how long ago. In the interview we talked about her love of games, her love of Catch 21, and her love of giving away money. She also gives some clues as to what you can expect this season. It was a pleasure talking to her; she's one of my favorite personalities I've ever talked to. Hopefully we'll get to see her and Catch 21 stick around for a long long time. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE MIKKI PADILLA INTERVIEW IN MP3. I'll combine both interview posts just to save clutter. I've been hyping up The Newlywed Game since it taped a few months ago, and today at 6:00PM ET the show debuts. Although I think there was a major change in tone and feel from the live version to the television version because of the time consumed by the end game, it's still a fun, entertaining, and comical half hour of television. Even if you're not a big fan of the format, which is the boat I'm in, you can still get some laughs out of it. I had the opportunity to interview host Carnie Wilson on Wednesday, and it's available for downloading or streaming online. In the interview she discusses her favorite parts of hosting, what she expected from the couples, and how the dynamic of the husband and wife has changed since the show debuted in the 60s. I hope you enjoy it. I just got a new application for doing these interviews and she was the first to use it. There was a minor audio problem but nothing too bad. I'll have a post up later tonight for your opinions on The Newlywed Game and Catch 21 season two. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN THE CARNIE WILSON INTERVIEW IN MP3.
Read MoreLeave a Comment05Apr2009
GSN’s Big Monday: “Catch 21” Season Two Gets 4 Out of 5
We've already gone over The Newlywed Game which made the really interesting change from fantastic live show to "eh" televised edition. Now on to what is my favorite show GSN's done in quite some time, and looking at some figures apparently a lot of you agree with me. Catch 21, which has its second season debut on Monday, April 6th, at 6:30PM ET has a long, interesting record at GSN. It was a pilot called Casino eons ago. GSN passed on it originally but around five or so years later decided to come back to it. Season one had its issues, most of which has to do with the presentation and production of the show. I was so relieved to find out most of those changes are fixed for season two. The look of the show has been redone to be a more modern looking show, and it's a nice look. Essentially combine the season one front game and end game set and remove most of the bulkiness and that's what you get here. Everything's smoother, sleeker, and much better looking. Even the hosts got a wardrobe change. The biggest complaint for season one, from all of the emails and comments, seemed to be the really dumb set change from the front game to the end game. Everything's all in one package this season which is a relief. Plus there's a much larger audience meaning you'll have a lot of interaction and cheering which was sorely missed from season one. You can't get the excitement out of a 20 person audience that you can from a 200 person one. Game play wise, everything stayed basically the same. The only change(s) come in the end game. An additional power chip is given for winning the game, so you get up to four. It should help contestants win a bit more. Some more changes are coming later in the season as well. I'm not really supposed to say what they are. I hinted at it before a few posts back. I didn't scratch the surface of what they will do. Also I heard that the first 21 of the game will receive a bonus prize. I wasn't told if it would be for the entire season or just later in the season due to a few circumstances, but it's coming. I've got to talk about the hosts for a moment. I've always thought Alfonso Ribiero did a nice job on the show. I constantly hear things about his volume, and I just don't see it. I really don't think half of the complainers do either. There seems to be a thing in really any community, like the game show community, where if one person who has some authority says something others will take that person's opinion to be liked and avoid arguments. I just don't see the volume issue. He got excited. I never heard shouting. If that was your definition of shouting, then you may be a bit sheltered. He's not the best thing on earth or some hidden treasure, but he does well in the format. The real star for me, especially after I talked to her on Friday, is co-host Mikki Padilla. Never in my years of doing this have I talked to someone so enthusiastic and excited about hosting, and it shows. It showed in season one and it shows even more this season. I've never talked to a host who can remember specific contestant's names and their specific cards from specific episode numbers even in season one. I really hope more people use her. Mikki has such enthusiasm and love for this show and you rarely get that. There are still a few issues which haven't been ironed out, but it doesn't begin to distract. The scoring system is a little goofy but it's not like it creates unfair advantages or damages the game. The only change I wish they
Read MoreView Comments (8)25Feb2009
“Catch 21″ Needs an Audience
In the Los Angeles area and want to see the new season of Catch 21 tape? Click here to get tickets to catch the hit GSN quiz/card game hosted by Alfonso Ribiero.
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