GSN’s Big Saturday Night, starting June 13th, is a Big Mixed Bag

One of GSN’s new marketing initiatives is the all new Big Saturday Nights, starting June 13th at 8:00PM ET.  Hosted by Ross Matthews (Ross the Intern from Jay Leno’s Tonight Show), over the nine weekends people at home and in studio can play games to win cash and prizes.  Up to $1,000,000 over those nine weeks will be given away.  So don’t go there expecting to win a million like some of the casting notices I’ve read make it seem.  That’s the total that can be given away over the course of the event.  Live music and comedy will be tossed in.  Essentially, it’s a three hour GSN Live with extra additions and, frankly, a more annoying host.  This also stretches each of the 60 minute shows to 90 minutes so I hope you like things dragged out.

That’s one part of the mixed bag.  Let’s go to a positive, first.  The show GSN should be promoting like crazy (which isn’t happening as much as far as I can tell) is The Money List hosted by one of my favorites, Fred Roggin.  It’s a revival of the FOX game show The Rich List. This version knocks the prize to $50,000, but that’s still a lot.  In the show, two teams of strangers face off against each other betting on how many items from a list they can name.  The first team to win two lists plays The Money List, naming up to 15 items in a category for up to $50,000.  The best part is that there are returning champions so there’s no limit to how much you can win.  I know some people who went to some tapings.  Be expecting some very large winners.  This version is quicker than the original FOX version, fitting in two full games each hour, is better hosted, and just plays better to me.  I was a fan of the original version, though.  Your mileage may vary.  The Money List debuts June 13th at 9:30PM ET.

I skipped the 8:00PM ET show for now because it’s the other part of the mixed bag.  The other show is 2oQ, which is, shockingly, hosted by Cat Deeley after all!  Who would have thought!  Hal Sparks is the voice of the computer, Mr. Q, so apparently we’ll have a wise cracking computer there.  We weren’t allowed on the set at the last second for issues too, for lack of better words, confusing and annoying, to get in to right now, but we got reports back from audience members about the show.  If you follow the site you know that we found out about the syndicated pilot hosted by Joey Lawrence and ripped it apart because it deserved to be.  It flat out sucked.  I was hoping for something better.  As far as I’ve heard, it’s not that much improved.

Essentially the show boils down to rows of contestants being placed into the audience.  One row is randomly selected at a time.  They play a game of 20Q, where you have to guess what a person, place, or thing is from up to 20 questions, and the first person to buzz in and guess wins $5,000 and goes on stage for the main game.  So yes, you’re basically being given $5,000 for being randomly picked.  This happens a few times.  The bonus game is basically playing the handheld 20Q game for up to $20,000.  Two things bug me with this.  1: This show has potential but it boils down to playing the handheld game for different amounts of money.  Are you telling me nothing more fun or inventive couldn’t have been done?  2: It seems really pathetic to me that you can win more on the daily game shows like Catch 21 and Bingo America, like double or triple more, than you can on one of their once-a-week shows.  Not to mention I heard basically the entire production of the show has malfunctions happening constantly.  We’ll talk more about it in about two weeks.  My hopes weren’t high from the start, but when I heard they were restructuring the show I had some level of anticipation.  This is really just not working.

The bad part is I see  20Q headlined far above The Money List always, and that shouldn’t be the case.  The Money List is by far, without a shadow of a doubt the better show and I’ve heard this from every single person who has been to 20Q, which is many.  However, you know I’ve been wrong before and I could very well be wrong here.  I just don’t see 2oQ doing a single thing because of it’s typical Endemol production.  I know the executive producer of the show and I like him a lot.  Sorry, but this is just not cutting it at all.  So we’ll see how this goes.  I’m really looking forward to more episodes of The Money List and I hope you are, too.  We’ll have more video features of that show soon.  But if you want to win some cash and prizes, be sure to check out GSN’s Big Saturday Night starting June 13th at 8:00PM ET.  Reruns of 20Q and The Money List will be placed later and brought down to its usual hour-long status so you can do without all the drawn out nature.