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.
A bit ago, when we announced Australia will have their own version of Power of 10, some people said Australia will never offer anywhere near that much money. Eddie MacGuire may have proved them wrong. It was announced today that Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, in Australia, will now be played every Monday night for 80 minutes and $5,000,000. This marks the most money given away in a regular season of Millionaire, not a series of specials such as Super Millionaire. This new edition of Millionaire will be completely live and give viewers a chance to win $10,000 each night.
“This is the most exciting show for me to come back on air with - I really enjoy Millionaire and to up the ante with the $5 million is great news,” McGuire said yesterday. This new version will start on Monday, October 22nd.
Good news for Australian Temptation fans. The US version might be a flaming piece of shit, but the Aussie version will be staying on the air. It will now be on Tuesdays through Fridays at 7PM, which means I’m guessing Millionaire will be Mondays at that time. All of these changes are under new Nine Network boss David Gyngell. I know we have some fans of those versions of the show here, as well as some Aussie readers, so at least you have a big of good news today.
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.
We forgot to post this earlier. Feel free to comment about Temptation here.
Some people have chimed in. Here are my thoughts… If you go in expecting something besides a continuation from where Sale of the Century left off 18 1/2 years ago, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The mish-mosh of mini-games was decent. Rossi Morreale came across as a much better emcee than expected, but with room for improvement. The whole shopping at home gimmick doesn’t do a thing for me. The pacing of the show left a lot to be desired i.e. it ended way too early. (Maybe this gets cleared up in non-celebrity shows.) By first impressions only, Temptation appears to be the most solid new syndicated game show in at least a decade, possibly since the short-lived gem The Challengers from 17 years ago. I gave Temptation an 8 out of 10. That title could easily be transferred to Merv Griffin’s Crosswords in five days.
Adam B. Vary, a writer for Entertainment Weekly, was given an opportunity to play the role of Rossi Morreale on the set of Temptation. You can see video of Mr. Vary’s time at Temptation here. Disregard Mr. Vary’s hosting abilities and pay attention to the show itself. My excitement level for Temptation went from “eager to see it but don’t have much faith in its success” to “the MyTV preview in 4 days can’t get here soon enough”. Enjoy!
Thanks to reader Dan M. for this link. The Australian edition of Temptation, which is being syndicated in the USA starting September 10th, has been canceled in favor of a weeknight return of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. No word if it’s the good regular version or the “eh” new British edition. It will be on the shelf for at least the rest of the year, which means if daily Millionaire with returning host Eddie McGuire bombs, we might be seeing Temptation back on the air. The Millionaire season is to be 40 episodes currently. The decision to bring Millionaire back was necessary to “keep the rights to the show alive”, Nine sources said yesterday.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Holy god! Some actual Temptation news! They are finally starting to cast contestants for the new syndicated quizzer which debuts on September 10th across the nation. If you have the brain, the guts, and the shopper’s touch, you can win thousands and thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. Click here to go to the Craigslist posting. If you’d rather not go there, you can also call 323 762 8399 or email the casting director here. You must be 21 or over to compete. Good luck.
Pardon us for a lack of updates recently. We’re working on our brand new site (No more blocky look) and I’m going out of town a lot in the next few weeks.
A good majority of the syndication debut dates for the new and returning game shows were released today, thanks to Mark Berman. Here are the shows debuting on Monday, September 10th:
Let’s Play Crosswords
Temptation
Wheel of Fortune
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Noticeably missing are Jeopardy! and Family Feud. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune generally debut on the same day, so I’d expect September 10th for that as well. However, for Feud, your guess is as good as mine. To my best knowledge there has been no 100% confirmation of renewal, although we are receiving rumors that they are looking at new places to tape next season, so don’t be completely surprised for a renewal there. We still don’t know a single thing about Crosswords, though, which is a bit strange. We should be receiving word of the host and more in the next few weeks, according to our friends at Program Partners. We’ve also heard some reports that things aren’t going that smoothly on the set of Temptation, so I’d cross your fingers.
Adlink posted some new clearances for the new syndicated game show Temptation. For your information, it has cleared 70% of the nation, so it is a firm go. Here is a list of some of the new stations.
WWOR/New York, KCOP/Los Angeles, WPWR/Chicago, KDFI/Dallas, WDCA/Washington, D.C., KTXH/Houston, WFTC/Minneapolis, KUTP/Phoenix, WRBW/Orlando and WUTB/Baltimore. Additional clearances include WTTA/Tampa, KCPQ/Seattle, KMYQ/Seattle, WOIO/Cleveland, KTVD/Denver, KPLR/St. Louis, XETV/San Diego and WLFL/Raleigh.
More stations will probably pile in as the show comes closer to debut. Temptation is hosted by Rossi Morreale.
Any idea who this dude is? I’m stumped. The host of “Temptation”, the updated version of “Sale of the Century”, is Rossi Morreale. According to B&C, he was named one of People’s Magazine’s 50 sexiest men alive, he played college football, he’s done minor hosting work for TBS, Spike, G4, and ESPN, and that’s about it. Wish I could help you out more.
Me? I still think Mark Walberg could have been a terrific host, but we’ll have to see how he does.
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