Game Show Network
| File:GSNlogo.svg | |
| Type | Cable television network |
|---|---|
| Branding | GSN |
| Country | |
| Availability |  United States Canada |
| Headquarters | Culver City, California |
| Owner | Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment (Game Show Network, LLC) |
Launch date | December 1, 1994 |
Official website | www.gsn.com |
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 "GSN: Get in The Game". The network is currently available in approximately 66 million homes, and is jointly-owned by Liberty Media and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Programming libraries
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 and Blockbusters, along with various versions of Password.
In the beginning of the network, GSN regularly showcased vintage Goodson-Todman game and panel shows from the 1950s and 1960s - many 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. As of October 1st, 2006, only What's My Line? has a regular spot on the schedule, late Sunday/early Monday at 3:00 AM Eastern; it is followed by a selection from various 1950s-1970s Goodson-Todman shows, usually another panel game. On December 31st, GSN will be reinstating the Black and White Overnight to 7 days a week at 3am-4am. The two shows that will take the hour will be What's My Line and the B&W version of I've Got a Secret.
GSN, in addition to its Goodson-Todman library, features other shows such as Jeopardy!, Press Your Luck, Let's Make a Deal, The Newlywed Game and Love Connection, Tic Tac Dough, and Wheel Of Fortune, along with more recent fare like, 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 added more episodes (including the Super Millionaire spin-off) in the spring of 2005.
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. The show originally appeared on GSN in occasional preemptions of regularly scheduled series such as Match Game or Family Feud. Various versions of the show were broadcast, including those hosted by Barker, Bill Cullen and Tom Kennedy. In December 1996, TPIR began airing regularly on the schedule, with half-hour Barker eps in the morning and hour-long episodes in the afternoon and evening, Kennedy eps in late night, and Cullen eps a part of what was then billed Sentimental Sunday. GSN's contract to air TPIR ended in April 2000 and has not been renewed since then.
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 are still occasionally aired as part of special events.
Original shows
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." All these efforts have long since departed from the network's schedule.
Traditional game show offerings since 2000 have included Hollywood Showdown, All New 3's a Crowd, 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 has been 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 has produced six seasons of the show since its 2002 debut.
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 has been cancelled effective October 31, 2007, and a remake of Chain Reaction, which has since begun a second season. That's the Question, Starface and a revival of I've Got a Secret also debuted in 2006; That's the Question began a second season on September 10, 2007, but the other two shows have not been renewed. 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. Also debuting in July 2007 were Camouflage, remade as a word game, and Without Prejudice?, a remake of a British show where five people decide which contestant will 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.
The Dark Period (1997–1998)
The Dark Period is an unofficial nickname coined by the channel's internet fanbase referring to the period from October 11, 1997 - April 18, 1998, after GSN's Goodson-Todman library rights expired, with the exception of The Price Is Right and the 1994-1995 season of Family Feud, which were both on a separate contract.[1]
With the other Goodson-Todman shows gone, lesser-known Sony properties such as Juvenile Jury, The Diamond Head Game, the 1976 version of Break the Bank, and the Bill Cullen version of Chain Reaction found their way onto the schedule. GSN 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.
Beginning January 1998, ostensibly to pay for the rights to get the Goodson-Todman library back, GSN gave away a few hours of its schedule to air infomercials in the early morning, a common practice among other basic cable channels, and a practice continued by GSN to this day. The "Dark Period" began at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, October 11, 1997 with an episode of The Gong Show and officially ended at 8 AM on Saturday, April 18, 1998 with Goodson-Todman's Child's Play, which is currently programmed weekends at 9am.
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 GSN 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 would eventually become "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 remains 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 have since left 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 is currently programmed.
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, will move from the Travel Channel to GSN in early 2008.
Recent changes
After generally unsuccessful efforts at expanding its programming, GSN has largely returned to traditional studio-based game shows. On April 4, 2005 the network introduced a new daytime lineup featuring several older game shows that had not been seen on GSN for some time, including the two most recent versions of Password (Password Plus and Super Password), the 1990-91 version of To Tell The Truth, and the Bill Rafferty-hosted versions of two series, Blockbusters, and Card Sharks. Also in the spring of 2005, GSN acquired approximately 100 more episodes of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (except the August 1999 and 2002 episodes), including the Super Millionaire specials.
