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Game Show Network
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GSN (formerly known on-air as Game Show Network) is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its slogan is "Play Every Day". The network is currently available in approximately 68 million homes, and is jointly-owned by Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Show Network started up at 7:00 PM on December, 1, 1994.
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Encyclopedia
GSN (formerly known on-air as Game Show Network) is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its slogan is "Play Every Day". The network is currently available in approximately 68 million homes, and is jointly-owned by Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
History
The early years
Game Show Network started up at 7:00 PM on December, 1, 1994. From 1994 to about 1997, it aired not just post-1972 game shows, but aired pre-1972 classics too. Most shows were from the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman library. It aired them in a 24-hour cycle.
From October 11, 1997 - April 18, 1998, Game Show Network's Goodson-Todman library rights expired, with the exceptions of The Price Is Right and the 1994-1995 season of Family Feud, which were both on a separate contract. This was referred to by fans as the "Dark Period".
With the other Goodson-Todman shows gone, lesser-known Sony properties such as Juvenile Jury, The Diamond Head Game, the 1976 Break The Bank, and the Bill Cullen-hosted Chain Reaction all found their ways onto the schedule. Game Show Network also aired a kids' game show block at this time, highlighted by Jep! and Wheel of Fortune 2000—kids' adaptations of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Some of the shows that premiered during the dark period remained on the schedule even after the Goodson-Todman shows returned.
A new name and a new direction
In the summer of 2003, Game Show Network began airing GSN Video Games, the first program to air on Game Show Network that had nothing to do with traditional game shows. Although the show--a repackaging of somewhat dated British video game review shows (mostly Gamer.tv)--was short-lived and considered a disaster, it was a sign of the network's change of format from Game Show Network's "all game shows, all the time" to what eventually became "GSN: The Network for Games."
On March 15, 2004, at 10:00 p.m. ET, GSN stopped using the name "Game Show Network" on-air and introduced the tagline "The Network for Games," a move in line with the network expanding its programming to include the genre of reality television and various other competitions. (However, the entity's corporate name remained Game Show Network, LLC.) The newly renamed GSN also introduced the original series World Series of Blackjack, Celebrity Blackjack, Extreme Dodgeball, Poker Royale, and the short-lived Fake-a-Date, Vegas Weddings Unveiled and Ballbreakers. GSN also added reruns of The Mole, Average Joe, Arsenio Hall's Star Search, Kenny vs. Spenny, and Spy TV--all of which were eventually removed from the schedule (though Kenny vs. Spenny was picked up for new episodes by Comedy Central in 2007). Traditional game shows Win Ben Stein's Money and Street Smarts were also acquired around this time and aired in various time slots, though neither was regularly programmed as of mid-March 2008.
Blackjack and Poker Royale signified the beginnings of GSN's attempts to cash in on the TV poker-craze at the time. In 2006, GSN introduced High Stakes Poker, a poker show with a private-game format among professional players, and also programmed additional series of World Series of Blackjack and a spinoff, Celebrity Blackjack. One of the most popular shows from the initial TV poker boom, the World Poker Tour, was slated to move from the Travel Channel to GSN on March 24, 2008.
Within a year after GSN's revamp, GSN has primarly began returning its focus to studio-based game shows.
Recent changes
On February 25, 2008, GSN debuted a brand new live interactive call-in show called GSN Live, hosted by actress Heidi Bohay and KNBC Channel 4 Los Angeles, sports anchor/director, Fred Roggin. The show was formatted to be like the old Game Show Network show Club A.M., and aired weekdays from 12pm-3pm Eastern/9am-12pm Pacific between the current GSN classic line-up. The show took calls from viewers, interviewed classic game-show hosts, took viewers behind the scenes of game shows, and played 3 interactive games during the show. People who successfully got through to the games were enabled to win anything from jewelry to GSN merchandise. In March, every contestant who got through to the show was entered to win a brand new car.
