The perf is back and reports that the GSN schedule will be getting a little facelift. These changes only Concern afternoon and primetime

-Bingo America Premieres on Monday, March 31st at 7pm with a rerun airing Mon-Fri at 11:00pm weekdays and weekends at 4:30pm.

-Weakest Link with George Gray goes into the Weekday schedule at 4:30pm.

-Chain Reaction now airs weekdays at 6:00pm only.

-Lingo returns to the 7:30pm slot weekdays and enters the 11:30pm slot weekdays.

-The show that just won't die, Whammy somehow moves into a primetime slot. It will air Tuesday-Thursday and Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30pm.

-Anne's Weakest Link will now air on Saturdays at 11:00pm.

-World Poker Tour will premiere on Monday, March 24th and air Mondays from 9-11pm and repeats air Monday nights at 12-2am. It will also rerun on Sundays from 7-9pm.

I think the most shocking change out of all of this is Whammy airing in Primetime. I guess the ratings are good for it to take that spot.

Crud, that means one less airing of NYSI.

Well, we've been spoiled with 5 nights a week. I can take 4. At least it's still on the schedule.

Josh

A minor change for the weekends starting 3/15: Child's Play replaces Dawson FF at 10:30 AM, while Eubanks' Card Sharks returns in the former Child's Play slot at 9 AM.

GSN also reacquired the rights to Russian Roulette from Sony after a few months of trying (at least since December). They are putting a lot of confidence in it, placing it Tuesday through Saturday at 10PM ET. Glad to see it finally back; took far too long.

So, does this mean they have rights to air the show again, like before, or do they have full control over the series now?

I'm guessing it's just the rerun rights unless they choose to revive the show which isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. But I am honestly not completely sure; I'll check into it.

Who would host? Mark L. W. seems way too busy nowadays :p

You obviously don't realize how they shoot these shows now.

They could easily knock out a 65 ep order in a manner of days. At 5/day, that's less than 2 weeks. That's all the time he would need to carve out of his busy schedule.

Does anyone know how many more eps there are to go before they might restart all over from season 1? I have a coworker that was on Anne's season 1, episode 5 and I've been trying to catch it.. I think I might have just missed it :[

Also I don't know if any of you talk to Mark at all, but he really loves Russian Roulette. A lot. If it came back, I truly think he would sign on to the show quickly if his schedule permitted and was able to.

Yessir, I do realize -- it was more of a commentary :]

But really, though, have they ever rushed a game show out 5/day for 13 days straight?
(The only Sunday tapings I've ever heard of was Password Plus)

If they could tape the entire season of Temptation in a single weekend, why not?

(Okay, okay, it only looks as though they did.)

Temptation: The All New Love Connection Sale of the Century, maybe?

/damn you Zink ;)

Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy almost always have Sunday tapings when they're on the road.

touché .. I meant in-studio }:D

I would imagine it happens all the time now, due to companies wanting to cut studio rental costs by setting up, knocking out all eps necessary, and moving on.

Two examples : Marc Summers once told me that Trivia Unwrapped did 60 eps in 8 days straight....

And the upcoming Million Dollar Password is taping all 6 of their eps in 4 days straight.

Weren't there times when Password Plus and Super Password recorded six shows in a single day?
Not to mention (so he mentions it anyway) the ten $25,000/$100,000 Pyramid and Jackpot! tapings that occured per day.
And what was the typical taping schedule for The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour?

8:45a: Drag Gene kicking and screaming to studio.
9:00a: Tape first show.
10:00a: Chase Gene back to his dressing room. Call locksmith.
10:15a: Locksmith arrives.
10:30a: Lock picked on dressing room door. Drag Gene kicking and screaming to studio...

I lol'd. Well played, sir.

Enjoyed that tremendously!

I was under the impression that Jackpot! taped five on Saturday and five on Sunday; did they have it one way for part of the time and one for the other, or is one of us mistaken? (I'm thinking of the 1974-75 version.)

The '70s ep in the trade curcuit is believed to be from Jan 3, 1975. Although none of the copies I know of actually have a production slate, I've heard it from several sources that the show was taped Dec 1, 1974 which was a Sunday. Does that help at all? :)

The date is correct.

-Jason

When I saw Jackpot! being taped in 1975, it was 5 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. Geoff Edwards had radio committments during the week in L.A., resulting in the weekend tapings. The newer syndicated version did 10 shows in a day, according to staff members I spoke with.

There are some interesting schedule changes coming on March 24th and March 31st. This all comes from Zap2it.

9:00am: Love Connection
9:30am: Blockbusters
10:00am: Wheel of Fortune
10:30am: Tic Tac Dough
11:00am: Let's Make A Deal
11:30am: Press Your Luck
12-3pm: GSN Live(Schedule remains the same)
3:00pm: To Tell The Truth 2000

On March 31st
3:30pm: Friend or Foe?
4:00pm: Weakest Link(Robinson)
5:00pm: Karn's Feud
6:00pm: Russian Roulette
6:30pm: Whammy!
7:00pm: Bingo America
7:30pm: Lingo

Everything else remains the same.

