Jeremy cruised through the first round with $67,600 in his bank.  He managed to retain one Jump the Question lifeline and Ask the Audience.  His $100,000 question asked, “What media magnate claims he was the USS Enterprise’s radar operator when it tracked John Glenn’s space capsule in 1962?”  He elected to Jump the Question and face the $250,000 question…

In October 2008, the Chicago-based Internet company Groupon sold its first discount deal, a two-for-one offer on what?
A: Teeth cleanings
B: Pizza
C: Yoga classes
D: Movie tickets

After realizing that the word “Chicago” in the question would most likely be a clue, Jeremy made B, Pizza, his final answer and scored the $250,000 prize. His $500,000 question was…

In the famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” what future U.S. President is depicted holding the flag?
A: John Quincy Adams
B: Thomas Jefferson
C: James Monroe
D: James Madison

Though he had a hunch that it was D, the audience thought the answer was B. Jeremy wisely decided to leave with $250,000. If he went for it he would have lost $225,000 and dropped back to the $25,000 level. The correct answer was C.

This win makes Jeremy Blais the third $250,000 winner this season, following celebrity Anthony Anderson and Noam Osband. Jeremy is the seventh person to win $250,000 since Millionaire switched to the current Super Mix format. No one has won higher yet. Keep checking the show out in the next few weeks. You never know when someone may.

Did you miss Jeremy’s amazing game? Here are a few highlights of his run. It was a great moment. I haven’t seen a reaction like his family’s in a while. It looked like they were about to pass out. Photo and video courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.

“Military Spouses Week is not just about the men and women serving,” said Pat Sajak, Wheel of Fortune Host. “It’s about the wives, husbands and kids behind the scenes, who are making sacrifices as well. It’s a way to honor them and to remind all of America that there are a lot of people behind this effort. ”

Be sure to check out the week starting February 6th. You may even get to see a special reunion of a couple…

Let’s start with the positives, though.  With the meteoric rise of Family Feud, Who Wants to be a Millionaire has accidentally been pushed to the side for a bit.  However, they had some great news for the week ending January 22nd.  The long running syndicated quiz show hosted by Meredith Vieira hit a new season high of 2.7.  It’s been doing very well the past few weeks and it’s good to see some numbers close to where the show used to be.  It’s been a little frozen over the past few months.  Fun fact: we’re almost approaching ten years without a $1,000,000 winner (through actual game play).  It would be really nice to even just see a million dollar question.  We haven’t had one of those in about four years.  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 11th season then to, you know, prove what the title of the show actually means.

Speaking of Family Feud, this past week it froze at 3.2 which, again, is unbelievably good.  Remember: next season the show will switch to HD.  Steve Harvey’s talk show is taping in Chicago so could we be seeing another location change?  The top two as always are Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! with 7.7 and 6.4, respectively.

Broadcast ratings weren’t anything to scream about, but not that terrible either.  The series finale of NBC’s Who’s Still Standing? scored a fourth place 1.7/5 in the key demographic and a fourth place viewing total of 6.48 million viewers.  An unbelievable number of things were wrong with the show so I’m frankly amazed it managed to basically stay at the same exact place week in and week out.  I appreciate the effort at trying to make a fast paced quiz show, but the Minute to Win It-ization of the format made it practically unwatchable.

In England, the viewing figures for ITV’s quiz show The Exit List are depressingly low.  Last night’s very tense episode, which saw a team bail out with £17,000 after believing they could not escape the Memory Maze with £115,000, only scored 1.8 million viewers.  This is a show that really should be far, far more popular than it is and I’m not quite sure why numbers are dipping even lower than High Stakes.  Frankly, as I’m watching, I’m not even sure why this isn’t airing on the weekends like planned.  It’s got it all and I’ve yet to see a show that didn’t feature some exciting moment.  Massive shame.

Photo courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd

Here’s a list of the people competing and their information, courtesy Sony.

Again, first place will get $100,000 and an automatic seat into the Tournament of Champions. Second place receives $50,000 and third gets $25,000. Each semi-finalist wins $10,000 and contestants knocked out in the first rounds get $5,000. Over 12,000 students applied and these are the only fifteen taht made it, so congratulations to them.

Here’s a Backstage Pass video with the Hillstrand Brothers getting prepared to play Millionaire.  Photo and video courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.

The adult exam takes place from January 17th through January 19th.  To try for the exam, you must register at Jeopardy!‘s website and sign up for your time zone.  The Eastern Time Zone exam is January 17th, the Central/Mountain Time Zone exam is January 18th, and the Pacific Time Zone exam is January 19th.  Each is at 8:00PM in your respective zone.  You are allowed to take the exam in another zone if there are scheduling conflicts, so don’t worry.  The test consists of 50 questions.  You’ll have 15 seconds to answer each.

The “College Championship” test is open to college students on February 7th.  Register by clicking here.  The “Teen Tournament” exam is on January 31st.  Click here for that.

For those that have taken the exams, do you have any tips for those about to?

During the week audience members will be selected to answer one question to win a cruise much like the contestants.  However, you have a shot, too.  A special contest is going to be held through Millionaire‘s website.  The sweepstakes begins 12:01AM ET on January 9th and runs through 11:59PM ET on January 13th.  Visit the show’s site and enter as soon as you can.  Only one entry per person is allowed and you have to be 18 or older.