In July 2008, GSN debuted a new game show called Catch 21, a remake of the Wink Martindale-hosted game show Gambit, which combines the classic quiz show with the casino game of blackjack. Alfonso Ribeiro is the host of the new show and his co-host & dealer is Mikki Padilla; original producer Merrill Heatter will return in the same capacity. The pilot for Catch 21 (taped several years before) was called simply "Casino."
In October, a second season of Bingo America premiered with former Family Feud host Richard Karn as the new host, replacing Patrick Duffy, and Diane Mizota as the co-host.
On November 6, GSN updated its logo for the first time in four and a half years since its 2004 revamp, and began using a new slogan "Play every day".
On November 10, GSN began airing the syndicated version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? hosted by Meredith Vieira.
On November 15, a new game show entitled Think Like a Cat, sponsored by Meow Mix cat food, debuted on GSN. The host is Chuck Woolery.
On April 6, 2009, A new version of The Newlywed Game will premiere with former Wilson Phillips singer Carnie Wilson as the host.
Also on April 6, 2009, a second season of Catch 21 premieres with new episodes with a new time at 6:30 PM E/T and 5:30 PM C/T, instead of 7:30 PM E/T and 6:30 PM C/T. It was hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro with the card dealer Mikki Padilla.
On March 30, 2009, GSN will remove Blockbusters, Card Sharks, Child's Play, Press Your Luck, What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth from its lineup and will be replaced by Tom Bergeron's version of Hollywood Squares, Match Game PM, Password, The $25,000 Pyramid and The $100,000 Pyramid.
Coupled with some of these changes is an aggressive marketing campaign; GSN sent Ribiero on a promotional tour to local television stations to promote Catch 21, while they partnered with the ABC Television Network to create Play It Again! Game Show Reunion Week, a series of one-off episodes of classic game shows for the network's morning show, Good Morning America, in exchange for promotion of the September 2008 Play It Back programming blocks, which will feature marathons of game shows from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
GSN has also been using its old name "Game Show Network" in the past year. On press releases and on their new GSN Radio, the network is referred to as "GSN, The Game Show Network". It is not known if GSN will start using the name on television any time soon.
Outlook
Despite the forays into reality series, made-for-TV sports, and documentaries, GSN's programming has always remained mostly game shows. As the only U.S. cable/satellite network largely devoted to game shows for adults, GSN is a prototypical niche operation. It remains to be seen whether such a concentrated focus is commercially viable in the long run. Currently, GSN is available in slightly over half of all U.S. households; it also is available from most Canadian cable and satellite providers. The network's financial performance and household availability have improved in recent years, although it suffered setbacks in 2007 when major cable provider Comcast moved GSN from basic cable to digital packages in many markets. As of January, 2008, GSN primetime (8-11pm) was placed at #47 of the top 50 cable networks, up from 50th in the previous survey.
In July, 2007, GSN President Rich Cronin announced his departure from the network. In a statement he said: "I am honored to have led a great team of creative business people in pioneering interactive television games and in growing GSN so dramatically." During Cronin's six-year tenure, the network expanded its U.S. household availability from 31 million to 64 million. However, ratings have dropped steadily for the network since 2004. David Goldhill, former president of Universal Television Group, was announced at the end of July as Cronin's replacement, effective August 1.
Logos
Programming
Original programming
GSN has also produced several original series. In the channel's early days, Club A.M. was a three-hour block consisting of five classic game shows, surrounded by thirty minutes' worth of interstitial trivia, interviews with game show producers, personalities, contestants and fans, and interactive call-in games, all hosted by Laura Chambers and Steve Day (which was also rerun in late night, with some new segments, under the title Late Night Games). Prime Games was a similarly formatted show aired weeknights and hosted by Peter Tomarken. Wide World of Games was a Saturday night block of four shows built around a common theme.