The question here is if the Blockbusters is Cullen or Rafferty? Tommorow of course there is a small weekend change in the morning. Everyone right now says Cullen's Blockbusters will air at 10:00am. Of course things have changed before, so it could be Rafferty tommorow morning. Just a guess, but it is something to ponder.

Friend or Foe makes a return to the schedule. It seems that Goldhill's plan is to run all of the originals from 2002. I guess it is alright as long as he does not rerun Wintuition.

What's wrong with Wintuition? Cram is the show that should never see the light of day ever again.

I disagree. Cram was, as far as GSN originals go, a funny and interesting show, even if the premise was stale after awhile. WinTuition only had 30 (?) episodes and one bonus round winner in the entire run...which takes the excitement out of the idea of repeats again.

Now, Marc Summers hosting another show for GSN, that's a different story. I was never amongst the WinTuition fans, though.

Actually, it had 3 winners--one on the premiere (the winner was found ineligible due to appearing on another GSN show and this episode was never rerun), one on the April Fools 2003 episode hosted by Kennedy, and a third time....not that tripling the number of winners will change your mind, Mitch. :-)

Oh, well, now that there's a winner 10% of the time...! Good try though, Mike. :-)

Aside, for no particular reason, I'm wondering how well TTD is doing in the world of miniscule daytime GSN ratings. Is 10:30a a better TP than 11:30a? I would have to think so because, in at least one (big) time zone, TTD isn't up against TPiR, if that's even a factor in their decision.

And just add TJW back to the sked, already, please. It would get better ratings than Friend or Foe. Promise!

You didn't specify a version. I assume the Finn episodes would suffice? :)

Or else what?

I thought the show slogged and didn't get interesting until the Senior Year Showdown. (The $50k Final Exam was a neat bonus round, for sure.) Wintuition really didn't tread any new ground. Cram may have been off-the-wall, but at least they tried new things. I thought the mindfark second round was awesome, for what that's worth.

(By the by, I count four Final Exam winners, one being from April Fools. So four out of 32 episodes. Maybe the producers were glad that it wasn't five, or it would have cut into the profit margin.)

Fun fact, for those of you keeping score at home: This will be the first time in the network's history that they won't be airing The Newlywed Game.

/Wintuition wasn't bad, it was just boring.

Here's a hint: they don't care if they anger 12 people.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

/Amounting to or consisting of a large indefinite number
//17 is not a large number when referring to viewerships in the six figure range.

[Sarcasm] I will set fire to the network's headquarters so I don't have to see that dreck again. [Sarcasm off]

Seriously folks, it is not as bad as Mr. GameShowLover makes it out to be. If they run Wintuition, fine. If they don't, great. Not really a big deal.

You really shouldn't harp on gameshowlover87 so much. I worry that you've got an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. It's going to get you into trouble someday.

I'm not the one who whipped out the "Or Else!" card.

Actually, yes, you did.

I'm not the one saying that "GSN had better do X, Y and Z." My cable doesn't go that high.

/A better retort on my part would have been "I'm not the one saying GSN had better do (whatever)".

Who cares how many people won the bonus round on WinTuition? The format was still good, and I'm sure the average viewer (not counting the minority of us who are die-hards) would still enjoy it regardless. Nobody ever won the $2M top prize on Greed, yet I don't see anyone burying that show.

You don't? Then you haven't been looking very closely.

But not for that particular reason. There were moments on that show that make it enjoyable regardless. Sure, WinTuition didn't have anything big like Million Dollar moments, but still, the fact that only few people won the top prize wouldn't deter John Q Public from watching.

Okay, your point is completely lost on me. Are you saying that WinTuition is being unfairly criticized because nobody ever complained about Greed making the grand prize virtually unwinnable? That's the closest I can get to understanding your argument.

And if I'm correct about that: then you haven't been looking very closely.

Yes, that is the point. But then again, I admit, I don't lurk these boards as often as I used to, so I can't recall what has been criticized. And besides, the package of gazpecho that I bought that was manufactured by you did not contain the "Don't eat before bed or you'll halucinate" warning. :-)

Great. Then it might be wise to avoid using "B-b-b-but you never say that about Show X!" as an argument going forward.

To be fair, I browse on an almost daily basis, and seldom see Greed discussed, let alone criticized.

Nor WinTuition. But I assure you, Greed has seen it's fair share of criticism in the past, and for issues directly related to the winnability of the grand prize.

My main problem with "WinTuition" is the problem you have with an all-academics Q&A--you need the pop culture stuff as a leavening element (and for the purposes of viewer involvement). I admired the concept--I just thought it didn't work.

On the other hand, "Cram" was nothing more than a silly late-night show and it worked beautifully as a silly late-night show. It always seemed to me that the complaints about the show were not so much towards the show itself as GSN's not-all-that-surprising decision to make Icey the focal point of the show's promos.

In fact, if GSN ever does take up my idea of doing quirky, offbeat sorts of shows for late-night as a way of competing with the Adult Swims of the world, they could do a lot worse than revive "Cram."

As a faithful first season Cram viewer, their decision to make the game easier killed it. The second season stunts were usually much simpler, which helped in not having many blowouts but also made the second round pretty much a moot point. And we all know how we hate moot point rounds around here.


--Mike