Upfront Game Show Announcements
It’s upfront week and not a lot of game show news has been going around. We’ve really been over-saturated in primetime and it’s time for a short break, which is good because if we keep getting shows like Set For Life, I give up. Anyway, FOX announced their schedule and all three of their game shows survive into the Fall 2008 schedule. They’ve really benefited from using safe formats with relatively interesting concepts that generates a lot of water cooler talk.
First off, if you’re used to watching Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Don’t Forget the Lyrics! on Thursdays, get ready to make a change. The night of punctuation moves to Fridays, with Fifth Grader? at 8:00PM ET and Lyrics! at 9:00PM ET. I still can’t stand Fifth Grader; I just don’t think it’s a good million dollar format. When the cheaper daytime version comes in 2009, then we’ll talk. However, I watched Lyrics! a few weeks ago and I have to admit it’s not really that bad. Sure the format is unoriginal and I really don’t like any of the music (I’m a 80s and early 90s alt/grunge person), but it’s a relatively enjoyable fun hour.
My personal favorite of the group, The Moment of Truth will be placed in the Thursday at 8:00PM ET slot. This show generates the most talk and has the biggest chance of combating any of the networks. Look at the Laura Cleri episode to just realize the amount of talk the show generates. The show consistently gets ratings and is a pretty fun way to spend an hour. It’s far from a classy show, but it does something that Amne$ia never did and why shows like ABC’s Opportunity Knocks will fail: even if you can’t really play along it makes you show real human emotion. You want the contestants to win money because they’ve done good things. You want them to fail because they are asses. It makes you voice speak up.
As far as NBC goes, it’s still just Deal or No Deal with 1 VS 100 not looking good to come back. CBS has no traditional game shows but will always have its cash cow Survivor. A CBS representative told us that they have six episodes of Do You Trust Me?, a retooling of Friend or Foe? from GSN, but aren’t placing it on any upcoming schedule. ABC just has the aforementioned Opportunity Knocks which I can just sense the failure slowly creeping off of. On the cable front, like we said we have MTV’s The Phone upcoming, and GSN has three shows. One is Catch-21, which we’ve described in excruciating detail. They also have two more revivals coming out soon.
Sorry, not watching Moment of Truth after how poorly they constructed last season’s finale!
Oh yes, the season finale was by far the worst part of that show, never mind the rest of the series which was merely tolerable. *eye roll*
What a tease! Not gonna hint at what those two revivals GSN are doing ? Or did you do announce it before and I missed it?
A FoF revival/Retooling (needed, the trust box got REALLY anti-climatic toward the end of it’s run.) sounds interesting…but wise to keep on the bench because CBS is infamous for having a quick hook for dramas so there will be room for the show soon enough, I’m sure that’s what it’s for…I’d expect to see it around December. That may be the biggest news to me.
If I had to make revival guesses for GSN (partly from what I think has a true chance and partly from my own personal bias), outside of Catch-21, I’m thinking they’re gonna bring back Russian Roulette and Whammy.
IMHO, of coursse
Russian Roulette-don’t change a thing (seriously, don’t, I mean it, you better not)
Whammy-A new lease on life for PYL again. I suggest not sticking 100% with the original Whammy format, and go more 80′s, gameplay wise *no, I do not expect them to build a big square exact replica board again, c’mon*. If anything, Game Show Marathon should’ve proved that the original FORMAT, however, is still the most popular and the most fun.
Butttt, what do I know? :-P
I really do enjoy DFTL but what stinks is now it will be up against my other Favorite Show DOND. DFTL I don’t think did well on friday as far as I remember and neither did AYST5G. The Moment Of Truth I think I will pass because there is enough trouble in america without having to watch more. 1 VS 100 deserves to come back even though the last format wasn’t great but I thought it was going to be worse than it was. I think they if they want to do the every ten thing then the first ten are worth $100 a piece that way at least if you knock out 5 you would have $500. I would like to see a DFTL DVD Game. If there is one I would love to find out more about it.
I have to admit, of the “Fox 3″ 5th Grader is my favorite, but (then again) I grew up with the traditional shows…which this one closer resemble than the other two. And, sorry, MoT (IMHO) has got to go. Game Shows should be about the game…not about how much emotion is being squeezed from the contestants’ families…unless, of course, the emotion comes from a big win.
As for the GSN shows, we’ll find out in due time…but, I think it’s too soon to bring back RR or Whammy. They were good shows, but let ‘em breathe a bit before you bring ‘em back.
let’s see GSN is looking to revive 2 shows, I know they did a pilot for Pictionary a few years ago with Graham Elwood hosting (this was around the time Cram was canceled) and they’ve shot at least 2 pilots for a scrabble revival (albeit re-formatted) otherwise there’s not much you can base a guess on. wait a minute, didn’t someone mention the new dating game and newlywed was for GSN, God i hope that’s not what the 2 are i couldn’t see either one of them lasting overly long, GSN doesn’t even sow re-runs of newlywed game on their regular sked anymore.
I believe the dating/newlywed was for Lifetime. I love MoT, its a good show if done correctly, but what this REALLY means is like last year at this time when we were pointing to Deal having its final year this year, Deal will again thrive in primetime and continue to go on and on and on. Cause as subdued as the daytime syndie version will be, the primetime “big brother” will go even more over the top to distinguish itself from Syndie deal.
Not to brag or anything, but I don’t like how NBC is treating 1v100 like a trainwreck waiting to happen. If anybody reading this works at ABC, persuade them to pick up this show, because NBC just doesn’t care to listen to its audience. Furthermore, encourage MSNBC to Stop Bashing Hillary Clinton.
The one game show I’m looking forward to is Catch-21. As for those GSN revivals, it’s probably going to be Whammy seeing that the ratings from the reruns are solid, but I don’t see Russian Roulette coming back seeing that Mark Walberg is hosting 2 game shows, The Moment of Truth (which I personally dislike), and the upcoming Trivial Pursuit. It would probably be a classic game show that they’re already airing like Card Sharks or Tic Tac Dough. And I agree, Adam, NBC is treating 1 vs. 100 like a stepchild. It’ll be better off on ABC or Fox. Nor does NBC listen to its audience. They pick up terrible shows and either cancel or move them to one of their cable netlets like they did Friday Night Lights (a good show although they didn’t move them to one of their cable netlets but instead DirecTv’s The 101) and Law & Order:CI. Oh, and the upcoming Dating/Newlywed Game revival is for Lifetime, Chris. So you’re right.