Buzzr Q1 2026

[chargeradiocom]

Re: Block scheduling… What’s likely happening, at least in part, is a radio effect. As much as people carp about shrinking playlists and radio always playing the same songs, most commercial stations do it because there are more people listening an hour or less at a time on their commute or grocery run, rather than for hours at home.

I suspect it’s a similar trend in TV… there are probably more viewers who just turn it on for an hour or so to unwind, or turn it on for background noise while doing chores around the house, than those who sit glued to it for hours. So they’re going to put their heavy hitters on most often to catch the most eyeballs, not necessarily the most loyal ones.

Of course, streaming has badly injured both radio and traditional TV, so who knows if this is a workable strategy long term.

TPIR's inherent variety is why I can watch multiple episodes of that in a row.

You point to something I’ve noticed watching the Barker Era episodes. I could semi-passively watch the 80s episodes all day and never tire of them. Whereas when they’re marathoning Season 1 eps, I find them interesting for a while, but they start to get a little long in the tooth after 2 or 3 episodes. I think it speaks to the small number of games and the early simplicity of the Barker run compared to what it became.

It also dawned me that the amount of potential "new to BUZZR" shows that would pull numbers is running out. If Drew's Price works out, I imagine it paves the way for Wayne's LMAD, but after that I think the only good option left on the bench is Scrabble, and I thought BUZZR couldn't access it easily.

A reliable source noted when Fremantle acquired the broadcast distribution rights to the Scrabble property, that it was supposed to have paved the way for the Woolery era to start running on BUZZR. It’s been almost a year, so I’m wondering if their sources were correct. But I’m still hopeful.

Also still hoping they can strike a deal for Sony’s vintage properties. They’re on the air in Canada so Sony has obviously been shopping them. I have to think that eventually, it’s either going to happen with BUZZR, or Sony is gonna give up and start their own FAST channel for the States.

[Dbacksfan12]

I could semi-passively watch the 80s episodes all day and never tire of them. Whereas when they’re marathoning Season 1 eps, I find them interesting for a while, but they start to get a little long in the tooth after 2 or 3 episodes. I think it speaks to the small number of games and the early simplicity of the Barker run compared to what it became.

I finally got a chance to watch a couple of the '88 episodes tonight.  I'm reminded of the episodes I saw as a tot--though I didn't remember the giant price tag with the giant TPiR logo on it lasting this long.

When they air the '72 episodes, I change the channel--it's pretty boring seeing Double Prices or Any Number for a Vega every other episode.

[tvmitch]

I could semi-passively watch the 80s episodes all day and never tire of them. Whereas when they’re marathoning Season 1 eps, I find them interesting for a while, but they start to get a little long in the tooth after 2 or 3 episodes. I think it speaks to the small number of games and the early simplicity of the Barker run compared to what it became.

I agree, I can scan through tons of 80s episodes. I have my DVR set to record them all. I'll fast-forward through the boring games and stop on the good ones.

Those 1988 eps are a straight shot of nostalgia, along the lines of 80s Pyramid for me. Lots of time spent watching these shows as a kid. TPiR 88 hits a bit harder because of the lack of reruns since those shows aired. I didn't have GSN back when TPiR was in heavy rotation.

[chargeradiocom]

Those 1988 eps are a straight shot of nostalgia, along the lines of 80s Pyramid for me. Lots of time spent watching these shows as a kid. TPiR 88 hits a bit harder because of the lack of reruns since those shows aired. I didn't have GSN back when TPiR was in heavy rotation.

Same on all points. I actually didn’t have GSN at home until 2005—still a fair amount of classics on the schedule at the time but well past the glory days.

[Chelsea Thrasher]

I'm actually finding myself not particularly enjoying the 1988-89 episodes all that much.  Once Breslow got kicked and Frank Wayne died, the show rapidly calcified into what it became in the 1990s and 2000s, and for good and especially for ill that's an era I've come to largely associate with Bob morphing into a crank who fired anyone who dared stand against him, a de-emphasis on all the non-Barker talent on the show, a show that aesthetically didn't basically didn't change one iota for twenty years except for the turntable carpet and paint on the doors, prizes and games that become less and less interesting, a greater focus on Barker's own celebrity and longevity than the game show itself, and a show that feels like a zombie compared to it's far more creative late 70s and early-mid 1980s counterpart. Runtimes came down, showcases got more bland, the show kept introducing more and more pricing games that were often less and less inspired.   I've found I don't particularly care for it at all.  Certainly I have way more love still for a show from 1988 or 1994 than from 2004, but Breslow's ouster and Frank Wayne's death puts the show on a trajectory I have never cared for.

