“Pyramid” Revival for CBS Dead
We could have seen this from a mile away and I’m sure many of you could also. According to Deadline, which is really never wrong with this stuff, CBS has chosen the View-like talk show hosted by Sarah Gilbert of The Big Bang Theory and with other panelists like Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne, Leah Remini, and the wife of the person who ends up making all these decisions Julie Chen. This means Pyramid is all but dead unless some unbelievable twist of fate occurs and Les Moonves wants a divorce.
And to be honest, not to be rude, if you expected Pyramid to get picked up you were delusional. When it’s against only game shows then yeah, it’s looking good. Put it against a talk show in the format of a very popular one on ABC and it’s looking iffy. Add the wife of the head of CBS into the mix and you’re boned. Andy Richter fronted the latest pilot with celebrities like Betty White taking place. Pyramid was done by Embassy Row and Sony Pictures.
At this point I really wouldn’t get your hopes up about it coming back. It’s had a lot of chances and I just don’t see it happening right now. There’s not a good number of outlets for it. It’s a shame but there we go. We do have a new season of the incredibly fun Let’s Make A Deal to look forward to. I mean obviously it could have a remote shot on cable or something and Sony is obviously still interested but given the history the past two years with the show, I’m just not expecting anything.
Brought to you by…Nepotism: Fast Tracking people’s careers just by being related to someone with power since god knows when.
I had a feeling that this was too good to be true. But, I also wasn’t expecting it to happen, either.
Moonves is a knucklehead (and to think, I once had the hots for Julie Chen).
Not really, MrQuiz. Moonves has to please the wife, something I’m sure we all do from time to time. But I do agree with you on the first part of your comment.
It is a shame that the Pyramid revival isn’t going to happen (at least for now, stranger things have happened), but that’s the business for you. The only other chance that it will happen is if (broken record in 5,4,3,2,1) The View goes into syndication in 2011, NBC trims the Today show down at least an hour, or cancels Days of Our Lives.
Days Of Our Lives has been on the air forever.
So have Guiding Light and As The World Turns, and I don’t have to tell you the end results for those shows.
Don’t forget The Bold & The Beautiful and the Young & The Restless.
Y&R and B&B are #1 and #2 respectively in daytime. So they’re not going anywhere for a while.
Plus, “Bold/Beautiful” has only been on since ’87. lol.
I don’t suppose this means we’ll finally hear something good about “The Cube.”
I don’t blame CBS for the decision it made. With “Oprah” leaving the marketplace, you have to strike while the iron is hot, and other networks/syndicators are going to be doing the same over the next 12-15 months. Pyramid, while a great format, won’t grab the Oprah audience. Neither would that hybrid game/talk/food show with Emeril Legasse.
The Chen show also benefits from a consistent lineup of regulars that people know. I fear that with Pyramid, you risk mixing good celebrities with the bad, similar to Million Dollar Password, and drive viewers away with crappy gameplay.
Kudos to Davies for giving it his best shot. Perhaps the show could be re-worked for prime time, or in syndication for 2011. Hard to keep Davies down — you know he’ll have something new up his sleeve soon.
I have to voice my opinion. I’ve been following the story on this website even before LMAD was announced to replace that other soap on CBS that no one talks about now. Even back then, this website stated that “according to sources, which is most likely creditable…” have always said that Pyramid was going to return because they’re “rarely wrong.” Well, for those creditable sources, I tell them all to shut up and keep quiet the next time something like this comes around. I’ve been a big Pyramid fan from way back when and it was a great shown and it was off and on for many years. I think the real reason why it wasn’t picked up is because they didn’t want to see a disaster like Doony’s really retarded Pyramid where everything was changed and so call “hi-tech.” I also blame this website for posting so-called “positive” remarks of when Pyramid “may” return and all the positive things the author was “supposedly” saying and now saying “I’m not surprised” or “I hope you didn’t get your hopes up, ” crap. If I recall, a few postings ago, this author of this website was excited to know that Pyramid may make a return, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been a post on here in the first place. It’s a shame to say that people can become so two-faced in light of influence of some woman with CBS to put on another talk show. For that, you might as well leave the soap opera’s alone.
