Halfway Through “The Pyramid,” Will We See a Season Two? – An Analysis
I, along with so many other game show fans, have been enjoying GSN’s The Pyramid since its debut last month. Sure, there are a couple of nitpicks here and there that I would enjoy seeing fixed. But that can easily be done by taking viewer input when a season two comes around. Well, if a season two comes around. While The Pyramid is clearly meant for the truest of true fans in this genre, they’re not exactly turning out in droves, especially compared to the smash success of The American Bible Challenge. Will The Pyramid come back for a season two? Let’s take a very detailed look at the numbers and some circumstantial evidence to decide.
The best way to start off is to look at the viewership for The Pyramid. Premiering on September 3rd, the program airs at 6PM ET weeknights. Courtesy of our friend Son of the Bronx, we have the viewership for the first half of the season, amounting to 20 episodes over four weeks. The averages, including only the premieres of new episodes, that include the week’s average, the week’s highest and lowest viewership, and their rank on GSN’s schedule for that week are:
| The Pyramid Ratings | Viewers avg. over week | High for week Rank for week | Low for week Rank for week |
| Week One | 519,000 | 646,000 2nd | 421,000 42nd |
| Week Two | 329.000 | 361,000 40th | 248,000 111th |
| Week Three | 344,000 | 381,000 47th | 292,000 102nd |
| Week Four | 341,000 | 375,000 35th | 291,000 90th |
The show started off strong, likely due to peaked viewer interest and curiosity, but settled into a pretty steady viewership in the 6PM hour, hovering just below 350,000 viewers. Now that GSN has a lot of success with an original like Bible plus acquisitions such as Steve Harvey’s Family Feud, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and Minute to Win It, those numbers look very middling. A late 2010 show like 1 vs. 100 that followed Baggage and Newlywed Game on the schedule, shows that almost always performed between 400,000 and 550,000 viewers at 6 to 7 PM, drew less than 400,000 viewers at 7 PM and was not brought back for a season two. If we use the logic from late 2010-early 2011, The Pyramid would almost certainly be a goner. However, let’s look at a more recent example.
The Newlywed Game, a GSN favorite since 2009, will be premiering what seems like its 46th season at the end of the month. Let’s take a look at its performance last season, which it would obviously be judged to see if another season is warranted. It premiered new episodes in the middle of this March on Mondays and Tuesdays from 6PM to 7PM. This means two of the episodes share The Pyramid‘s current spot, along with two coming right afterward. Using the first four weeks of The Newlywed Game‘s last season to compare against available data from The Pyramid, we find these numbers:
| Newlywed Game Ratings | Viewers avg. over week | High for week | Low for week |
| Week One | 277,000 | 322,000 | 205,000 |
| Week Two | 266,000 | 325,000 | 178,000 |
| Week Three | 302,000 | 342,000 | 226,000 |
| Week Four | 226,000 | 241,000 | 218,000 |
Clearly, Newlywed didn’t perform so hot. Repeats in primetime and later night were performing better than the new episodes (which likely explains its initial premiere slot in primetime) but, yet, the series got brought back for 65 soon-to-premiere episodes. I’m sure that Newlywed Game is cheaper to produce than The Pyramid, the most expensive cost probably being Sherri Shepherd’s price tag, but there are the numbers. Using these as comparison points, if we’re going to compare just the viewership for the 6PM new episodes against Sherri’s numbers, I would say there was a good chance of renewal. However, there is still one more variable to consider.
Beat the Chefs, another in GSN’s new series summer trifecta, did not do as well as the network had hoped following new episodes of Bible. Most weeks, the ratings for the show were equal to or lower than the averages for 6PM Pyramids. After they yanked it from the schedule, they decided to give the other show in the stable a try and filled the slot with a new episode of The Pyramid, followed by a repeat. This is the viewership for all Thursday primetime premieres of Mike Richards’ word game:
| Pyramid Primetime Ratings | Viewers avg. during slot | Rank for week | Timeframe |
| Aug. 30, 10PM | 443,000 | 22nd | Sneak preview |
| Sept. 20, 9 PM | 545,000 | 10th | During week three |
| Sept. 27, 9 PM | 446,000 | 13th | During week four |
| Oct. 4, 9 PM | 505,000 | During week five |
Since The Pyramid is making six-figure gains over the previous ratings of Chefs, GSN has made a good decision. Even comparing the primetime numbers against same-week 6PM numbers, I think it’s safe to say The Pyramid is a success in primetime. It makes me wonder why the network for games hasn’t considered experimenting with a full week in primetime. There are only three weeks left to go in the series. Why not tinker around and see if repeating the new episodes later that night at 9PM brings you similar or even higher ratings? This deep into the season, I don’t think it would hurt very much to play around and see if “new” things will work with The Pyramid.
