20Feb2013
Ratings Report: The Usual Suspects “Wheel” and “Jeopardy!” Stay High, “Millionaire” Stays Steady
Here comes this week's report of game show ratings in syndication and cable. This is for the week of February 4th, 2013. Wheel of Fortune remains the unsurprising king of the syndicated ratings, scoring a 7.7 household rating and averaging 12.1 million viewers, losing a tenth of a ratings point and 200,000 viewers over last week. Jeopardy! naturally trails ever so slightly behind with a 6.9 rating, the same rating as last week, and stays in a virtual tie with last week's ratings, just fewer than 10.7 million viewers. Click here to read the rest of the ratings for this week, including Millionaire, Family Feud and GSN's ratings.
Read MoreView Comments (7)19Feb2013
AMC To Develop Chris Hardwick’s “All-Star Celebrity Bowling” for TV
Game shows and bowling are two fairly unrelated entities that seem to find themselves together often. If AMC and Chris Hardwick have their way, they may be united once again. AMC announced today that they have come together on a multi-platform deal with Nerdist Industries, a company fronted by TV and web personality Chris Hardwick. A facet of this deal would be to develop Chris Hardwick's All-Star Celebrity Bowling, a ten-minute series on the Nerdist YouTube channel, into a full television series on AMC. Click here to read about and watch video of the potential new series and the bowling shows that have come before it.
Read MoreView Comments (16)18Feb2013
Video: “The American Bible Challenge” Featured on NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams”
The media machine is starting to churn for GSN's biggest hit to date, The American Bible Challenge. On Friday evening, Jeff Foxworthy and his program were featured in an admittedly interesting piece on NBC's news magazine Rock Center with Brian Williams. Harry Smith reports on the origins of the shows, its success, host Foxworthy, the new addition of choir leader Kirk Franklin and the real good that this show is doing. Even if you're not a super fan of the show, the piece is worth looking at to get a behind-the-scenes perspective on the show that took all TV analysts by surprise. Season two of Bible Challenge premieres Thursday, March 21st at 9PM ET. Click here to see the piece from NBC News.
Read MoreView Comments (4)17Feb2013
Review and Report: “The Price Is Right Live” Spins Its Way to My Area, Brings a Great Experience
You're probably not going to win a brand new car. You're probably not going to win a $20,000 cash prize. And, in all likelihood, you're not going to be called by announcer Andy Martello to "come on down!" If you come in accepting all of these things, The Price Is Right Live, a touring stage show based on the long-running CBS game show hosted by Todd Newton, is a heck of a lot of fun. I attended the 9:30 PM Friday night show at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. They did four shows over two days, selling out a 3,000-seat theatre each time, showing how popular the prospect of seeing Price is in the mid-Michigan area. My party and I were provided tickets for the program and we all had a lot of fun with a reasonable facsimile of the Price Is Right experience. Click here to read the very detailed, extensive report and review of The Price Is Right Live in Michigan.
Read MoreView Comments (11)15Feb2013
Complete Transcript of CBS Live Chat With “Price Is Right” Producer Mike Richards
This week, CBS has been holding live chats with personalities on their network, using an interface that mixes a chat room with the participant's Twitter feed. Fans are encouraged to send in questions that the participant will answer live. This afternoon, the star of the CBS Live Chat was The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal Executive Producer Mike Richards. The focus of the chat was 45 minutes of Price-centric questions, and he discussed user-submitted questions regarding game refurbishments, new games coming to the show and preparations for taking over the reins of show. We even got a question answered about mixing the classic feel of the show with the year 2013. Click here to check out the complete transcript of the interview!
Read MoreView Comments (4)14Feb2013
Monty Hall and Bob Stewart to Receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at 2013 Daytime Emmys
Great news for classic game show fans this afternoon, as two of the greats will be honored at the 40th Daytime Emmy Awards this summer. Legendary game show host and producer Monty Hall and all-time great producer Bob Stewart will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2013 ceremony. These two men are giants in their field and greatly deserve the honor. Bob Stewart passed away in May of last year and is one of the most renowned creators and producers in television, game shows or otherwise. Stewart worked with Goodson-Todman Productions for many years, creating the original The Price Is Right concept for them in 1956, followed by the panel game To Tell the Truth and the timeless word-association game Password in 1961, which spawned multiple variations throughout the 1970s, 1980s and a recent revival in 2008.Click here to read more about Bob Stewart, Monty Hall and the honors that will be bestowed upon them.
Read MoreView Comments (8)12Feb2013
Ratings Report: “Wheel” Stays Steady, “Millionaire” Stays Strong, “Chain Reaction” Reruns Very Well
Syndicated and GSN ratings are here for the week of January 28th, 2013. Great numbers all around this week once again, so let's take a look at them. Wheel of Fortune keeps its 7.8 household rating from last week's season high, but dips a few hundred thousand viewers to just fewer than 12.3 million. Jeopardy! goes down a tenth of a ratings point down to 6.9 and has a 100,000 viewer dip to land at just under 10.7 million viewers. Click here to read the rest of the report, including a comparison for these shows against primetime TV, the ratings for other shows like Family Feud and Millionaire, and to read about Chain Reaction having a surge of popularity on GSN's schedule.
Read MoreView Comments (8)11Feb2013
Biggest “Jeopardy!” Winners Battle in “Tournament of Champions” Starting February 13th
It's tournament season around Jeopardy!. The Teen Tournament is finishing up and, immediately after, one of the earliest-established tournaments will be making its return. The 25th modern edition of the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions begins this Wednesday, February 13th, and ends on Tuesday, February 26th. This year, all participants are adult tournament winners (who earn a spot in this tournament by winning theirs) and four-time champions and above, making for another year of stiff competition. The elevated, harder material makes this one of the best times to see true Jeopardy! competition. Click here to read about the tournament, to see a list of all competitors and to tell us who you think will claim the $250,000 crown.
