The Game Show Forum > Game Show Channels & Networks
Behind Door No. 2: A Revamped GSN
inturnaround:
I don't think the idea of channel for game shows is dead, it's merely going to hibernate for now.
A spot on an analog cable lineup is precious not only to cable operators, but also to advertisers. That's really the reason for the change. Digital networks pop up all the time now and I still think that a game show diginet can and will succeed.
We just need someone to try it.
TravisP:
Thats all you guys needs. An American Challenge clone!
As for the past 6 months now the morning schedule has been sticking to the general Studio Game Shows like Brucies Price Is Right, Play Your Cards Right, Wheel Of Fortune and their original programming like TV Scrabble and Celebrity Addicts. While the afternoon slot (2-4pm) has been dedicated to Lifestyle shows like Better Homes, Life Doctor, Hot Property, all the crap shows which should be on the likes of UK Style. While in the evening its more Action and Adventure/Japanese shows with tiresome episodes of Takeshi's Castle, US Guinness World Records and recently new episodes of Fort Boyard. The UK currently have Casino type shows with Celebrity Poker Club, World Poker Tour (From ESPN) and recently Casino Casino which faces four contestants who must make the best stake from playing Blackjack and Roulette.
The plans for Christmas are showing a 6 Hour block of Japanese shows (22nd Dec-3rd Jan) with MORE Takeshi's Castle, a milked down version of Endurance and Iron Chef, and to rub it in as from next month there will be an hour of lifestyle shows between 8-9pm.
Honestly the ratings is doing okay but the channel is too much relying on Takeshi's Castle as its rarely that no other of Challenge's programming enters their top ten ratings.
tommycharles:
You know what? I'm not annoyed about this. At all. Now, I'm not one to get irked about a schedule change, because it's only TV after all, but this actually seems positive.
The possibilty Mark brought up a few weeks ago about GSN=AXN seemed crappy, but a "gaming channel" as such wouldn't be so bad.
Casino shows are cool, and the dating shows are...well I know dozens of people who like them, even if I don't.
The video games thing I could live without, but I think that appeals to a lot of people too.....but none of them seemed to be watching ;-)
What they appear to be heading for is a bunch of shows that appeal to a bunch of separate niches. And they'll probably be something there I'll like.
Jimmy Owen:
Advertisers are only there if there are viewers. They want to be on the shows that are being watched, and there has to be some turnover in audience if the message is to be acted on. A long time ago, there was a show on CBS called "Mama," which, according to Wesley Hyatt's book on daytime TV "went off not due to low ratings, but because its sponsor Maxwell House learned that the same people had been watching for seven years and thus the show was not attracting any new buyers for Maxwell House products." How many of us have purchased a Rascal Scooter lately? The casino angle will probably keep the elderly folks who frequent casinos and attract younger "high rollers" attracted by the glamour.
GS Warehouse:
[quote name=\'chuckwooleryfan\' date=\'Dec 15 2003, 09:44 AM\'] I just got finished reading Steve Beverly's "All in the Game" column. And you know what? He brings up an excellent point. The sad truth about television executives is that they make these business decisions to please the advertisers. As hard as that may be to swallow, they are the prime target. Not us, the diehard fans of this genre. [/quote]
I can't say I'm a favorite of many in this group, and I risk further alienation by saying this, but: I completely agree. In this day and age, viewers have no say in programming; we watch what advertsiers want us to watch. And as long as Madison Avenue worships younger viewers and treats viewers 50 and over as if they have already died, the idea of an all-game show channel has gone the way of the DuMont network. In a more prosperous economy, a new classic-based game show channel could succeed, but because of the times we live in, that concept just won't work anymore.
Believe it or not, the only reason my mom got a cable box is so she can get better reception on QVC. Nowadays, she doesn't watch that channel anymore. Now, if it wasn't for ESPN and the fact that my cable company is also my internet provider, I'd part ways with them and live with broadcast TV. I'd love to get Boomerang and Nick GAS, but those two digital-tier-only channels alone are not worth an extra $40 a month, and I fear by the time I do get them, the shows I wanted to see be off the lineup for good. By the time I got Cartoon Network, all of the classics save for Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones were relegated to Boomerang. When I first heard about Noggin, a network half-owned by what was then Children's Television Workshop, I dreamed of seeing The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, and Square One TV again. Those dreams were dashed when Viacom bought out Sesame Workshop's share and turned it into a 24-hour Nick Jr. By the time I talked my sister, who has a dish, into sending up GSN tapes, the Dark Period had already come and gone, and since then, The $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids were the only Bob Stewart shows that ever had a regular place on the lineup. When GSN finally came to my house in December 2000, Tic Tac Dough was gone, the B&W Sunday block was only one hour, and the only watchable original, Hollywood Showdown, was already on another channel (PAX). I regret that my Card Sharks and Blockbusters collections and episode guides will never be complete, but I should be thankful just to see them again at all. But every authority figure you talk to will say the past is past and it's time to move on. In another time and place, all of these shows that I grew up with, that we grew up with, may come up again, but as long as Madison Avenue thumbs its collective nose at small niche groups like us, in the words of Don Henley, "those days are gone forever, I should just let them go".
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