Wait, you blame the website for reporting news about a game show pilot, and a pilot that received a few favorable reviews from those in attendance? Get over yourself.
Most likely the main reason Pyramid, among two or three other formats pitched, wasn’t picked up is because Julie Chen is involved with that talk show. Julie Chen, as in the wife of the network. I find it hard to believe ANY show would have much of a chance against one with Julie. It’s Hollywood politics, so please, stop with the asinine idea that it’s the website’s fault for posting a review of a game show pilot.
BTW, the word is “credible”. Knowing something like that would make your posts a lot more so.
However it’s spelled… and I wasn’t blaming the website at all, I just said that it shouldn’t let people give their hopes up. As far as people in attendance for the pilot of Pyramid, MAYBE there was a waiver that was signed about not saying anything about the show. I don’t know and neither do you… so you get over yourself. About posting, the reason why I don’t post is because I let me feelings known in the posts that I do publish and get personally attacked because of what I’ve said. Again, get over yourself.
I think having the influence over a company is purely BS.
Defensive much? Your rebuttal is all over the place, and if that response is indicative of any others, I see why you’ve been attacked in the past. You seem to have a pretty high opinion of yourself, and a problem with someone pointing it out.
Oh, and from your first post, I quote “I also blame this website for posting so-called ‘positive’ remarks of when Pyramid ‘may’ return and all the positive things the author was ‘supposedly’ saying and now saying ‘I’m not surprised’ or ‘I hope you didn’t get your hopes up, ‘ crap.”
So yeah, you did blame the site, but thanks for making my point and contradicting yourself. But before this turns into an Internet pissing match, I’ll just kindly ask that you think before you type, and not take criticism so personally. It will help you avoid being “attacked” so often.
I’m so glad that you found my postings amusing… what do you do… sit back and wait for me? How nice, another fan of mine.
You’re right. I may have blamed the website, and because I knew you’d comment back, I found proof from THIS website about their, let me spell this right, “credible,” sources. This is from a posting dated back to February of this year:
“Before I list the shows, I just want everyone to clearly know that this obviously isn’t confirmed by anyone and is from our incredibly trustworthy sources. The situation, I’m told, is very fluid and things can change easy. This is just what it’s looking like in the game show department as of right now and what CBS has been presented.
Two of the shows I’m being told are favorites for the daytime slot are a revival of the classic game show Pyramid and an adaptation of the board game Catch Phrase from Hasbro.”
I understood before hand that this wasn’t yet confirmed, however he obviously states this is from “incredibly trustworthy sources.” So, I don’t know what else to tell you, it’s in the archives if you want to look for yourself. Again, see the aforementioned that people of that magnitute for sources and insight, need to keep their mouths shut.
I Actually liked Donny Osmond’s version of pyramid, at least they kept it the same unlike the truly dreadful card sharks in 2001.
I’d love to see clips from the Richter pilot(s). I’m still curious about the set and how Andy did. Maybe the best way for Sony to keep the dream alive is to put some fanboy (and fangirl) eyes on it so there’s still some buzz being generated…beyond bitching at CBS for nepotism.
ABC has said repeatedly that The View is staying put and not going to syndication. That leaves One Life to Live as the most vulnerable network daytime show. It would be some poetic justice if ABC picks it up from CBS for a second time and makes a hit out of it. But unless Sony sets its sights on network prime time, Pyramid could stay dead a while. It’d be too pricey for cable, and there aren’t that many syndie holes. Pity.
It would be poetic justice if that happens. And the fact that ABC is shutting down SOAPNet in 2012, it seems like all of them are vunerable. So, unless The CW replaces Tyra with it (highly unlikely), it seems like we won’t be seeing Pyramid until, at the least, 2012.
I dunno about that. SOAPNet’s demise stems more from TiVo making it unnecessary.
I’m kinda thinkin’ that Pyramid’s best shot at life may be as a limited-time prime-time stunt, much like how WWTBAM began life. Pitch it to CBS or ABC as something to fill the gaps between seasons of Survivor or Dancing with the Stars. Deal or No Deal had a great launch as a two-week holiday stunt.