Read MoreView Comments (6)08Feb2013
Video: “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament Semifinal Match, For the First Time, Ends With No Winner
It's hard for a show that has been around for almost 30 years to make new moments, but for Jeopardy!, a first happened on yesterday's program. The second match in the Teen Tournament semifinals occurred yesterday, with Kelton Ellis leading Joe Vertnik and Tori Amos by a wide - but not uncatchable - margin going into Final Jeopardy. The category was "Capital Cities" and they were presented with this clue: "It's criss-crossed by dozens of 'peace walls' that separate its Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods." Each player wrote down their answers, but two things were in common as Alex went down the line revealing their responses and wagers: each contestant wrote down "What is Dublin?" and each contestant wagered the entirety of their total. Unfortunately for them, the correct response was "What is Belfast?" Click here to read about how the game finished, to find out what will happen on tonight's program and to see video of the moment.
Read MoreView Comments (31)07Feb2013
Report: Cedric the Entertainer Finalizes Deal To Host “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”
Deadline is reporting that Cedric the Entertainer has finalized a deal to take over as host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Cedric has, reportedly, signed on for three years, nearing Vieira's salary in her final years. As we have reported in the past, new episodes with Vieira will air until summer, with repeats airing until the season 12 premiere in September. Vieira will have hosted nearly 2,000 episodes of the trivia program, but is leaving to, "embark on a new adventure with NBC." The 48-year-old Cedric the Entertainer, real name Cedric Kyles, has hosted one game show previously: the short-lived NBC appraisal game show It's Worth What? for 9 episodes in the summer of 2011. Click here to read more on Cedric and to tell us what you think about the decision.
Read MoreView Comments (36)05Feb2013
Ratings Report: “Wheel,” “Jeopardy!,” “Millionaire” & “Ask America” Hit Highs
If you are associated with a syndicated game show this week, chances are you're feeling pretty good. All of those programs had very impressive numbers this week, going higher than some of us thought it might. The numbers for the week of January 21st are fun to look at. Wheel of Fortune stands head-and-shoulders above the rest of its competition this week as the highest rated first-run syndie program. Vanna and Pat gained just over 100,000 viewers to make a new viewership high for the season of 12.3 million viewers with a 7.8 household rating. Its Sony counterpart Jeopardy! had a great week too. Click here to read about that and other shows including Family Feud, Millionaire and Let's Ask America.
Read MoreView Comments (2)05Feb2013
Stars Announced for the 2013 Celebrity Week on “The Price Is Right”
TV Guide announced today the list of participants in The Price Is Right's second Celebrity Week, where famous faces in the media play for their favorite charity. This year's week will run from Monday, February 18th to Friday, February 22nd. Last year's program, for the most part, was a very entertaining affair. (Where else are you going to see Snoop Dogg yell out to a group of people "who here got birds?" to price a bag of bird seed?) This year should be no different. Celebrities play with civilian partners on every pricing game, with the value of the prizes the civilians win matched in cash to be given to the celebrity's chosen charitable organization. Click here to see the list of stars and the charities that they will be playing for.
Read MoreView Comments (10)04Feb2013
ABC Casting For New “Mystery Reality” Competition Program
All of the fans who clamor for more of ABC's cult competition series The Mole may want to listen up to this one. ABC is partnering with Anthony E. Zuiker, the creator and producer of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation series and 51 Minds Entertainment, producers of Ton of Cash, The Surreal Life and its million spin-offs for a new competition program. ABC has put out a casting call, searching for people who fancy themselves to be "armchair detectives" or "perceptive problem solvers." The show will pit contestants against one another, competing against others trying to get to the bottom of a given task. Click here to read more about this new show coming to ABC.
Read MoreView Comments (6)03Feb2013
Weekend Replay: Friday’s “Price Is Right” Ends In Super Bowl Heartbreak
The Super Bowl is upon us this evening and much of America, surely including our readership, is preparing for it. No matter if "your" team wins or loses, you'll surely be doing better than the subject of today's Weekend Replay. The Price Is Right paid their tribute this past Friday with a football themed program. The first Price Is Right of January ended with a very close bid, creating a double showcase winner. The first episode of February also ended with a close bid... but not in the manner in which the contestant was hoping. Contestant Ryan Griffin was passed a Super Bowl themed showcase presented by NFL Network personality Rich Eisen, including a living room group and 3D HDTV to watch the game, $2,000 in spending cash and a new Chevy Sonic in which to go get viewing snacks. Click here to read about his bid and to see what happened when the price of his Showcase was revealed.
Read MoreView Comments (6)02Feb2013
New Internet Game Show “The Experts” Fits Well With the YouTube Format
In 2013, YouTube is proving to be a viable locale for projects good enough to be seen but not large enough to make it on TV. One such project is the new game show The Experts. Launching earlier this week, The Experts is a new internet series created and produced by Jeopardy! and Million Dollar Mind Game champion Alan Bailey and hosted by Michael Shure from The Young Turks. While the prizes may not be staggering and the production values may not rival that of a blockbuster film, it has a fun, core game that makes it a great fit for the user-generated media sector. The show is segmented into five rounds, made available starting on the Monday of a week in individual portions to consume all at once or at your leisure at the show's official YouTube channel. Click here to read about how the show works and to watch the first episode.
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