“Crosswords” on Hiatus

24 Jun

Posted by Alex Davis as Canada, Crosswords, Syndication

Bad news for Crosswords fans like myself. According to multiple sources, Program Partners is putting the low rated quizzer on hiatus until 2009 because of high production costs. At this point, to be completely honest, unless GSN picks it up which I doubt they will I don’t see the show coming back. Its demise leaves a very nice gap for Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? for next season, though. It’s a shame because while the show had issues it was still fun to play along with and was a fast paced intelligent quiz show; something we have barely any of now. More than 3/4ths of the country cleared the show for the new season, so it’s leaving them in a bind. Program Partners is giving them a few options, one of which is pretty interesting.

First, stations can take a “Best of Crosswords” package which will last about one week I’m guessing. Stations can take a Canadian reality show called Style by Jury. However, the final might be the best: stations can pick up a Canadian game show called Inside the Box. It’s essentially 20 Questions but television oriented and extremely fun and honestly better than Crosswords. We’ll try to get a video of it this weekend. “TV stations will be the first to tell you they are suffering in daytime right now,” said Ritch Colbert, principal of Program Partners. “This gives station one more opportunity to meet their year-end sales goals.” Regardless of the outcome, it will be sad to see Crosswords be in limbo because of budget, and hopefully something can be worked out so we can see some new episodes.

11 Responses

Marc Power
1
June 24th, 2008 at 9:25 am

my goodness, what happened that they can’t afford to run it with 3/4 of the country picking it up? but I knew something was up becuase my NBC affiliate (the only one airing the show in this area) suddenly reduced it from 2 eps. a day to 1, now they’re back to 2, speaking of the alternate options that’s huge for Inside the Box, this could lead to a U.S. version of the show, it’s a good show but I warn you the host can be annoying at times and the prize budget is more or less GSN level, most people win between $3,000 and $6,000.

GSN I think is really the best option for Crosswords, it’s a fairly low budget show (which is perfect for GSN) and its ratings haven’t been huge and they wouldn’t really have that pressure on GSN, but like you said Alex, they’re probably not interested.

then again, this may be a good thing for crosswords, during the hiatus, they can tinker with the show and figure how to make it better for if and when it comes back.
Neville
2
June 24th, 2008 at 9:27 am

What a shame to hear this. Let’s be honest - if it goes to GSN, it’ll die just as quickly, as lately they seem to only hang onto to a new show for 1 or 2 seasons (unless it’s a poker show!) I have seen some Inside the Box on YouTube, and it does look like a fun show to me, but it seems more niche than Crosswords (only TV trivia) and these won’t be original episodes for the US. Bear in mind, I love Canadian television in general, but I can’t speak for the rest of the US.
Greg
3
June 24th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

Well, if I were in charge of a TV station like the 3/4ths mentioned above, I’d take “Inside the Box”. Then again, I’d see if I could borrow some tapes from NBC and rerun the Perry version of “SOTC”. I’d run that version back to back against “Temptation”.

I understand that NBC Universal and Sony both handle ad sales. Didn’t they get enough sales?
devares
4
June 24th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

Here’s what I don’t get: you have 2 powerhouse production companies (Sony and NBC Universial), and they have budget problems? Come on! There’s more to this than they tell you, even though I am looking forward to Inside the Box. I saw it (like everyone else) on YouTube, it’s a fun game. I would love to see an U.S. version, I think it’ll do well. If there’s a game show g-d out there (and I believe there is), please bring back Crosswords and make it better. Oh, and BTW, love the new site.
Shon
5
June 24th, 2008 at 4:34 pm

I should be suprised but I’m not.

The gameplay was unfair at best. I can’t tell you how many moments I’ve seen the leader get every question right then at the last second their podium would get captured then game over. It was very frustrating as a viewer to see that. Then the other thing I hated was if you were in 2nd place in the front row (Especially if their was a huge gape in the lead). You were pretty much screwed because no one would want to occupy your podium and pretty much the only way to get out would be to give a incorrect answer and hope one of the spoilers would get it correct so you can switch. Also this is a minor complaint but I notice on a rare occassion that there was more than one possible answer for a question which could have been corrected if they would have a made a clue more specific. Then lastly I think they could have given away little more money in the bonus round. $25,000 would have been more than sufficient.

It’s a shame becuase I had high hopes for this show and if they would have tinkered with the show a little more longer before it was released it would have been a real contender. Instead the result is a show that was really unbalanced.
B-W
6
June 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

High production costs? This show? Who are they kidding?
HomerJay
7
June 24th, 2008 at 7:13 pm

Haitus in this case means cancelled. NO one is going to run repeats of Crosswords in the fall. It’s done, over, finished.

It’s a shame they didn’t make it work, because the quiz elements were sometimes challenging at such as fast pace, but the problems were too much to overcome.

Ty Treadway…meet Guy Smiley. ‘Nuff said.

The spoilers element had confusing rules–of course everyone knew going in there’s a chance to steal a victory late in the game, a la a $5k final spin on Wheel or a late Daily Double on Jeopardy. But things like a wrong answer by a spoiler IF the other two have already given wrong answers suddenly puts them all back in play…very odd, and no penalty for the third one to make a mistake. Perhaps a one or two answer lockout would have been easier to follow.

Ditto the idea that if neither front row player buzzed in, a spoiler could take either podium, but if only one rang in, that person is the only one at risk.

The production was cheesy–bad canned applause, an old Wheel of Fortune cue as a theme….it just screamed amateur.

I’m wondering how many stations will just bury the replacement show they take and double up on Feud or Deal, if they were planning an hour long block.
Brandon
8
June 25th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

HomerJay basically addressed all the problems with the show. Everything about it just screamed cheesy 1970s game show.

But the show came out the oven undercooked, and I think a lot of it has to do with Merv’s passing away right around the time they started taping. Would be great to see the show retooled during this “hiatus”, but I’m not holding my breath, considering the show has prolly been reruns since February or March. I’d love to see them revert to the pilot system, where the three contestants work together to build up a bank, which is then split evenly between the three. At least it would allow all three contestants to have an even slate.

I’m not a stickler over payouts, but just how high are production costs, when the average contestant doesn’t even win five figures!
Adam
9
June 26th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

It’s a shame that Crosswords is pretty much over. I enjoyed the show. The music was petty IMO. I hated the canned appaluse. Ty Treadway did a good job for his first time out as a game show host but other days he was a robot repeating the same stuff over and over again. RIP Merv Griffin’s Crosswords. You were a good show that didn’t have a fighting chance.
Adam J
10
June 29th, 2008 at 12:16 am

I have a feeling that Program Partners is likely to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Wow. I thought it was going to be the next big game show, but instead, it is the swan song to Merv Griffin’s life that now has him rolling in his grave. RIP Merv.
J.C.
11
July 9th, 2008 at 3:34 am

To HomerJay,

Actually, the TV station I work at (albeit a MNTV affiliate) is airing Crosswords repeats. I think it’s something of a package deal, though, as we also air another Program Partners show (Da Vinci’s Inquest). Just thought I’d chip in.

Also, I too felt the buzzer system should have been changed. It should have been more like Jeopardy. For instance:

The two players in the front both buzz in. One player gets it wrong. The buzzers should be reset so that the second player can have an opportunity to buzz in again if he/she wants to try it. And when the spoilers enter, do the same thing, have everybody buzz in, and when the players in the front have had their opportunity, repeat the procedure (buzz, buzz again if a spoiler is wrong, etc.) with the spoilers. The way it is now (or should I say was) If 4 or 5 players buzz in, they’re all screwed if they don’t know the word.