Interesting. I can see it working in Primetime. And, if it’s successful, who knows? Syndication maybe?
See, the problem with putting Pyramid in primetime is the democraphics. Password never returned because the demographics were horible in their eyes. Even though the ratings were really great, even for CBS they skewed WAY too old. Pyramid has that same problem. It would skew way too old, again, even for CBS. So, they would be best to put it on in daytime where if the demographics suck (TPiR’s average viewer age is about 62), they give it just a bit more leeway. Daytime always skews older anyways.
The challenge is the games in prime time have been middling performers of late, and putting a ton of cash into one doesn’t make a lot of sense from a purely business standpoint. ABC seems content with the filler strategy they have for Dancing with the Stars off seasons, and CBS just slots in encores of any of their 9,452 procedural shows for a cheap filler when Survivor/Amazing Race isn’t racing.
Syndication? Maybe, but even with Oprah’s departure, 2011-12 is no sure bet. Already we’ve heard one of the prime slots, WLS, isn’t going the syndie route (preferring a local news-esque show). How many others will jump to expand local news in the big markets, thus cutting more slots? (And, let’s be honest, do you really think games would directly replace Oprah? Not gonna happen in many, if not most cases; instead, it might MIGHT be moving another show up to the Oprah slot, thus creating an opening elsewhere.)
Crap. As soon as I saw the concept online, I had a feeling it was an uphill battle for Pyramid. It’s just too much work compared to just throwing five big mouths in a pit with a mild controversy. That said, Alex, I don’t recall you ever declaring yourself bearish on the show, just that you weren’t expecting it to be like the first pilot in presentation, which nearly everyone here wanted. Eh, it’s probably just as well, since the more I heard about it, the less I liked it. Low stakes. One-and-done format. No actual pyramid on the set. The Double Down sounded a little interesting, though.
Ugh. So much for the game show renaissance. DOND’s gone from syndication and we haven’t heard anything else about it coming back in primetime. The Cube’s stillborn. Minute To Win It and Downfall haven’t set the world on fire. Only on GSN are they having some success, and even that has come with plenty of failure.
FYI: “Minute To Win It” has been running on Wednesdays, and has been giving the opposition (“So You Think You Can Dance”, “Big Brother”) a run for its money. Numbers have been generally higher than on Sunday night, with recent sows getting something like 6.7 million viewers. On Sunday nights, the only show of the series that approached that figure was the one with Kevin Jonas.
In fact, in the most recent ratings, “Minute To Win It” made the Top Twenty, and has been a decent lead-in to “America’s Got Talent”. Too bad that “Downfall” could not have held its audience like that!
NBC should be very happy–a show with a steady audience that is competitive with what the other networks are offering. In their position, they cannot ask for anything more.
This is a f*ckin’ travesty. To hell with Les Moonves for burning Pyramid for the second year in a row. The hell with him.
But first… the hell with Julie Chen. (Sorry, couldn’t resist. :P)
FYI: CBS has now confirmed this in a brief release to its stations.
Don’t Forget the Lyrics bows in syndication in September, don’t forget that. Also, reruns of Cash Cab are supposed to bow in syndication in September. Maybe if Lyrics or Fifth Grader or Feud or Millionaire or LMAD wind up not making it past the upcoming season, there’ll be another opening for Pyramid.
Pyramid was a go until Julie Chen came up with the idea to do a talk show like the View. And here we are still disappointed in CBS! I can’t see this getting any ratings. Julie Chen definitely isn’t setting any fires in the morning. The Early Show is still the #3 most watched, and it will continue to be.
Actually Sara Gilbert came up with the concept of the talk show, as she’s the EP behind it.
So now we’re blaming Julie Chen for the fact that people haven’t had a reason to tune away from Today or GMA?
She’s not the bad guy…er, gal…here. No one is. CBS is just taking a balanced approach to their schedule. Primetime isn’t all comedies, but they have three hours of them. OK, they’re top-heavy on procedurals, but not to the exclusion of some other genres.
Every single open slot won’t go to a game show. We got one of two that opened up…not a bad batting average.
