New GSN Reality Show: “Life at Stake”; Bunco Series Greenlit
Batten down the hatches: it’s another GSN reality show. This one is called Life at Stake. It’s about weight loss. I half expected it to be called Life at Steak at first, but enough horrible puns. Honestly it seems like it’s just going to be a non-competition based The Biggest Loser, so it’s not really a game. That “Play Every Day” motto really isn’t working too well apparently. They are casting unhealthy people to come on the show. They will help them get healthy. How thrilling. If you want the appearance fee to be on the show because you’re too lazy to get healthy without doing it without monetary help, click here. Odds are you’re going to need to be LA based.
History has repeatedly shown any attempt at reality shows on the network has failed eventually, whether from internal conflict or horrible ratings, usually the latter. GSN’s really behind the trend on this one and it alienates their core audience, so I can’t see this going far. What worries me is this sort of thing happened in the Game Show Network/GSN rebrand, where the network canceled all their originals, no matter how good the ratings were, to take reality shows instead. It started OK but quickly went negative. We’ll see how it goes.
This cycle happens with the network every five years or so I’m not that worried. They’ll come back once the ratings go far south. I still don’t understand why after the network finally gets two popular original game shows they decide to go reality when it’s been overwhelmingly proven that it just doesn’t work for them. This isn’t a hardcore bias or anything because I enjoy the occasional competition/reality show, but it’s just common sense here.
Edit: Thanks to About.GameShows for this part. They actually greenlit the god damn Bunco series now too? It’s not in game show form as was originally intended apparently. It’s even worse now. It’s another reality show. So take the boring nature of Bunco and throw in a horrible reality show twist. I really cannot believe it. Just let it run its natural course of inevitable failure and game shows will be back eventually, don’t worry. Or maybe they won’t this time. We’ll find out. There’s no real defense for this one.
You know I hate to get personal but I know a lot of people who pitched really great shows to GSN that got turned down. It’s stunning that they think a reality show about middle aged women playing Bunco will light up the world while a game show won’t.
Edit Again: For some reason it didn’t take the last edit I did a few hours ago. I took out a few unnecessary swipes, sorry.
B-b-bunco is some b-b-bullshit.
If Discovery/Hasbro has any inclination to use game shows on their soon-to-be-rebranded network, GSN may not come back from this. If they chase the game show audience off, and that audience has somewhere to land…?
As unreal as it may sound to say this given the nature of these two series, both GSN and the genre itself have survived worse than this. Throut & Neck, Peer Pressure, Set for Life, The Pop 'n Rocker Game, Way Out Games, Cram… I could go on all day. But this is pretty close to those all-time lows, I will admit.
If it truly is darkest just before dawn, reports like this make me think it's really dark just at the moment. But hopefully CBS will provide some light come September…
As unreal as it may sound to say this given the nature of these two series, both GSN and the genre itself have survived worse than this. Throut & Neck, Peer Pressure, Set for Life, The Pop 'n Rocker Game, Way Out Games, Cram… I could go on all day. But this is pretty close to those all-time lows, I will admit.
If it truly is darkest just before dawn, reports like this make me think it's really dark just at the moment. But hopefully CBS will provide some light come September…
If "The Amazing Race" reruns can't survive on GSN, none of these shows will either.
If "The Amazing Race" reruns can't survive on GSN, none of these shows will either.
my only complaint is you resorted to using "GD" in your "reporting". Offensive to many and not professional at all.
Oh, boohoo get over yourself they're just words!
Oh, boohoo get over yourself they're just words!
Man….interned at a company that was working on a Bunco game show format, and I really liked what we came up with. And we actually watched the "las vegas bunco championship" thing someone made on lifetime or what have you and were bored to tears.
What a shame.
See, this is my issue. A Bunco game show could easily work. I derided the idea a bit originally but it could work if you do it properly. This is really the laziest way possible, to just turn it into a reality show. Bunco is boring to watch to begin with, but they are just shoving the women on camera and asking them to talk about it. It's almost becoming an SNL sketch over there.
It really isn't too much to ask for someone there to develop one or two competent game shows. I don't see why they've given up after they had two ratings successes (at least first-run successes, reruns don't do as well). Any time the network gets a hit game show they seem to want to distance themselves from the genre. I have no doubt the crew at GSN are great TV producers. Some of the people have unbelievable resumes. I just don't think they have a clue about running such a niche network.
See, this is my issue. A Bunco game show could easily work. I derided the idea a bit originally but it could work if you do it properly. This is really the laziest way possible, to just turn it into a reality show. Bunco is boring to watch to begin with, but they are just shoving the women on camera and asking them to talk about it. It's almost becoming an SNL sketch over there.
It really isn't too much to ask for someone there to develop one or two competent game shows. I don't see why they've given up after they had two ratings successes (at least first-run successes, reruns don't do as well). Any time the network gets a hit game show they seem to want to distance themselves from the genre. I have no doubt the crew at GSN are great TV producers. Some of the people have unbelievable resumes. I just don't think they have a clue about running such a niche network.
And the second Dark Period continues…
it looks like GSN has put another Nail in their coffin
OK, what the hell is Bunco? And why did GSN greenlight it?
Well I don't know who or what Bunco is but to you're about GSN greenlighting this show the answer is simple:
GSN is NOT smarter then a 5th grader (ugh that was a BAD pun)
Well I don't know who or what Bunco is but to you're about GSN greenlighting this show the answer is simple:
GSN is NOT smarter then a 5th grader (ugh that was a BAD pun)
This is the internet, and we have this thing called google and wikipedia….