All of the numbers and analysis is fun, but it all leads off to the simple questions with which we started: Will The Pyramid come back for a season two? If we simply look at the 6PM numbers, I think the answer is still “so-so,” with a slight lean towards “yes.” The Newlywed Game did not do so well in total viewers, but is being used to fill the now-coveted 8PM Thursday Bible Challenge spot for its new season. Additionally, if the primetime numbers are to be figured in as well, or if GSN experiments more with primetime and it goes well, my answer becomes a “likely.” Each of those primetime episodes fared well compared to the entire rest of the schedule and continue to bring in very respectable numbers. Barring any sudden viewership drop off or schedule burial, I think the chances of a return for this show take a slight precedence over the chances that this is the only season. GSN has shown it a lot of love compared to other originals that have been around. Either way, if you want it to come back, keep supporting it, get others to support it and let GSN know.
I hope you enjoyed this thorough look into the fate of, in my opinion, one of the best game show revivals of this century. What do you think? Do you want to see it come back and do you think it will? Sound off below! And again, a big thanks to Son of the Bronx for providing the ratings for this post.
Great article, Chad! How do we let GSN know that we want it brought back for a second season? Where do I tell them?
Any means, really. Directly on their Facebook page, Twitter (@GSN or @PyramidGSN), or their viewer email, help@gsn.com.
Chad, do you know if 1 VS 100 was cancelled due to the timeslot, or due to the expense of producing it?
It seems like it often stayed at the same viewership mark that Newlywed got this past March, yet Newlywed was renewed.
It is a toss-up whether it does or not (one never knows how GSN thinks day-to-day, much less long-term), but I’ll lean towards yes simply because it is getting a lot of buildup and has done much better than Chefs did in the after-Bible timeslot. That could change with the weaker Newlywed Game lead-in to come, though.
The Pyramid will be in reruns by the time we get to the Newlywed Game season premiere
I think that GSN would be wise to give it another season…but I’d suggest a prime time slot for it. I’ve never been a fan of the 6pm time slot. Viewers in the Eastern time zone are barely getting home in time to see it. (I DVR it and usually watch it before I go to bed.) In the other time zones, people are still at work when it’s on, making the show nearly totally dependent on DVR viewing. If GSN can’t make this work, it’ll be a long time before we see a major network or a distributor try another Pyramid revival. I hope GSN at least adds a late-night repeat.
I think Mike Richards is settling in nicely as host. The judging could be better…it’s been too lax sometimes, too strict at others. I think they’ve done nice things on a GSN budget, but the animated game boards could use a bit more flash…they seem pretty flat and dull.
The celebrities have been a mixed bag. Some have been really good at the game (Yvette Nicole Brown, Megyn Price), others not so much…but that’ll even out as they add more celebrities and find consistent performers like back in the 80s.
I think the Winner’s Circle Bank concept has worked. They can always add the tournament later. I think this is as good a revival as we could have hoped for. I hope it stays around for a while.
The Pyramid is really doing nothing bad for GSN right now. It’s not getting GREAT ratings like The Newlywed Game and Baggage were in 2010, but at that time those shows we hot. They got 400-500K or more on every episodes, The Newlywed Game had a fresh new host, and also, the 6PM hour then had a Deal or No Deal lead in/lead out.
The Pyramid for another season may have to resort to new episodes in primetime, and I’m thinking Friday nights from 8-10PM, where it airs in reruns now. Sure, it’s only 4 episodes a week, but that may work better than 6PM
Who knows what GSN is thinking, but as far as I’m concerned, the show definitely *should* come back. These are the best numbers we’ve seen at 6 PM in a while, aside from the few weeks where we had two straight hours of Harvey Feud from 5-7 PM and saw a ratings snowball effect.
And speaking of Harvey Feud, that hasn’t done any better as a lead-in at 5:30 PM. The Pyramid typically maintains Harvey’s 5:30 PM audience, and helps to feed more viewers into his 6:30 PM airing. By contrast, Beat the Chefs got slightly worse ratings coming off a much stronger lead-in, and therefore I wasn’t surprised that when Pyramid replaced it, it got considerably higher ratings. And keep in mind that the Newlywed/Baggage hour used to be surrounded by Deal or No Deal back when that show was huge on GSN.
It’s also worth noting that GSN will be giving the show an afternoon slot starting in the week. Rerunning old originals in the afternoon has proven to be a winning formula for them. So if Pyramid can do as well there as other originals have, it might be worthwhile to make at least one more season just to have a decent amount of episodes to rerun. Although then again, they don’t seem to have a problem running the 40 episodes of Engvall Lingo incessantly.
Great article!
I think that “The Pyramid” is a nice new version of the classic show. Sure, there have been weeks when the viewership went down. Truthfully, there were players (celebrity and contestant) that played so badly, it made it tough to watch. But, even the 80′s version had that at times. All it is is looking for good players.
