New “Catch 21″ and “Baggage” August 16th on GSN; Other Schedule Changes
Here’s an alert about a few minor upcoming GSN schedule changes in the future. However, I first just want to note about new shows. Catch 21 comes back from a rather long break in a new time slot of 5:30PM ET, being the new lead-in for The Newlywed Game. Actually it probably has the nicest slot that network can give any show right now…sandwiched between the highly rated Deal or No Deal and the highly rated Newlywed Game. Alfonso Ribeiro returns as host, as does the dealer Mikki Padilla. The show will rerun at 8:30PM ET. I’m hearing 130 episodes have been ordered, which is the largest order GSN has ever given to an original series. Usual orders are 65 episodes, so this is a long six months of new episodes which is good news.
At 6:30PM ET is the second season debut of the (at least to me) surprise hit Baggage. It had a rocky start with me due to some incredibly misleading casting notices, but did it ever shock me. It’s one of the more entertaining relationship shows around and, frankly, is better than its lead in The Newlywed Game. Jerry Springer returns, and this time they’ve added an audience so we can finally have some reactions to the shocking secrets potential daters. If they handle it well and market it correctly this really can become the next Love Connection. It’ll rerun nightly at 9:30PM ET.
There are a few programming shifts because of all of this. The previous hour-long block of Family Feud at 4:00PM ET weekdays is being trimmed to a half hour, with Richard Karn’s edition being shown. Deal or No Deal will begin at 4:30PM ET and Catch 21 at 5:30PM ET. The old hour-long block of Feud at 8:00PM ET is back to a half hour as well, and it’ll just be the John O’Hurley version. Catch 21 will be at 8:30PM ET, Newlywed Game at 9:00PM ET, and Baggage at 9:30PM ET.
Also this week Late Night Liars is getting cut back now that the season is over. 1 VS 100 will be at 10:00PM ET, Deal or No Deal at 11:00PM ET, The $100,000 Pyramid at 2:00AM ET, and The $25,000 Pyramid at 2:30AM ET. If you are a fan, though, you can check it out Fridays at midnight.
This is purely hypothetical, but I wonder how well Catch 21 would do in syndication?
Still wouldn’t watch Catch 21, syndication or no syndication, lead-in to Newlywed or no lead-in to Newlywed. I absolutely HATE Catch 21, and I think Alfonso Ribeiro doesn’t help matters at all.
Also, re Baggage, I think it’s slightly overkill for it to come right after Newlywed. They could do something truly stupid and call the 6:00 hour the “Relationships Hour”, and that wouldn’t surprise me a bit, knowing GSN.
BJ
Maybe they’ll bring in the Big Numbers bonus round from High ROllers to try to help ratings like Heatter did with the last incarnation of Gambit :) Of course he’d have to go through Sony or MGM or whomever owns the H-Q format rights now. Also coming up this month, Card Sharks(both versions) and $100K Pyramid go back to the beginning of the episode pickups each show got in March 2010 and March 2009, respectively. I suspect Dawson Feud and MG7x will be following suit soon, and $25K Pyramid will in about eight weeks.
Actually, Heatter got the formats for all of his game show, except for H2, which belongs to CBS now, back because of the contract with MGM states that he can retain the rights to any of the H-Q game show, except the adformention Hollywood Squares, at any point and time. Having said that, It would be nice to add the Big Numbers endgame on Catch 21, but you know what would be even nicer? Reviving High Rollers. Would be great for either GSN or syndication, the latter would be nice. :)
Couple Catch 21 with a revived High Rollers, and there’s a new hour right there: Feud block @4, Deal @5, Newlywed/Baggage @6, with the Catch/HR pair and either Deal or 1 vs 100 taking 7, the other @8…
Exactly my point. GSN could and should make this happen.
I agree with the comments about Catch 21 in syndication; GSN doesn’t have that big of a reach as far as TV households it’s available in; I always thought the old GSN shows could work as being packaged for reruns in syndication, i.e. Lingo, Whammy, Catch 21, Newlywed Game, Russian Roulette, etc.
Oh, please Alex, don’t even try to mention “Love Connection” in the same sentence as “Baggage”. Their acquiring of LC was one of the main reasons why GSN started to become less and less watchable.
News flash! Love Connection hasn’t been on GSN for eight months.
I heard that Catch-21 will take Carnie’s NG 6PM and 9PM timeslots because of Carnie’s ridiculous lawsuit. Is that true?