I've come to feel about Price from the late 80s through late 2000s the same way I've come to feel about Wheel after the mid-late 90s (most of the Harry Friedman, et al-run years) until they brought in Bellamie Blackstone as producer and Ryan and host.   Or a non-game show like The Simpsons at any point in the last 25 years. They became a zombie shambling around in the suit of the show that it once resembled at its peak. 

Price S17 is from the period of time right after the zombie first infected the show (from my own harsh view) and you can see the first signs.  Conversely, while the novelty does wear off fast with the 70s episodes, they do represent a nice 'break', especially the shows from '73 onwards as they introduce more games and everyone slowly figures out what this is. Plus, the older the episodes get the more of a novelty the prizes themselves truly become.

[TimK2003]

Price S17 is from the period of time right after the zombie first infected the show (from my own harsh view) and you can see the first signs.  Conversely, while the novelty does wear off fast with the 70s episodes, they do represent a nice 'break', especially the shows from '73 onwards as they introduce more games and everyone slowly figures out what this is. Plus, the older the episodes get the more of a novelty the prizes themselves truly become.

I agree with Chelsea.  I have enjoyed the early 80s eps way more than the gray hair Barker episodes later in the run.

In the early 80s, you had well-dressed audience members with a "lightly-seasoned" dose of personalized.T-shirts amongst the crowd.  The audience had not yet turned into a college-aged jeans and sweatshirt crowd as it didn't catch the eyes of that demographic for another few years into the Gray-Haired Era.  And, as previously mentioned, the commercial breaks were less shorrer, and it gave Brown-Haired Barker a chance to takenhisbtimenrhrough games and contestant banters.

When they had to speed things up for new time constraints and Bob having to handle more younger, less-behaved college kid contestants in his later years, I can understand why he may have gotten cranky.

[aaron sica]

Well, that was quick. From 1-2, CNG already gone in favor of LMaD with Brady starting Monday as per a Buzzr promo.

[snowpeck]

Well, that was quick. From 1-2, CNG already gone in favor of LMaD with Brady starting Monday as per a Buzzr promo.

The promo I saw said starting March 2nd.

[aaron sica]

Huh. They must have walked it back. The promo I saw (on the Game Show Flashback group) stated Monday.

[jcs290]

Being born in '81, my earliest TPIR memory is Bob's hair turning gray and my grandmother making a big deal out of it.  I slightly remember the '86 primetime specials.  That being said, I connect more with the late 80's reruns.  Rod and Gray Bob was my era, and I think sometimes we get spoiled by all the theme weeks and special episodes not just TPIR but also WOF, LMAD, and others put on.  I remember being just dandy with the 25th anniversary special, the Las Vegas remote one-off, the 5000th episode, $1M spectaculars, etc.  I never thought Price got stale. In fact, I think they tried to keep things fresh with what they had, and it didn't always work out (hello Hollywood mural turntable), but it was OK.  Price was always comfort food TV.

[Sodboy13]

How do you tour a known quantity of a show for a month and kill it after a week, especially in a digital subchannel environment where I imagine the pressure to deliver immediate ratings is far, far lower?

I mean, I get that Wordplay got ditched after three airings because someone made an assumption on rights that they absolutely should not have. But CNG has now come and gone in short order twice, seemingly on merit. Why even bring it back?

[Chelsea Thrasher]

Celebrity Name Game will not be leaving the schedule as assumed, it will be moving one hour earlier to Noon ET. (It'll also be doing something strange, and cycling back to the start of the run but only airing even-numbered episodes ie: 1002, 1004, 1006...). Starting 3/16 this flips over to the odds. The show is already re-running shows it's aired before after just a month, which is at least probably an upgrade over presuming it would be off the schedule entirely? That said, the tradeoff is that Supermarket Sweep is now off the schedule entirely. (As is Moore TTTT and $ale of the Century on weekends for unrelated reasons).

Starting 3/1, weekend mornings will change up each weekend. It would be exhausting trying to list out everything as there's very little pattern to what turns up each weekend. In terms of "shows not currently on the schedule", Super Password gets some time on 3/1 and 3/21, Cullen TPiR turns up for three slots on 3/7 and 3/22, Eubanks CS shows up a few times, both the 1980 and 2000 versions of TTTT make apperances on 3/14 (eps that have been shown before).  3/22 also sees Tattletales and Super Password blow out primetime for the night, though again nothing new-to-Buzzr. Towards the end of the month episodes begin to repeat themselves.