Good point. I long for the day that network daytime will again be what it was 25 years ago: good mix of games, soaps, and even a sitcom rerun here and there.
It might happen, it might not, life goes on. All I know is, CBS is the one network that took a chance for the first time in 15 years, and so far it’s worked. It’s worked so well that they even considered doing another game show. So I give them a lot of credit, considering NBC thinks that 17 hours of “Today” and “Days of Our Lives” is variety enough.
So yes, thank you CBS for taking a chance on LMaD. Would still love to see a new Pyramid, but that’s Hollywood for you.
So there you go, CBS. You have disappointed millions of your fans. Let’s just pray that The CW becomes interested in Pyramid (I doubt it).
Millions?
Give or take.
I’ll pick “Give” for 9,999,900.
That leaves a nice round number of 100 people who even knew that “Pyramid” was even being considered for a timeslot.
CBS disappoints lots more than 100 people everyday and they’re doing just fine.
Thinking out loud, but what about TBS picking it up for their lineup?
What about it? TBS has built it’s brand on comedy. Match Game for them makes sense. Pyramid…not so much.
Please, no more mention of “Match Game” revivals – it’s been tried three times since the CBS/syndicated version left the airwaves, and only the ABC version was half ways true to that version, and could have lasted another year had the time slot been better, and Bert Convy lived to host the show. Mind you Ross Shaffer wasn’t a bad host (at least he was no Michael Burger), but Bert would have been a perfect fit for the show with his ties to the 70′s version and all. Without the likes of Gene, Brett, Charles, Richard, and Johnny O, there is NO “Match Game” to be had! Magic hit Stage 33 once in the 70′s, and sadly, it will probably never return, but at least we have the shows from the 70′s to keep “MG” fans happy. Anything else would be sacrilege to the original format, so let it be, and let Gene and the rest of the ‘weirdos’ that are no longer with us rest in peace once and for all!
My point, MatchGameFan, was that a comedy game makes sense for TBS…Pyramid doesn’t. I wasn’t suggesting TBS try to revive MG again. (Deep breaths, people!)
Well there are some very good demographics that haven’t been exploited in daytime TV that bode well for this talk show. New mothers, more often, are home at this hour, and this show would speak to their issues and concerns. Also, they are renewable demographics; while we lament that the median age of game-show fans is increasing, the newborn mother demographic will keep replenishing. This keeps them in the younger, coveted demos, while also providing an additional niche advertising for baby products. I would assume that such demos are available for a premium price, and, thus, your greenlight.
It has nothing to do with Julie Chen.
That’s what CBS will try to tell you.
And they’d be correct in doing so. In this case, they happen to have a good opening to take a shot at capturing a lucrative audience so they took it. It’s business, not some vendetta about game shows or Julie Chen stuff.
Try taking Julie out of the mix–the result would almost certainly be the same. Then who would be the straw man for some supposed slight?
Wow this sucks. Maybe GSN someday could pick up the new version.
Wow, so now Julie Chen will be on THREE shows on the network her husband is in charge of. She made the tri-fecta. I know what to get her for Christmas – a personality. At least Michael Davies went down swinging.
I have some bad news if you’re a gameshow nut like me: IMO, I believe the talk show will do well. Alot of the people on the GSN.com forums say the show will bomb. That’s only bc they’ve never seen a talk show before.
No. I think they’re saying it’s gonna be a bomb, IMO, because EVERY View clone has been a bomb. There haven’t been one recently, but the few that popped up in the early part of the decade bombed really quickly. Though, With Julie (Robot teleprompter reader) Chen on it, there’s a chance it might survive, for nepotism’s sake.
I have some bad news if you’re a gameshow nut like me: IMO, I believe the talk show will do well. Alot of the people on the GSN.com forums say the show will bomb. That’s only bc they’ve never seen a talk show before. Remember 1994 when NBC replaced Classic Concentration and Caesar’s Challenge with Leeza? I hated that moment, but it helped NBC’s daytime schedule in a big way as Leeza Gibbons lasted 5 years on her show.
Early returns from this “mothers’ talk show” format seem to indicate this will be a failure. It’s been tried before and doesn’t usually work. This time slot will most likely be up for grabs by next season.