I think they’ve found some great celebrity players. Some, not so much. But, with a second season, they’ll be able to find more players. I would like to see some “classic” players come back. But, even if that isn’t the case, some of the newbies showed that the obviously watched classic episodes because they gave great clues.
Once the newbies (celebrity and contestant) see how the game is played…and what you can and can’t do…I see the making of another classic version.
Just don’t mess around with the time slot to much. Find one that works and stick with it…and broadcast the heck out of it! Many shows have died because the show kept changing slots, and viewers couldn’t find it anymore. I hope they don’t do that here.
I haven’t seen much beyond the premiere week…how has the ratio of good/bad players been? Has it gotten Chain Reaction bad (say, who produced that again?)??? Still, I do think the re-education process for word games needs to continue, which is why I am rooting for TP. Not many game shows of the 2000s require one to think (that, or they don’t think about getting good contestants just so they can have their YouTube Moments (TM)). Other revivals like CR, Lingo, and Password shows that it’s an art that needs to be found again.
It’s a good, solid version of a good solid game. They should renew it, and in lieu of a weekday strip, perhaps a weekly prime time run to avoid burnout.
I totally agree, Mark. If you took the 40 episodes they taped and spread them out, you’d get a September-to-June run out of it. The original $25,000 Pyramid with Bill Cullen worked fine as a weekly. The only downside would be they’d have to book more celebs for the tapings. But if it works for them in Prime Time…and judging from the numbers above, it kinda does…then not only could they strip it in daytime after it’s prime time run, it could lead to other remakes. Wouldn’t you love to see a lineup of brand-new Pyramid, new Password, new PYL and a fourth newbie…maybe Jackpot or Card Sharks (done right!)?
I like many Cablevision subscribers, I don’t get GSN without the sports package. As a result I cant watch this version of Pyramid. I agree for a second season, but it should be picked up by a network or in syndication & not on GSN. There are enough slots filled with garbage where Pyramid could be dropped in without skipping a beat.
It really depends on the celebrities. There are some weeks that I really want to watch, and then there are those that feel like watching is a chore.
If there is a brain in the head of ANYONE in programming at GSN, they will bring back Pyramid for a longer second season (55-60-65 episodes rather than 40). Give it enough of a base so maybe a third (or more) season(s) can be done (and then maybe someone can bring it to syndication with new episodes). There needs to be more support for this to happen, not just for Pyramid, but for any other revival GSN (or anyone else) may have in mind…
GSN would be stupid not to bring this back. We waited three long years for this to come back since CBS didn’t give a hoot to this show. It’s a institution and it would be a great dis-service not only to game show fans but to the late Dick Clark and Bob Stewart as well.
I would imaginge them rolling in their graves if they found out this got the ax after only one season. Thus if GSN knows what’s good for them, they better renew this for another season.
Othewise, we all go out to California with pitchforks and torches and form an angry mob to keep this on the air.
I am so happy to get this off my chest ;)
No one has any obligation to Bob Stewart, Dick Clark et al, nor should a business decision be based on supposed “rolling in their graves.”
The funny thing about all the hype around remakes is that we seem to forget those originals stopped succeeding, and yet we’re surprised when a generally similar remake might not be a proverbial grand slam.
I’m sure it will all be about profit/loss and what Sony wants for GSN at the moment. So often GSN makes such insane program choices, it seems to be the loss leader for Sony.
The fact GSN’s picked up the beginning weeks of “Press Your Luck” to start airing next Monday (episodes that haven’t been seen since USA was airing the show, if ever) would seem to indicate they’ve grown a brain. That, plus the use of “Game Show Network” in promos and credit crunches (grr…), suggest they’re finally realizing what works.
It’s been eight years since the last “Pyramid” ended (or 21 if you don’t count the Osmond version), the past three of which consisted of pilots that were shelved in favor of lower-budget and comparatively less brain-exercising shows. “The Pyramid” has not only kept what works, but actually managed to improve the front game AND is doing decently for GSN.
So it should be renewed for at *least* another 26 weeks.
I wonder about the budget. According to my calculations, the show has given away $206,850 in its first four weeks. That seems like a lot, especially since that’s all cash. It was the same thing I wondered about Engvall Lingo, except that show was shoveling money out the door like it was out of style. With two or three wins a week, can the show afford to stay as it is, forgetting about a $100,000 tournament?
I don’t see a second season in the future unless the numbers perk up.
Would pitching the show to syndication for a second season help, I wonder?
I just hope the show succeeds. It doesn’t seem right if this version can’t even get a whole season, yet Donnymid had TWO, and John Davidson even got to complete a season. That and Fremantle gets to spend years messing up Goodson formats.