The Friday Carey TPiR episodes will now be reruns of episodes from earlier in the season, while Mon-Thursday continues on in the linear run.

Let's Make a Deal will start with the first episode of the 2011-12 season at 1pm. 

====
A vent follows:
Going to be really honest here, with each passing month Buzzr's scheduling and programming and episode selection manages to feel more and more half-baked and at times genuinely nonsensical.

Aside from trying to throw on a few more contemporary shows they already have converted to see if they catch any new eyeballs, it feels like the channel's given up in a lot of ways. Buzzr's felt in a slow decline for a few years - a lot of the 'glory years' of the channel in the late 2010s and the early 2020s including acquisitions were due to the pouring in of one Fremantle exec, Mark Deetjen, and Buzzr's slow decline started almost exactly after his death from illness in early 2022.  At times it feels a lot of folks there don't even know what all they're sitting on now, and most of the folks who did are gone. All of their acquisitions either they have the tape rights forever or they've already long ago cut loose.  There's no interest in presenting the older stuff to newer fans, they don't seem to have any idea how to present the newer stuff to the older fans, and at this point are looking at the list of things they've already aired or digitized and decided "that'll do".  (Even though, in actuality, for most shows outside of around eight or so titles they've only run a fraction of a fraction.)

It's their content, their network, their bandwidth, their party. Fantastic.  I just look at what they're doing and not only are we well past the point of "the way I would have done it", I don't see how some of their recent choices over the past year became things they've actually done. Are they really getting research that says that viewers want to watch the same 200 episodes of Tattletales in primetime? The same 2009/1985 episodes of TPiR they can watch 24h/day? I might not have agreed with "five hours of Match Game".  Or is everything at a point where as long as it isn't a test pattern going out and as long as the checks are clearing, everyone's just THAT checked out and it just doesn't matter at all anymore?

It's just...sad.

[JasonA1]

Thank you drafting such a thoughtful post that proves we can talk about these channels without a chorus of "you should be grateful anyone is running those old dusty game shows!"

That said, I wanted to add something regarding this...

The same 2009/1985 episodes of TPiR they can watch 24h/day?

Most, if not all, of my family in Michigan has a similar smart TV setup. And from what I can tell, nobody in my family knows what Pluto even is. To the older generation, the screen with all the apps is "that thing" they have to click through to get to the cable box, which they use to run not only traditional cable, but Netflix and Peacock (because the cable companies smartly positioned their box as the hub, even though the TV itself can do it too). To the younger generation, many are beyond using the TV in that traditional way, so they don't look beyond YouTube or their phone to see what else they can click.

Point being, at least those TPIR episodes seem to be reaching two truly different audiences, "us" aside.

-Jason

[Chelsea Thrasher]

Thank you drafting such a thoughtful post that proves we can talk about these channels without a chorus of "you should be grateful anyone is running those old dusty game shows!"

Point being, at least those TPIR episodes seem to be reaching two truly different audiences, "us" aside.

Fair play. It can be incredibly easy to forget or take for granted that different channels and platforms have different audience targets and reach when you're particularly invested in it's contents (or more aware than John Q. Taxpayer at its behind-the-scenes going on).  And that while you and I may be perfectly well aware with these things, that isn't necessarily the case for the average viewer. That said, at least until now demographically the average viewer who would be inclined to ask "What in the hell is a 'Tubi'?" probably wouldn't be falling over themselves to watch CNG/Carey TPiR/Brady LMAD

[snowpeck]

Starting 3/1, weekend mornings will change up each weekend. It would be exhausting trying to list out everything as there's very little pattern to what turns up each weekend. In terms of "shows not currently on the schedule", Super Password gets some time on 3/1 and 3/21, Cullen TPiR turns up for three slots on 3/7 and 3/22, Eubanks CS shows up a few times, both the 1980 and 2000 versions of TTTT make apperances on 3/14 (eps that have been shown before).  3/22 also sees Tattletales and Super Password blow out primetime for the night, though again nothing new-to-Buzzr. Towards the end of the month episodes begin to repeat themselves.

FWiW, this appears to be a repeat of the "Winning Women" stunt they've done in previous Marches.