“Trivial Pursuit” Clears 55% of Country

06 Jan

Posted by Alex Davis as Syndication, Trivial Pursuit

Update: Mediaweek is calling it a firm go. Welcome to the team, Trivial Pursuit. You can’t be much worse than Temptation, so we have faith in you.

This didn’t take long, did it? Denbar-Mercury has already cleared 55% of the country, including eight of the top ten markets, to air in the Fall 2008 season. The pilot, hosted by fan favorite Mark L. Walberg, saw contestants answer questions sent in from home viewers. Some markets, courtesy of Broadcasting and Cable, are:

Fox affiliates in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore on board. Stations from Cox Broadcasting, CBS, Belo, Gannett, Scripps, Raycom Media and Weigel Broadcasting are also signed up.

The show will be taken to NATPE this year where it will be hopefully sold internationally as well. I think I might be so bold to say that it’s looking like we have a second new syndicated show for Fall 2008! I’m curious to see what they will follow more: the old 90s version or the recent ESPN version, that of which I much preferred (I only saw clips of the old version on YouTube, so my opinion may vary).

7 Responses

Wheelloon
1
January 6th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

Man that was quick wasn’t it? 55% by this time is great. I’m thinking that D-M (is it Denbar or Debmar???) will have a great Feud pairing with this. They both have name recognition (in their own individual way) and, thus far, will have engaging hosts with hopefully just as engaging formats (in TP’s case).

Alex, the original 90’s version, by what I’ve seen, is very well liked by many people in the GS community (including myself). I remember watching it EVERY day as a young lass of about 6 or 7. It is about as close to the original board game as a game show could really get (2 questions for a full color, categories similar, first to fill their pie wins…), and the questions were also very good. They sported a wide range of material, were not, persay, “vague” or hard to understand, and also had wide ranges of difficulty. Wink, as always, was also an exceptional host. It didn’t hurt that the set, sound fx, and other externals were also pretty good as well.

I didn’t see the ESPN version, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it recently, so it seems that D-M could do well going either way. Again, I wish them the best of luck. Now if only they could make GS versions of the classic board games Pictionary and Scattegories…………….

Oh wait… ;)
Adam
2
January 6th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

I don’t know if either Miami or West Palm will air it. If it did I doubt it’ll do as bad as Merv Griffin’s Crosswords is still doing. While NBC6 in Miami still has a single run at 4pm, Fox 29 in West Palm moved their double run from 2pm back one hour to 1pm. I don’t think this show is doing well in either market. I personally thought this was going to be the next big show. In NYC, if I were at WWOR, I would call WNBC to request that they hand “Merv Griffin’s Crosswords” because WWOR my9 would do well with this show.
David
3
January 6th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about a “firm go” before NATPE- if not then, certainly just after..
Nick Todor
4
January 6th, 2008 at 8:36 pm

Once again, Milwaukee’s syndie GS powerhouse grabs a new syndie offering.

/Any news on DoND markets?
K.C.
5
January 7th, 2008 at 12:23 am

Great. Yet ANOTHER show I won’t see thanks to my town’s apparent hatred for syndicated game shows.
Tyler
6
January 8th, 2008 at 12:43 am

It’d be nice if this gets done but both Temptation & Merv Griffin’s Crosswords air between 3-4am, those are ridiculous hours. If this can come on during the DAY, that’d be awesome.
devares
7
January 29th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

I’m looking forward to TP. Hopfully, KPXJ will pick this show up. It would be a great companion show to Crosswords (not that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire isn’t). I’ve seen both versions of it, I loved the Family Channel version, Wink Martindale, IMHO, is one of the greatest game show hosts of all times, in fact, in the same fraternity as Bob Barker and Richard Dawson, among others. the ESPN version was OK, but Roger Lodge felt like he didn’t want to do the show (he was still doing Blind Date then). But the format was good nonetheless. So the new version will do fine ratings-wise. Here are my suggestions on the hosts, Tom Bergeron, he was great as the host of Hollywood Squares, or Todd Newton, who, IMHO, was snubbed replacing Bob Barker as host of The Price Is Right.