When, exactly, has this formula with this specific focus, been done on network daytime?
To be honest with you, I don’t watch much television as I use to anyway.
Its Favortism at the least Chen is married to Les Moonves >SHE gets what she wants they should have kept “World Turns”
I think it has been stated here or elsewhere, that a majority of afternoon viewership is probably more of the female population. If you look at the shows now, they are certainly aimed at this demographic. I agree with Alex, we may have been delusional to think Pyramid would return, but it is okay to dream and be delusional every now and then. It certainly was not a surprise, given the circumstances. It seems as though the Panel Talk Show is the current “way of the airwaves” so to speak, at least for daytime TV.
As fans, we can’t be all that disappointed with CBS – at least they currently have 2 hours of game show programming during daytime.
Agreed. And this could lead the way for the other networks, even The CW, to restart airing game shows despite the lack of hours of network TV available nowadays.
Daytime network TV. Sorry, I wasn’t clear,
One clarification
1) Chen is no longer a regular on “Early Show” — she significantly cut back on her duties there after giving birth last fall. Maggie Rodriguez has essentially taken over as the female lead on that show, and Chen’s contributions will drop further given the “Mommy Talk” show.
I had such high hopes for this show, darn you CBS.
do you see CBS try to do the unthinkable? Move TPIR to the ATWT’s 2 pm slot, and put this sorry excuse of a view clone head to head with the view at 11 AM in order to steal their ratings, while attempting to save TPIR’s ratings by puttign at a time yougner viewers would start comign home from school and thus able to watch it?
I was thinking the same thing in my head, and, when you think about it, it makes sense because it would pair The Price Is Right with Let’s Make A Deal (at least in markets where Deal is on at 3/2).
Never. Not a chance.
We didn’t say it would happen, but it could, and if it does, it wouldn’t really be a bad thing seeing as Price already made a great pairing with Deal in the markets that air them back-to-back.
Where they air back to back, it’s in the morning, which is a world of difference from uprooting Price at this stage in its life cycle. When the time comes that Price makes it’s next “move,” it’s not going to be to a new timeslot, it’s going to be to the history section.
I wouldn’t say never HomerJay, as you remember how CBS killed “Match Game” and “Tattletales” in 1977 by moving them to a morning time slot – “Tattletales” was canceled early in 1978, and “Match Game” limped along in a bad afternoon time slot until it was given the ax in April of 1979.
Remember, yes. But 30 years is a very long time ago, and not only has the TV landscape changed since then broadly speaking, but Price is at an age undreamed of back then. Moving something that’s been on five, maybe ten years is far, far different than 40 years.
booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooits not fair i was looking froward to the pyramid revival
Anyway, there’s another reason not to like Les Moonves. Other reasons being as follows: 1. Not allowing other cable networks to air Bob Barker’s episode of TPiR, worried that Drew’s version (of whom I absolute Hate) would lower their ratings. 2. Force all CBS affiliates to include Drew’s TPiR in their schedules in a daytime slot, save for local or National feed pre-emptions.
A note about the two reasons I’ve indicated. On #1, Hello, Drew’s version is losing ratings anyway. And on #2, if all CBS affils. weren’t forced to air TPiR, and I ran one, but had a digital subchannel of a different affil (like CW, MyTV), TPiR would go there.
Adam, they did that long before Drew took over the show, and almost all of the affiliates were airing it anyway without and force feeding.
*and=any.
Actually, Adam,
#1: Drew’s ratings are trending upward.
#2: I hope you never run a CBS affiliate.
Why in the world would Les Moonves, or ANY exec create competition for his network by releasing the Barker episodes to GSN? A good will gesture to Barker fans who just won’t grow up? That would be a bad business decision. Until CBS cancels TPIR, Barker will live on DVD and YouTube.
I believe the reason why GSN isn’t running TPIR reruns featuring Bob is because Bob himself didn’t want them re-airing.