You voted Steve Harvey’s run on Family Feud, and its meteoric rise, as the second most memorable moment of 2011.  It’s not even a moment, per-say, as much as it is a collective group of moments that made what you voted for.  The rise of Family Feud is nothing short of unbelievable.  Yes, they benefitted from an adjustments in the ratings system but the 50%+ increase in ratings regardless is amazing.  Has a host change ever worked out this well before?  I can’t remember anything like this.  The last ratings still have it at a 3.2.  It had about half that two years ago.

Family Feud has been on for over twelve years and it just now exploded.  It’s beating Who Wants to be a Millionaire for the first time and I don’t think many expected that to happen.  In addition to Steve Harvey, the social networking has been a major force in the rise in popularity.  From multi-million viewed YouTube clips to the incredibly popular Facebook and iOS game, Feud‘s exposure is constantly growing.  It’s actually being talked about and getting noticed.  Something like this just doesn’t happen often, and it’s showing no signs of growing.  It’s incredible to watch and I hope it continues.

Gaby Johnston, the executive producer of the show, wanted to give a message to all BuzzerBlog readers and fans of the show:

I wanted to take a few moments to both look back over the last two seasons of Family Feud and also take a peek forward. As you can probably guess…we are very excited about the future!

We are really enjoying working with Steve Harvey. His quick wit, the great families and the format of Family Feud have proven to be a great combination!

First, as many of you may have figured out, our primary goal is to entertain our viewers. Our fans have helped drive our ratings to new highs these past two years. We really appreciate our loyal audience…and the NEW viewers!

We also want to take a moment and thank Alex Davis at Buzzerblog for keeping his eye on our show…and writing very kind words ;-) We were honored to be included in the “Best of 2011” Buzzerblog poll.

We have enjoyed putting funny moments on the Family Feud YouTube channel and have enjoyed “tweeting” with our fans. It’s also been fun to see more people enjoy playing Family Feud on their mobile phones and game consoles.

We are actively interviewing families for next season. We’ll be visiting various cities in the coming months to meet new families. We’ve also setup a page on Facebook for families to submit a video audition to us. So, if you want to have some fun with us on Family Feud, please try out! For all the latest details please visit: familyfeud.com.

As for the future, the show has been picked up through 2015 and this next season we’ll tape the show in HD! More fun to come! Thanks again for another great year.

Gaby Johnston

Fear Factor began its second week on the air and suffered from a poor lead-in.  It came to 6.37 million viewers but a pretty strong 2.5/6 demo rating.  It was 2nd place overall but 1st place in the key demographic.  You Deserve It is still on the air and it somehow lost more viewers in its fifth week.  ABC’s quiz show sank to a 2.1/4 rating, down 0.2 from last week.  Its key demographic rating stuck at 0.9/2.  It doesn’t stand much of a shot for renewal.

Syndication had a mixed week ending December 4th.  Wheel of Fortune shrunk to 7.5, but that’s only down 1% so no problem.  Jeopardy! managed to grow 2% to a 6.3.  Family Feud was flat at 3.1.  Who Wants to be a Millionaire trailed the pack at 2.6, which is a 4% increase.

EDIT: Fixed a typo.  Members of the studio audience will get tickets, not just one.  A full section will get them.

Earlier this year Meredith Vieira had the chance to appear on Mary Poppins and play a chimney sweep in two dance numbers. Take a look at a Backstage Pass video showing her experience.

Photo and video courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.

It’s not all good for game shows, though.  ABC’s charity based quiz show You Deserve It inexplicably drop again.  It sank 10% to a new low of 0.9/2 in the key demographic and a 2.3/4 overall.  It’s definitely a goner.  Viewers just aren’t connecting.  Given that this is bombing horribly and ITV’s Holding Out For a Hero did the same, can we put a nail in the coffin of charity-based quiz shows?  They aren’t working no matter if the game works or not.

Syndication perked up for nearly all for the week ending December 4th.  The stand-out as always is Family Feud which grew 19% to a 3.1.  Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! increased to 7.6 and 6.2, respectively.  Millionaire stayed steady at 2.5.  Not bad for anyone in that group.

The rest of the syndicated shows are having a good year as well.  Wheel of Fortune grew 3% year-to-date to a 7.4 rating.  Jeopardy! saw a 7% increase to 6.2.  Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which just ended its viewer incentive program “Club Millionaire” very abruptly, was up 14% from last November to a 2.5.  Good news for all of them this November, so congratulations to all.

Really the only bad news is for ABC’s You Deserve It, which is just not having a good run.  The show clocked in a fourth place 2.5/4 rating overall and barely fourth place 1.0/2 rating in the 18-49 demographic.  It only beat The CW by two tenths of a point.  Total viewers were 3.56 million.  If you’re in that 3.56 million and enjoy watching the show, I’d be saving all the episodes as you can because it won’t be around much longer.  No show will last like this.  I repeat again: good game wrapped in a bad package.

Here’s a copy of the letter sent to club members.

Dear Club Millionaire Members,

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are sorry to announce that, as of Tuesday, December 6, 2011, all activity related to Club Millionaire will be discontinued. We apologize for any disappointment this may cause and thank you for your participation of the Club. In the coming months, we will be exploring other options related to development and operation of a new Millionaire rewards program. Should a new Millionaire club be launched, please be assured that any points you’ve accumulated, thus far, will be transferred into the new program.

We appreciate your loyalty to “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and hope you will continue to be an active viewer of the program.

Here’s a behind the scenes Backstage Pass video courtesy of Valleycrest Productions Ltd.