Morning Buzz for June 24, 2011
Good late morning to everyone. I hope you had a great week so far…I know I have. Here are a few smaller stories to end the week.
*Again, I’m really not an awards show guy so I didn’t see any of the Daytime Emmys, but hearing the results I still stand by the opinion that Meredith Vieira, host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, should have won for Best Game Show Host without question. Regardless, though, she was there last weekend elbow-to-elbow with some great people. You can see one picture to the right, but you can check out the rest on Millionaire‘s Facebook page. Check her out with legendary game show figures like Pat Sajak and Peter Marshall, host of The Hollywood Squares.
*This week had a few game show debuts, and the ratings weren’t great but not terrible for any of them. ABC may want to be careful with Wipeout exposure. The Tuesday preview episode got a 3.0/5 rating and 5.3 million viewers. Having said that, 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show managed to actually improve a bit, scoring a 3.1/5 and 5.55 million viewers. ABC’s Expedition Impossible also debuted and scored a 4.2/7 rating. Wipeout‘s official Thursday season premiere fared much better than Tuesday with a 4.4/8.
*We’ve got new GSN schedules uploaded, which you can find at the bottom of the page. A few changes are taking place. Improv-A-Ganza is (sadly for me) losing its weekday 8:30PM ET time slot and it’s being replaced by Lingo. Interestingly 1 VS 100 is getting a new 9:00PM ET weekday time slot also. Could we be seeing a second season? Fingers crossed.
*Our friends at Fremantle is hunting down contestants for a game show run through in Los Angeles. Click here to learn more.
*We somehow failed to mention this earlier. Hollywood Junket was on set with Who’s Still Standing, NBC’s upcoming game show, and got some pictures of the set and an insight into production. I don’t know…it sounds like it could be good but it sounds like production issues are really hurting the show’s atmosphere in taping, and that tends to show on camera.
Improv-a-Ganza’s demotion may be sad, but it was inevitable given the struggling ratings. It’s also interesting (but in a good way) that Love Triangle will be reduced to just the 7pm slot. One sighting to avoid is so much easier than three! :-D
GSN has to have another new season of 1 vs. 100. I think the top prize should be $100,000. I think GSN would have the budget for it. Since GSN is basically cancelling Love Triangle, plus Drew Carey’s Improva-aGanza, I think they should have money for the six figure grand prize. Plus, not that I’m being sexist or anything but I think a male should host it. Also, I’m glad to see Lingo is doing well at 8PM with at times more than 400K viewers. (Wednesday, June 15 and Thursday, June 16)
Maybe Lingo is doing O.K. for GSN with those ratings right now, but they’re beating it into the ground already with a lot of airings (when this takes effect, that will give the Engvall version five airings each weekday) in a short period of time. They’re going to wear the viewers out with such heavy repetition IMO.
Correction, six airings (if the schedule below is correct about the 3pm one being Engvall).
If they do decide to bring back 1 vs. 100 they should get a different host. CAI should stick to giving out 1′s and 10′s on DWTS. The dating shows are an odd change for GSN but it feels like an attempt to reach out to the female audience but I feel like that’s already the majority of their demographic. I say do something to get younger kids interested. I was talking to a friend the other day who had no idea what Press Your Luck was… and he’s 20. Anyway, enough of the tangent. Different host for 1 v 100, get rid of the dating shows, redo Lingo’s format, simple enough.
Someone call Bob Saget and get him to host 1 VS 100 again. Seriously, with Bob’s talent, it could really bring in the viewers. That, and up the prize to $100,000. Or seriously, up the prize to $250,000.
LINGO made winning $100,000 seem like eating a piece of pie, so GSN surely has to realize that defeating a mob of 100 people is much harder, and thus requires a much better top prize to reward The One who does it.
I agree that $50,000 was way too small of a jackpot. But, on GSN’s budget as it is 1 vs. 100 is a big enough project. The top prize should be $100,000, with a new host, and the money ladder should go like this.
$100,000
$75,000
$50,000
$25,000
$10,000
$8,000
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
$1,000
$250,000 for a top prize would be too big for GSN, but if someone really smart at GSN knows numbers and a budget, they might be able to pull it off.
But you notice, WE ALL WANT 1VS.100 BACK ON GSN!
I heard that the new Lingo now airs 41 times a week, but this new season on Lingo only has 40 episodes. That was on buzzerblog’s twitter.
1 vs 100 will likely never see another winner if game show casting remains the way it is today.
Casting is really the flaw I’m seeing in every show that involves a win value based on performance. I rarely think that the people they bring into the shows are capable of winning a lot of money. If a game doesn’t follow the format where at the end of the episode someone WILL win the top prize, casting is vital. That said, 250,000 is doable as a top prize. It’ll bring in viewers and will never be won. Oh, and get rid of Carrie Ann. The host of this show needs to be able to be serious
“One contestant was set on going all the way one minute. In the next minute, after show production staff entered the stage, he decided to walk away with the money he had won. Hmm…there seems to be an advantage to the show not having the contestants go for the $1 million!”
Wait, what? I *seriously* don’t like the implications of that.