After a few years, these shows were replaced by Game TV, a half-hour interview show hosted by Nancy Sullivan and Dave Nemeth; Game World, which showed highlights of current game shows from around the world; and standalone 30-minute call-in games like Super Decades and Trivia Track. Later, the channel attempted a Gong Show remake called Extreme Gong, hosted by George Gray, in which the viewers could phone in their votes as to whether to 'gong' acts off the air; and Throut And Neck, where viewers controlled video game characters with their phones. The network also programmed Burt Luddin's Love Buffet, a combination of scripted scenes and a "game show within the show." But all these efforts were eventually canceled and removed from the network's schedule.
Traditional game show offerings since 2000 have included Hollywood Showdown, All New 3's a Crowd, Mall Masters, Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck, Friend or Foe? (a game based around the Prisoner's Dilemma), Russian Roulette, WinTuition, Cram, and National Lampoon's Funny Money. The most successful GSN original game show was Lingo, a Chuck Woolery-hosted remake of a 1980s Canadian format in which teams guess five-letter words in a combination of Jotto/Mastermind and bingo. The network produced six seasons of the show from 2001-2008.
Originals debuting in 2006 included PlayMania, a late-night call-in game that expanded from two to (at one point) six nights per week but was cancelled on October 31, 2007, and a remake of Chain Reaction, which had long finished its second season and a renewal for a third season has not been announced as reruns from both seasons 1 and 2 currently air on the network. That's the Question, Starface, and a revival of I've Got a Secret also debuted in 2006. Also debuting in July 2007 were Camouflage, remade as a word game, and Without Prejudice?, a remake of a British show where five people decided which contestant would win $25,000 based in part on their responses to questioning. Debuting on August 4, 2007 was Grand Slam, a game show involving big winners from other shows, including Ken Jennings, John Carpenter and Brad Rutter.
For 2008, a US version of a BBC game called How Much Is Enough? debuted on January 8, hosted by actor Corbin Bernsen, and then in April, Bingo America made its debut with Patrick Duffy of Dallas and Step by Step fame as host, while on July 21, as somewhat of a tie-in with the movie 21, Merrill Heatter returned to quiz show producing with Catch 21 hosted by actor-singer-dancer Alfonso Ribeiro, with actress Mikki Padilla as the dealer. GSN also relaunched a live interactive call-in interstitial series by premiering GSN Live, which airs during commercial breaks between 12 PM and 6 PM Eastern Monday through Friday. Originally the series took place over a three hour span, with KNBC sports anchor and NBC Sports contributor Fred Roggin and actress Heidi Bohay hosting the interstitial segments. Later in the year GSN expanded the series to the six hours it has now, with Roggin moving to the 3 PM to 6 PM block with Kelly Packard while Alfonso Ribeiro replaced him earlier in the day. Packard was forced to leave her position shortly after taking it, and Roggin has hosted with a guest host since.
Specials
The network has run blocks of classic game shows on Saturday nights, and for the first few months of 2006 programmed back-to-back episodes of Match Game in a block billed as That '70s Hour (a pun on That '70s Show), which showed the clapperboard before each episode, including the original date of taping and production number, as well as Match Game trivia and brief clips of an interview with host Gene Rayburn produced shortly before his death.
During the Summer of 2006, the network began a special seven-week run of The 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time.
In November 2006, GSN started a series of eight documentaries about game shows, beginning with a program on Match Game titled Match Game: Behind The Blanks. Other subjects included game show producer Chuck Barris, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, a "Top Ten" countdown of game show hosts, memorable game show moments, women who have featured prominently on game shows, celebrities and how they impacted game shows, and an insider's guide to winning on a TV game show. One particularly interesting subject was the installments of Press Your Luck in which Michael Larson won more than $100,000 in cash and prizes by memorizing the sequences of the board then used, which was the subject of Big Bucks: The "Press Your Luck" Scandal. Peter Tomarken, who had then hosted Press Your Luck, hosted and narrated this documentary in 2003. The documentary became Game Show Network's most watched show ever (a title it still holds) scoring a 1.7 at one time during the show.
