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“Pyramid” Replaces “Russian Roulette” on GSN

Posted by Alex Davis On July - 7 - 2008

Ever get one of those emails where you say “Are you kidding me? I’m hoping this is a dream.” I did once GSN sent out the advanced schedules for the next few weeks. Russian Roulette is sadly gone except for weekends at 4:00PM ET. Replacing it starting July 21st at 6:00PM ET daily is Pyramid. Not the good Dick Clark kind. It’s the crappy Donny Osmond version. The 2002 revival of the classic will also be on daily at 10:30PM ET following reruns of Catch 21 on July 22nd.

GSN will be airing season one in daytime and season two at night. Incidentally the episodes will be shown in order unlike what we got back then, so you’ll see celebrities for multiple days in a row. The first showing on July 21st at 6:00PM will feature celebrities Julia Sweeney and Kerr Smith. At 10:30PM ET, starting on July 22nd, the show’s celebrities will be Giuliana Depandi and John Salley. If this is not a huge example of a downgrade than I don’t know what is. But hey, it was nice to see Russian Roulette for a while.

Catch 21 reruns will be shown at 10:00PM ET. Lingo is at 11:00PM ET and finally Whammy! is at 11:30PM ET.

Popularity: 15% [?]

GSN, Schedule Change

1962Comments2008-07-07+22%3A08%3A54Alex+Davis

Sam Mandlsohn Said,
WHAT????

I guess GSN is that stupid.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Brandon Said,
I actually saw this one coming. With the more recent versions of shows they have been airing lately (Feud, TTTT, etc.), I figured Osmond Pyramid wasn’t too far behind.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Vahan Said,
GSN should have acquired the 1983-1987 episodes of The $25,000 Pyramid, instead of wasting money on this half-assed revival that Harry Friedman had no right to butcher.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Chad Said,
I can deal with it. Honestly, I’ve never thought this version was too bad, just don’t try to compare it to all of the great Clark episodes. It’s always good to have some form of this show on air.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Whammy Said,
Yeah, but the Drop Zone must live!! I can’t believe that GSN would f*** up like this! What’s next, beach-themed promos? Oh, wait a minute…

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Shon Said,
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

This is the worst version of Pyramid ever! It does not need to be on again. Next thing you know GSN will drop the current version of Card Sharks and bring back the 2000 version. YUCK!

I still get nightmares seeing Osmond. I’d rather watch the Davidson version of Pyramid (which IMHO wasn’t that bad).

Maybe I should be a little more constructive but I’ll be brief. The only thing I really liked was the set. Osmand was bland, The music was awful and I hated the way they changed the rules. It was completly forgetable. Enough said. Bring back Russian Roulette!

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Chris Said,
I actually didn’t think Donny’s Pyramid was all that bad.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
mikeman Said,
I love this version!

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
KBGUY09 Said,
I like Osmond Pyramid, but not nearly as much as Clark. But why is RR leaving the schedule almost completely? I watch it every night at 10…but I won’t watch Pyramid. GSN is still doing better than before but I can’t see how Osmond Pyramid can get better ratings than RR in both spots. Bad decision, GSN.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Xavier Said,
My guess is Russian Roulette did poorly in the ratings. I am really shocked to see it, but what can you do?

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
HomerJaySimpson Said,
I’m with the folks who liked the Osmond Pyramid. They’ve run the Clark version to death over the years, so this is a nice change of pace.

Overall, the Osmond version was fairly faithful to the classic–unlike, say, Card Sharks, that was nearly unrecognizable. It just had a welcome modern look to it.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
LostCluster Said,
There’s a clear line being drawn. Classics during GSN Live’s daytime, originals and recent reruns after 6pm ET/PT.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
GhostOfGSN'sPast Said,
Something tells me that MG’98 and CS’01 are also eventual inevitabilities we’re going to have to come to grips with.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
insaneben Said,
First they choose to debut a cat-themed game show, now they’re going with an inferior version of a classic? Man, between this, the firing of Roger Dobkowitz and the fact that tvgameshows.net will be discontinued as of August 1st, I’m wondering if there’s any good news on the horizon…