Thing is Adam, if any Barker eps of “TPIR” WERE to air, all we’d get to see would be the ‘this is your life Bob Barker’ years of 2003 to 2007, as he wouldn’t want episodes with the former models aired, as well as the episodes with Rod Roddy and such. Thanks to that clause he put in his contract with Goodson when he became EP of the show in 1986, he is the one who controls which eps of the show are shown, and which aren’t, so even if CBS relented and let the Barker eps air, three years wouldn’t really be worth it!
Gotta go with what JK said: I call nepotism.
This “View” knock-off will have terrible ratings, yet be renewed for at least five seasons because of the old Moonves-Chen connection. (That, and Nina Tassler, another one of Moonves’s lapdogs, did say she was the one who chose “Hen House” [not the real working title] over “Pyramid”.)
Alas, until a bootlegged copy of the pilot shows up on YouTube, I’ll never know how good/mediocre/bad it would’ve been.
In summation:
-Leslie Moonves is a moron.
-Nina Tassler is a tool.
-Julie Chen is a robot in need of a new personality app.
-CBS should condense Let’s Make A Deal to 30 minutes, thereby allowing room for both it and Pyramid.
-”Hen House” will be this decade’s “Tyra” (lousy talk show kept alive by the fact that it’s daytime TV and most people don’t care).
Personally, I’d love to see Pyramid and Press Your Luck revived, but Moonves and his goons are the reasons why we can’t have nice things on daytime TV.
“Moonves and his goons are the reasons why we can’t have nice things on daytime TV.”
Including the first network daytime game show in 15 years? They could’ve easily given LMaD’s time slot to another talk show, which they were considering last year.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if Moonves block any other network from picking up Pyramid, just as he blocked GSN from airing reruns of the Price is Right. Moonves is a moron is putting it nicely, insaneben. Les Moonves is a f**king tool.
If it’s “daytime TV and most people don’t care,” then they also wouldn’t care about Pyramid (nor any other game).
I’m surprised it seems to hard for some game show fans to grasp that there’s a whole world out there, and not everyone (a) likes games at all or (b) likes games exclusively. Some people–gasp–like talk shows or other genres, and CBS is apparently going to offer something to people who have different–or varied–tastes. Kind of like a store carrying a good mix of products, not just one type.
“Call” nepotism all you want. There’s zero proof that it’s the reason behind the decision or that the show wouldn’t have been picked up if someone else had been attached to it.
What else do you expect from game show fans? They were rooting for the game show. I know I was.
I can definitely understand why CBS would pick a talk show after picking a game show. Now they have two game shows, two soap operas and one talk show. My issue is with the market, which seems pretty narrow. The View targets young women, which is a fairly elusive market, but this show is going specifically after young mothers. I can’t even see this drawing young single women. This feels more like a CW (Tyra Banks Show) or basic cable (Martha Stewart on Hallmark) move. Like you alluded to earlier, such a blatant demo play hasn’t been made before. It’s even more stark than in 70s when many of the older soaps like Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow started to die out and get replaced with the new crop like All My Children and Young and the Restless. I’m not saying that it won’t work, but I think it’s a bigger risk than they are letting on. It seems to me that CBS has been the big risk-taker this year.
I was rooting for the game show too. But “rooting” for it and finding some deep dark conspiracy behind a business decision are two different things. I guess I expected the ability to separate the hope-the “rooting” if you will–from the reality that it’s a business, and that rational thoughts are what drive decisions.
Yes, it’s a risk. Every move comes with risks, including a game show. The View was a risk. Price was a risk. Pyramid would have been a risk (remember, for all the rose-colored glasses about how wonderful it was, audiences tired of the much-ballyhooed ’80s version once as well; there’s no guarantee at all there would be an audience looking to go all retro for another hour).
As for the mother-centric focus of the new show, we have yet to see it in action to determine that it isn’t broad enough to bring in non-mom women. Moreover, it doesn’t seem to be exclusive to young mothers (or mothers of young ones, however you want to slice it). But let’s be honest–among those viewers avaiable in daytime, mothers make up the biggest chunk. You absolutely have non-traditional-shift workers, home-based workers, etc., but “moms” make up a heck of a big piece of the pie. Maybe the young single women won’t be tuning in, but the demographics don’t indicate they’d be tuning in to a game show, either.