GSN's May
prime time numbers were rancid. The network stumbled below 200K average households for the first time in a while: 0.3/189K. Comparable numbers from last May: 0.4/207K. April numbers: 0.4/226K.
Based on recent and upcoming schedule changes, it looks like the network has decided to hunker down with hard-core game show fans, pinch pennies, and try to get rich off the niche. This may be a sensible strategy, because GSN has never demonstrated a
sustained ability to appeal beyond the traditional game show audience. (See Race, The Amazing.) But it probably means less-than-awesome audience numbers for the forseeable future.
In what may be a tiny bit of good news on the cable game show front, CNBC barely scraped into the top 50 in May. I can't be sure because separate program numbers aren't broken out, but those DoND reruns are probably the reason for the relatively good performance.
EDIT: In an odd echo of the soap vs. game war from the old days of broadcast dominance, which has been chatted about here lately, Soapnet did 0.6/275K for May. Its household availability is still lagging, but that 0.6 will get the network onto more systems sooner or later.