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Julia Said,
Well, I am happy to see Donnymid back on the air. Unlike Crosswords or Temptation, this show actually pulled a 2.0 or better in the ratings…Let’s pull out the list of shows that did, or still do, worse than that in ratings since…That INCLUDES the two shows that Sony rolled out to replace the double run of Pyramid, Ellen, Temptation and Crosswords, many other talk shows and court shows, etc. Nowadays, this show would be given a quick renewal instead of the two seasons and gone it got.

other than the 6 clues in 20 seconds, as opposed to 7 in 30 seconds, I thought it was well produced. Granted, finding stars for this version was not easy, and getting someone who could “replace” Dick Clark as host was a big task, I think they did well with what they had, and Donny already had an established fan base. You might not get the biggest stars, but if you get people who can play the game well, what else do you need?

Would I like to see the Clark era Pyramids? Yeah. But, they have been played to death, and I think seeing some recent reruns of shows that weren’t crap from the networks (i.e. Dog Eat Dog, Show Me the Money, Twenty-One) is a nice change.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Mike B. Said,
“There’s a clear line being drawn. Classics during GSN Live’s daytime, originals and recent reruns after 6pm ET/PT.”

And on the East Coast feed, the line is drawn at 3 PM. I think it’s time to erase that line, and bring back some popular classics like Match Game and Super Password to later dayparts. It’s apparent that their only reliable modern game shows right now are Millionaire, Lingo (which really should be renewed), and Karn/O’Hurley Feud. Maybe Whammy!, but the relegation to 11:30 PM can’t be a good sign.

Perhaps Catch-21 and Donny’s Pyramid will catch on, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Though Pyramid at least has the advantage of being a relatively well-known game show brand, which I think is what’s helping Feud and to a lesser extent Whammy. And I think Lingo has the advantage of having been continuously on in pretty good time slots since 2002, allowing it to maintain a good audience. Maybe GSN should have given Russian Roulette a chance to rebuild its audience, but they’re clearly being trigger happy right now.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
DENo1MatchGameFan Said,
I agree with Vahan that GSN should have acquired the 1983-87 episodes of “The $25,000 Pyramid”, as they haven’t been shown since the USA Network days of the mid ’90’s! Why do you think so many people got pissed off when GSN kept rerunning the 1986-87 season of “The $100,000 Pyramid” over and over and OVER again? But now, they can air BOTH seasons of Donny Osmond’s version of the show – what a crock! To top that off, there are still two seasons (1978-80) worth of “The $20,000 Pyramid” left – why not air those as well? Granted Donny’s version of “Pyramid” was okay (no “MG ‘98″), but when you have access to the classic version, why not show it? GSN could have paid to get the videotapes of the 1983-87 episodes of “The $25,000 converted to its format, instead of blowing its wad on “The Amazing Race” a few years ago, and who knows – they might have had some left over to negotiate for “Scrabble” and “$ale Of The Century”, or for the 1983 and 1986 episodes of “Press Your Luck” that haven’t been shown (again) since the USA Network days of the 80’s and 90’s – get off the pot GSN and wake up to reality!

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Vahan Said,
Yeah, GSN are being complete hypocrites. They won’t lease for anymore than the 175 or so episodes of $100K Pyramid from 1986-1987, that they reran to death for 2-3 years, yet they will lease for the 315 or so episodes that Donnymid had? You have got to be kidding me. I really don’t know why they changed the way of leasing for Sony’s shows during the Cronin era. There was nothing wrong with the old way at all. I can only assume that even during the Cronin era, GSN’s would not have been gone forever had they continued the old way of leasing for Sony shows during the Flemming era.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Nanette Said,
I liked the Donny Osmond version, but I’m also a little bias because I was a contestant on the show. ;)

Donny was super nice and I got to play on one of the special editions they did with Dick Clark as a celebrity contestant.

I’ll have to be sure to TiVo the reruns so I can catch myself, so thanks for posting this news!

