GSN’s Big Monday: “The Newlywed Game” Gets 3 Out of 5

For the next two days we’ll focus on GSN’s big upcoming day: Monday, April 6th.  GSN has two launches coming out.  The one I’m more excited for, Catch 21, we’ll cover tomorrow.  But today we’ll stick with The Newlywed Game which debuts Monday, April 6th, at 6:00PM ET on GSN.  I almost feel a bit bad.  I really hyped it up during the set visits, and I stick by that.  On set it was a very entertaining, funny, interesting show.  Carnie Wilson, the new host, was very quick and amusing, which is all you can ask for from a host for this.  It seemed to go great.  But then we got the DVD screeners.  It’s the first show I’ve ever experienced that’s so much better in person than on television.  The show was directed beautifully, produced great; everything was great in person.  It carries the general Embassy Row stamp of excellence.  But something happened when it got to the editing room.

First, the positives, and there are a lot to talk about.  The show plays exactly like The Newlywed Game.  No unnecessary changes were made.  Yeah the set’s a bit small but if you saw the size of the studio in New York City, where studio space is hard to come by, they really did the absolute best they could.  I wish they’d show the turntable spinning more, but what can you do.  Basically anything that you loved about the old version is here.  It feels like The Newlywed Game and it plays like The Newlywed Game.  It’s impossible to create the magic of the original version of any show.  I’m not a fan of the general Newlywed Game format in any version, but I left the show entertained which is all I can ask for.  Nothing was tasteless and it was in general really funny.  There are some hysterical answers; I can’t wait until you guys hear them.  It’s the first time I’ve ever had to walk out of a TV studio I was laughing so hard.  Just wait for, “Australia.”  I will never forget it as long as I live.  I watch The Newlywed Game to laugh.  Very few watch The Newlywed Game for the gameplay.  The show makes me laugh.  It should make you laugh.  There’s not a lot more you can ask for from the entire package of The Newlywed Game.

The show’s fine up until the final five minutes, where they decide to throw in a completely needless and boring end game that doesn’t work at all.  It takes up five minutes of the front game which could be used for joking around and just generally having more fun.  Instead what they end up with is an extremely rushed front game which is missing so much of what made the live show enjoyable.  They also really screwed over Carnie Wilson with the end game.  In the edited television version, because they have to basically cut everything they can to fit in the end game, she seems pretty stale and repetitive and rushed.  It seems like she never engages the players at all and does nothing more then read the question, ask for the answer, and move on.  In person did seriously did fine.  I don’t know what they did with the editing to fit in the end game, but they really cut out a lot of her charm and humor.  She interacted with the contestants, she joked around, she was just generally fun.  But they edit her to nothing more than question reader and that alone.

So that’s what to expect from the show.  The first 25 minutes are pretty fun, funny, and enjoyable.  The last five minutes drags it to a halt and again, it’s really in the best interest of the show to remove that so quickly next season.  It didn’t help anything.  I’m glad they are embracing the past of the show.  Find another way to do it.  It didn’t work here.  I was told by an extremely influential game show producer in a pitch that not every show needs an end game, and he wishes more shows which really don’t require one wouldn’t tack one on.  The exact opposite is happening here.  Everything else is pretty fine.  But by trying to fit in that final five minutes, they edit out what makes Carnie Wilson great and they edit a lot out of The Newlywed Game‘s trademark humor.  If the show comes back for a second season and you are in New York City, I can’t urge you enough to go see the show.  On television it just doesn’t carry the same punch.  Don’t get me wrong, I did think the show was still fun and definitely worth a watch.  But it was just a bit sad to see such a fun show in person edited to breakneck speed to fit in really unnecessary items.

I give it a three out of five.