Although the network has mostly abandoned reality programs, GSN acquired the rights to The Amazing Race in 2005 for a reported $50,000 per episode. The network first programmed the series extensively in prime time during the summer of 2005, then cut back the show’s exposure. In 2006, GSN also programmed a series of documentaries, Anything to Win, about non-game-show competitions.
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 at 11:00 PM Eastern 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. On July 18, 2006, the network began a special seven-week run of The 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time in the 10:00 PM hour, Tuesday through Thursday. In November 2006, GSN started a series of eight documentaries about game shows, beginning with a program on Match Game. 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 insiders guide to winning on a TV game show.
The Richard Karn-hosted seasons of Family Feud began appearing on the GSN schedule in March 2007, and the 1971-77 syndicated version of Let's Make a Deal returned to the network's lineup on June 4, 2007. The most recent (2000-02) remake of To Tell the Truth airs on weekday afternoons. Double Dare and Body Language returned to late-night slots in 2007. After Playmania was cancelled in October, 2007, GSN aired Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Trivia Trap, and Now You See It in its place.
In January 2008, GSN debuted a new original, How Much Is Enough?. The network also brought back such Game Shows as the 1994-1995 season of Wheel of Fortune and the 1979-1980 season ofTic Tac Dough. In January, GSN replaced reruns of The Amazing Race with reruns of B&W classics What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret. GSN has also went on with promoting their schedule in blocks. The blocks include 9-3pm as "The Men of GSN", 3-7pm as "Find time for a great time", and the Tuesday-Friday Primetime block as "The heroes of GSN". GSN also started promoting the overnight B&W shows for the first time in 7 years. And weekends continue to be "Weekend Fun". During the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, GSN promoted Match Game with the tagline "You Can't Write this Stuff".
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 September 2007, GSN's primetime (8-11 pm) schedule ranked 50th among ad-supported cable networks.[2]
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.[3] However, ratings have dropped steadily for the network since 2004.[4] David Goldhill, former president of Universal Television Group, was announced at the end of July as Cronin's replacement, effective August 1.[5]
Controversies
GSN has raised the ire of some classic game show fans by cutting portions of the end-show credits from the shows it airs to allow for more promos and commercials. These credits often contained mini-commercials for the "parting gifts" given to contestants, which could be free advertising for any of the products which may still exist. Occasionally GSN has left in fee plugs, parts of credits or whole closing credits. GSN also uses time-compression technology, unofficially called "speed-ups" by viewers, that slightly speeds up the video and audio in their programs, mainly for the purpose of including more commercials in their broadcasts. Other basic cable channels also employ this practice.[6] GSN has also been criticized for rerunning shows leased in a limited package or number of episodes (such as 450 episodes of Press Your Luck from 1984-1985 or a single season of Sony-owned game shows such as Jeopardy! or The Newlywed Game) too often, a practice sometimes called "rerun abuse."
See also
- List of programs broadcast by GSN
- GameTV, a similar Canada cable/satellite channel
- Challenge, a similar United Kingdom cable/satellite channel
Notes
- ^ "Salute to the Dark Period!". The Game Show Site. Retrieved 2007-06-20. Includes GSN form letter on loss of G-T contract and a dark period schedule. Game show discussion forums contain many other references to the period. For instance, see GSN Forum, Game Show Central, Game Show News Net, Game Show Forum, and TV.com.
- ^ Steve Goldstein (2007-10-15). "Top 50 Basic Cable Programs, Sept. '07". CableWorld. Retrieved 2007-10-27.
- ^ Kimberly Nordyke (2007-07-11). "Game over for Cronin as winning GSN chief". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-07-11.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "GSN Preside". Broadcasting & Cable. 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2007-07-11. Only the introduction to the article is available at this site.
- ^ "David Goldhill Named President and Chief Executive Officer, GSN". TV Barn. 2007-07-25. Retrieved 2007-07-26.
- ^ These comments from JumptheShark.com are typical of complaints on several other web forums: "The practice of squeezing or condensing the closing credits of a show, just to fit in an extra commercial, irritates me to no end. GSN's practice of doing so is no exception, esp. since 1) they show the same commercials over and over again, and 2) most of the stuff they promote is garbage anyways...Yes, I know that this is an age-old complaint, but the time-compression is too annoying. I was watching the Hatfield-McCoy special yesterday and was forced to change the channel about three minutes into the show. Why? Because hearing the theme music speed up too quickly and having Richard Dawson sound like he was on caffeine was just unwatchable."
External links
- Official Site
- GSN's message board
- GSN Unofficial FAQs
- Showbiz Notes The making of a GSN pilot