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 1:54 am
DB25 Said,
Ugh. I’d rather see RR than Osmond Pyramid anyday. Osmond Pyramid ranks up there with MG98 and The New Card Sharks with Pat Bullard. *SHUDDERS*

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 5:54 am
mamakafes Said,
I loved Osmond Pyramid when it was on. I always wondered why GSN hadn’t picked it up sooner, so I think this is good news. It was very true to the original version and they had some decent celebs.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Marc Power Said,
This is an insult to the fans! they cut down a show we’ve all been raving about and begging to be revived for years (RR) and a lot of people have been begging for classic pyramid and instead they pull a double whammy and bring on the less popular version of the latter. Now I didn’t think this version was terrible. but I don’t like how they went all “star trekish” with the set, the sfx and etc.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 7:25 am
myke25 Said,
I agree Marc…I disliked the set and the theme noise (I refuse to call that thing “music”), but they stayed pretty true to the gameplay on Donny’s Pyramid…except for the $100K “Tournament.” They ruined that! Donny didn’t suck as host. This Pyramid is better than no Pyramid.

I’ve been watching clips of the Bill Cullen $25,000 Pyramid on YouTube. Now that’s a show I’d really like to see in re-runs. Dick Clark was the definitive Pyramid host, but Cullen did alright on this show. And it was made back in the days when winning $25,000 was a big freakin’ deal! Viacom’s been sitting on this for years.
Since we have Match Game DVDs and Price Is Right DVDs, I’d love to see a DVD with each denomination of Pyramid..even The $50,000 Pyramid! That would rock!

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Martin P. Said,
I am confused. Why do people who are in charge of game show production and programming continue to f*** up. I cannot believe that they are bringing back that horrible version of Pyramid. Donny Osmond was horrible, they changed the rules, the set was okay (in a let’s update the set, but change the total feel of the show kinda way). BOOOO! GSN! BOOO!!

Oh if they bring back that god awful version of Card Sharks I am going to boycott GSN. (Well…except for the old Card Sharks, Wheel, Bingo, and Tic-Tac-Dough!)

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Julia Said,
OK…Donnymid is not NEARLY as bad as the two attempts they made to bring the franchise back in the mid 90’s. Just check out usgameshows.net and you’ll see the two failed formats they tried. Absolutely horrible attempts. I’m just happy that the only different rules from Donnymid compared to the original are the 6 words in 20 seconds, and the tournament debacle. Other than that, it was true to the original.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
JD Nole Said,
Is it the classic game we grew up with featuring the host who never seemed to get any older? No. And, honestly, I had more trouble with some of the Win Ben Stein’s Money-style category names than the celebs on this version.

IMHO, some flavor of Pyramid should always be on GSN. Those who blame GSN are a little over-angry IMHO. Perhaps this is the version Sony wanted to peddle and hinted that more of the Clark years could be forthcoming if GSN aired the Osmond era first.

As for RR, it resurfaced once…it could come back again. It’s not like GSN doesn’t have a history of that.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Jonathan Said,
Yay. Another classic from the 1980s that was butchered in 2002 is coming to GSN soon. I just bet GSN has a plan to attract younger viewers to the network by airing originals and recent programming from earlier this decade. I just bet Shelly (a.k.a. “tattooed” on GSN Buzz) will be really disappointed when she reads this. No wonder the daytime ratings are better than in evenings and prime time. I agree that GSN should have at least gotten the rights to one season of $25K Pyramid. At least it would have beaten no Pyramid at all. But Donny Osmond is definitely no Dick Clark, and his version will not last past Christmas on the GSN Schedule. But you never know – there may be more people who enjoyed the show than anyone could ever realize.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
devares Said,
While this wasn’t the best version of Pyramid, it stayed true to its form. the only beef i have with this version is the set, the theme music, and the dropping of the increments of money on the title. I understand you have to get with the times, but, in this case, they shouldn’t have. Donny Osmond wasn’t a good host, but he wasn’t a bad host either. It could’ve been better if CBS Television Distribution (or Kingworld as it was at the time) would’ve collaborated with Sony on this the way they did Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, it would’ve lasted longer than 2 seasons.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Devon Said,
I don’t see what the problem is. RR is still on weekends and this just adds another show *exclusive* shall we say to the weekend lineup. I actually loved the new pyramid and it’s great to see more variety on GSN.

Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 10:00 am
jaymich1128 Said,
While my favorite game show of all time was the classic version of Pyramid (with Dick Clark), I kind of liked the Donny Osmond version…I even tried out for the show. While I think the producers’ rule changes stank up the place (especially changing the tournament rules…and then changing them again…and then changing them back), the game itself was close enough to the classic to make me happy.

