http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/C...PP&nid=2228

Just being a messenger...donno what it means or what impact it will have to the show.

From what I read, Feud will prolly get more daytime and prime access slots, which means better exposure. It's kinda like the timeslot upgrades the show got when Karn first took over. In Norfolk, for instance, the show went from graveyard hours, to running against TPiR.

It doesn't sound like anything drastic will happen, aside from this season's changes. The show changed distributors back in late-2001, and nothing too big happened, except Louie Anderson was out the next season.

A Feud-South Park nighttime block?

(Just kidding...don't know and honestly could care less)

I am I correct in saying that Debmar-Mercury could be in charge of setting and negotiating lease rates for original G-T game shows to GSN, or would that cover only current and future revivals of G-T/Fremantle properties?

It would be good to make the G-T library more financially lucrative for networks like GSN, or others to air the ol' reruns. Doubtful, but good.

Again...coming from someone completely clueless with the whole technicalities of this changeover...

Will this change anything for TPiR? Or is CBS the "distributor" of the program?

(I'm just confused with G/T getting thrown into all this.)

This has NOTHING to do with GSN, TPIR, or any future G/T holdings.

Tribune, a long time company responsible for running about 15 local affiliates around the country, and securing market syndication deals for programs they DO NOT OWN, is long rumoured to be getting out of the tv business.

Since Freemantle only does the production end of their shows, they need a distributor, esp if Tribune gets sold. That's why they alligned with this new company...

Now, if Fremantle in the future does go forth with new G/T properties (or any properties for that matter), this company will be responsible for securing station deals.

This new deal will NOT affect Family Feuds current station lineup. The stations will just have a new company to do the deals with in the future.

It's just a change of syndicator for Feud. Deb-Mer will have as much sayso over the library as Tribune did.

It does sound like there will be closer allegiances with this syndicator in future, which is somewhat of a change from the good ol days of G-T. Remember the 69-70 season when the four syndie G-T strips were distributed by four different entities? TTTT went out through Firestone, 20th Cent. Fox handled BTC, Holiday Inn put out HSSS and CBS Films did the honors for WML?

If there were a chance in hell that Fremantle could make money syndicating reruns of the classic G-T shows, it would have been done already.

(Yes, I know reruns of Perry Card Sharks and the second run of Tattletales, among others, were syndicated. I also know that those reruns were syndicated within a very short time after the shows' original airing, not twenty-plus years later.)

That lil ol' company called Viacom.

I don't think Holiday Inn was ever in the syndication business.

The legend around G-T was that Mark Goodson had to fairly be dragged into syndicating his shows.

Didn't CBS own the WML? rights at that time? I thought they passed to the network in the '50s per Gil Fates (1955, I'm guessing). Of the big three panel shows, I believe MGP only retained Truth.

All of the Tribune properties are in such a state of flux right now, I've got to think that was the underlying reason.

Mark Goodson must have realized that it was either syndication or no shows on the air. There weren't any G-T shows on any of the networks between Sept of 69 and April of 71.

As far as the distributors of the shows, in 69 Viacom didn't exist. It sprang up in 72 as a government-decreed spinoff of CBS Films. Holiday Inn's syndication arm was actually called Show Biz, Inc. They mostly stuck to country music shows like the ones hosted by Porter Wagoner and the Wilburn Bros. Those shows might not have cleared NY or LA, but they were quite big here in the hinterlands. At the end of the shows underneath the Show Biz logo (which was a signpost as I recall) appeared the words "A division of Holiday Inns, Inc."

The announcement means it should be back for at least one more season. But they seriously need to make changes to it.....or else.

Or else what?

Or else Bobby will hunt them down like the DOGS THEY ARE and MAKE them.

/got nothin'

I'm curious if Debmar Mercury's also getting "American Idol Rewind" as part of the deal--it wasn't mentioned (although if it hasn't been renewed for a second season yet, that may be the reason).

And in case you haven't noticed, in an amazing turn of events, Dunkelman's working on the "Idol" repackage doing new voice-overs and the sponsor billboards (and getting credited for "additional material"). So much for wondering what they were going to do to creatively edit him out of the first season.

For the last time, it's renewed until at least the end of the 06-07 season.

/How many times are we gonna go through this?

What was Goodson's first syndicated show (reruns included) and when did it go into syndication? Reruns of Password? I'm thinking it might predate September '69?

"Password" started reruns on WPIX in NYC on 9/23/67, one week after its last airing on CBS.

Maybe it was the cancellation of all the primetime panels that prompted the change of heart re: syndication.

WML started its first run strip in Sept of 1968.

In fairness, there really weren't many games in syndication until Truth or Consequences in 1966. When the prime time panel shows were cancelled, they were naturals to go to syndication like T or C -- known properties, and relatively low budget.

And luckily for Goodson, NBC had converted its facilities to color and CBS had converted studio 50 (Sullivan theatre) to color, and local independent stations were hugry for color programming at the time.

I was at a party attended by many G-T folks in 1990 and several of them were telling me what an expensive show TTTT was to do. I asked what the big expense was in doing it and was told they had to pay four panelists and there were a lot of travel expenses. I still don't buy the notion that TTTT is particularly expensive to produce.

I believe the Gil Fates line was that you couldn't have a floor of paneled offices on Park Avenue with a private dining room and bathroom attendants off of the revenue from two daytime strips ("Snap Judgment" and "MG").

Or PDQ in 1965. Stump the Stars was also packaged in 1964, but I would assume that's just gravy off the local version.


--Mike