Anyways it's a dice game that's extraordinarily popular with the bingo set/stay-at-home mom set. It's like poker night for the ladies. Only problem is the game has NO SKILL or even DECISIONS. On your turn you roll the dice, and keep rolling until you fail to get points on a roll. Then the dice pass to the next person. The end. Ad nauseum
This is the internet, and we have this thing called google and wikipedia….
Anyways it's a dice game that's extraordinarily popular with the bingo set/stay-at-home mom set. It's like poker night for the ladies. Only problem is the game has NO SKILL or even DECISIONS. On your turn you roll the dice, and keep rolling until you fail to get points on a roll. Then the dice pass to the next person. The end. Ad nauseum
Who at GSN has an unbelievable resume? What's unbelievable is that they don't have any experience in the genre at all! Kelly Goode came from scripted long form programming and they've chased away anyone who has been involved with game shows. The crew at GSN are NOT great TV producers and they're proving to be horrible TV executives. Since Goode has taken over there hasn't been one show that has been developed that has done well. Newlywed Game preceeded her arrival and Catch 21 debuted before she got there. She's given us the Big Saturday Night disaster, 20Q which failed when she chose to make it an hour long show, the low rated and expensive Game Show Awards and now all of this reality garbage. Stop kissing GSN's ass and tell the truth!
Who at GSN has an unbelievable resume? What's unbelievable is that they don't have any experience in the genre at all! Kelly Goode came from scripted long form programming and they've chased away anyone who has been involved with game shows. The crew at GSN are NOT great TV producers and they're proving to be horrible TV executives. Since Goode has taken over there hasn't been one show that has been developed that has done well. Newlywed Game preceeded her arrival and Catch 21 debuted before she got there. She's given us the Big Saturday Night disaster, 20Q which failed when she chose to make it an hour long show, the low rated and expensive Game Show Awards and now all of this reality garbage. Stop kissing GSN's ass and tell the truth!
Tell the truth about what? If this is kissing their ass, saying how shitty things are and how they don't know how to run a game show network, I'm doing a terrible job of it. I mean I don't know what more you want. I've already said the awards and Big Saturday Night sucked. I've said they screwed around with Catch 21 and Newlywed Game to a point of annoyance this season (especially with celebrities).
I'm not going to throw certain people under the bus. I'll go up and down saying I haven't liked a single thing they've done in a few years beyond Catch 21 and the occasional comedic clip of Newlywed Game, but I'm not going to start a witch hunt on a specific person when the issue with everything doesn't necessarily fall on one person's lap.
Tell the truth about what? If this is kissing their ass I'm doing a terrible job of it. I mean I don't know what more you want. I've already said the awards and Big Saturday Night sucked. I've said they screwed around with Catch 21 and Newlywed Game to a point of annoyance this season with celebrities.
I'm not going to throw certain people under the bus. I'm not going to start a witch hunt on a specific person when the issue with everything doesn't necessarily fall on one person's lap.
How ironic, the one with JC as initials isn't offended :)
How ironic, the one with JC as initials isn't offended :)
You said "the crew at GSN are great TV producers. Some of the people have unbelievable resumes." Who are you referring to?
"Life At Stake"…meh. Don't really care for reality shows (I remember when critics were calling NBC "the biggest loser" upon announcement of that show's debut; they were proved wrong, partly because it's a somewhat-noble premise)
Now, Bunco as a game show already has some aspects of "Three On A Match" (getting three-of-a-kind wins 21 points, which is the goal in each round) — I've got no problem with that sort of thing (I myself have been working on how to adapt other board games into game shows)…
But a REALITY SHOW?! Whatever GSN's executives are smoking, they need to stop. That said, their usual audience is the old ladies and game-show fanatics…..and, apparently, Bunco is a game usually played by old ladies. This *might* actually work, given the network's viewers, but I doubt it.
"Life At Stake"…meh. Don't really care for reality shows (I remember when critics were calling NBC "the biggest loser" upon announcement of that show's debut; they were proved wrong, partly because it's a somewhat-noble premise)
Now, Bunco as a game show already has some aspects of "Three On A Match" (getting three-of-a-kind wins 21 points, which is the goal in each round) — I've got no problem with that sort of thing (I myself have been working on how to adapt other board games into game shows)…
But a REALITY SHOW?! Whatever GSN's executives are smoking, they need to stop. That said, their usual audience is the old ladies and game-show fanatics…..and, apparently, Bunco is a game usually played by old ladies. This *might* actually work, given the network's viewers, but I doubt it.
It's a shame. GSN had a really interesting reality show a few years back called "Without Prejudice." I was enthralled by every episode, watching a group of 5 people deliberating over who would get $25,000, watching the psychology of it, getting emotionally involved as some of the panel's shortcomings were revealed. I desperately hoped for a season two. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Instead we got that stupid cat thing. Thankfully, I had stopped putting my faith in the GSN programmers a while before.
It's a shame. GSN had a really interesting reality show a few years back called "Without Prejudice." I was enthralled by every episode, watching a group of 5 people deliberating over who would get $25,000, watching the psychology of it, getting emotionally involved as some of the panel's shortcomings were revealed. I desperately hoped for a season two. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Instead we got that stupid cat thing. Thankfully, I had stopped putting my faith in the GSN programmers a while before.
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptBatten down the hatches: it’s another GSN reality show. This one is called Life at Stake. It’s about weight loss. I half expected it to be called Life at Steak at first, but enough horrible puns. Honestly it seems like it’s just going … [...]