As for running the classic version to death…GSN did that to “The $100,000 Pyramid”….not the other versions…I started getting Game Show Network just after “The $20,000 Pyramid” left their schedule…and it’s only been shown in spurts, ever since.

So, while I would like to see the classics come back, this will do in a pinch.

Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Mike B. Said,
^And even with $100K Pyramid, they really only wore out the second season. It’s been a while since the third season aired, and even longer since they aired the first.

Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
K.C. Said,
The bad: Russian Roulette’s gone. ‘Nuff said. That added to the fact that they could’ve picked up far superior seasons from the good ol’ days.

The good: FINALLY, something my wife will watch with me! She ain’t too fond of game shows in general, but she used to rush home every day after school so she could catch Donnymid.

Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
MrQuiz Said,
Say what you want about this version of PYRAMID. But, don’t blame Donny Osmond for the format changes, the set design/style, the choice of celebrities, WHATEVER! Like it or not, he wasn’t half bad as an emcee. Comparing Donny Osmond to Dick Clark (or even Bill Cullen, for that matter) is as unfair as can be; for those of us who remember the original JEOPARDY! we (to some extent, still think) of it as Art Fleming’s show; Alex Trebek didn’t quite seem like the same kind of fit. But, we were wrong. True, some emcees associated with given shows are irreplaceble (textbook example: Gene Rayburn/Match Game). I know people will snipe “yeah, but what about TPIR, huh? Drew Carey dosen’t hold a candle to Bob Barker!” Well, think of it this way: truth be told, TPIR was never really Barker’s show , to begin with, Originally, it was Bill Cullen’s show. Barker merely took a virtually totally reformatted classic, and made it his own. MG, with its original and revised formats (60’s & 70’s-era) on the other hand, had only ONE emcee, Gene Rayburn. Here’s another thought: who’s to say if Allen Ludden had lived, he wouldn’t have hosted “Super Password,” instead of Bert Convy (who didn’t do a bad job, either).
So, go ahead and stick with your opinions, pro or con. You’re entitled to them. Just try to be fair about it, and place whatever blame where it really belongs-in this case, Sony, who now owns Pyramid, and all of Bob Stewart’s old shows, for green-lighting the “need” for changes (other than the host, who as I understand it, is generally the last piece in the puzzle).

Posted on July 12th, 2008 at 9:20 am
MrQuiz Said,
I just thought of something else (bear with me on this one, please): If Allen Ludden were alive today (he’d be 90+ years old), do you think having him make an appearance at the opening of “Million $ Password,” and passing the torch to Regis Philbin, might, or could have “validated” things? (Granted, with the show turning out to be the success it did, this is all moot; hypothetical, or not). But, for say, the sake of “Sentiment,” “tradition,” or respect for the show’s heritage, what’s your opinion? And, thanx most kindly for letting an “old skool purist” impose his two cents worth to this blog from time to time. We may agree, disagree, or even agree to disagree on any given topic. But, we are all in lockstep with our shared passion, pleasure, and care/concern with TV game shows-past & present! (right?)

Posted on July 12th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Eddie Said,
two words… EPIC FAIL.

Posted on July 17th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Rich Said,
I am a huge Pyramid fan, but I think that the Donny Osmond version fell short. If GSN wants to start replaying classic episodes, they should bring back The Jokers Wild, Bullseye, TPIR, and Bill Cullen’s Pyramid from the ’70’s. But I am looking forward to seeing the premiere of Catch 21.

Posted on July 18th, 2008 at 8:40 am
dawn Said,
i like russian roulette i am sad to see it get replaced with pyramid i dont know if ill like it as much russian roulette is the best please dont take it off

Posted on July 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Chas Said,
“Open Donny’s drop zone.” (CHUNK!)

Posted on July 24th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Mike B. Said,
I find it amusing how the image for Pyramid in the slideshow contains the URL pyramidgameshow.com, which redirects to ION’s website. I guess they acquired that URL when they got the rerun rights to the show, and they haven’t give it back to Sony.

Posted on July 24th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

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