In 2007, the network debuted two new specials: the National Vocabulary Championship, with a show airing on April 15, 2007 showcasing the first year of the event, and a broadcast of the Cat Fanciers' Association International Cat Show, Catminster.
In November 2008, GSN and Meow Mix presented a special entitled Think Like a Cat, hosted by Chuck Woolery, with a top prize of $1,000,000, one of the few times a game show on cable TV has $1,000,000 as a grand prize.
Syndicated programming
GSN's rerun programming comes primarily from two sources: FremantleMedia and GSN parent company Sony.
From Fremantle, the network licenses the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman game show library, which includes titles such as Match Game, Family Feud, Card Sharks, Trivia Trap, Now You See It, Double Dare, Body Language, Blockbusters, Password Plus and Super Password.
In the beginning of the network, GSN regularly showcased vintage Goodson-Todman game and panel shows from the 1950s and 1960s--many of which were either originally broadcast or only preserved in black-and-white--such as What's My Line?, I've Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth, Beat the Clock, and others. These classic shows made up much of the channel's lineup at the outset, but have been gradually cut back in prominence since the late '90s. On October 1, 2006, only What's My Line? had a regular spot on the schedule, late Sunday/early Monday at 3:00 AM Eastern; it was followed by a selection from various 1950s-1970s Goodson-Todman shows, usually another panel game. On December 31, GSN reinstated the Black and White Overnight to 7 days a week at 3am-4am, showcasing What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret in the block; other shows, including Choose Up Sides, The Name's the Same, and the Bud Collyer-hosted primetime version of To Tell The Truth have been featured, with the latter currently airing following What's My Line?.
GSN, in addition to its Goodson-Todman library, features other shows such as Press Your Luck, Let's Make a Deal (both of which are included in the Goodson-Todman license from FremantleMedia, although made by other companies), The Newlywed Game and Love Connection, Tic Tac Dough, Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune, along with more recent fare such as the 2000 version of Twenty-One and Dog Eat Dog. In October 2003, GSN acquired the rerun rights to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and have added more episodes since, including the Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire spin-off in the spring of 2005 and the Meredith Vieira-hosted syndicated series beginning in fall 2008. Most of these shows are owned by Sony.
Among the most well-known classic game shows previously aired regularly on the network, other than Price - The Joker's Wild, Tattletales, Hollywood Squares, The Dating Game, and various versions of Pyramid. Some of these shows still continued to be aired occasionally as part of special events, such as Dick Clark's Pyramid in honor of New Year's Rockin' Eve on December 31.
The Price is Right
The Price is Right, Goodson-Todman's longest-running game show, did not appear on GSN until December 1996. Episodes of TPiR that featured fur coats or other animal-related prizes were not aired, following Bob Barker's animal-rights wishes; therefore, the show's GSN premiere was delayed almost two years in order to remove such episodes from the rotation (however episodes with furs and puppies offered were aired, the former by mistake on three occasions). The show originally appeared on GSN in occasional preemptions of regularly scheduled series such as Match Game or Family Feud and earned a regular spot less than a year before the network's "dark period".
Various versions of the show were broadcast - specifically those hosted by Barker, Bill Cullen, and Tom Kennedy (plus one episode sub-hosted by 1972-77 nighttime host Dennis James that aired on the day of his death in 1997). In December 1996, Price began airing regularly on the schedule, with half-hour Barker eps in the morning and hour-long episodes in the afternoon and evening, Kennedy shows in late night, and the Cullen version as part of what was then billed as "Sentimental Sunday". No Doug Davidson or nighttime James/Barker episodes were ever aired - the latter due to both Barker's fur ban and an apparent dismay by GSN since less than 50 episodes could be legally aired due to many furs being offered throughout the eight-year run.
GSN's contract to air Price expired in April 2000 and has not been renewed as of today. Most Price reruns are held not entirely by FremantleMedia, but also through CBS Television Distribution, as CBS is currently a part owner of the American Price franchise; GSN would have to pay both CBS and Fremantle to gain the rights to the show.
See also
External links
- The making of a GSN pilot
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