Stop Me If You've Heard This One...

[uncamark]

Well, as once again certain people are using GSN's current ratings woes to play amateur ratings analyst (and Marc Berman won't be threatened at all), this item from C21 Media, a web site devoted to European \"light entertainment\" formats production and promotion, indicates that Challenge, GSN's equivalent in the UK, is also experimenting with not-necessarily-game-show (and not \"classic\" game show) programming.

I will say that the good folks at the UK Game Shows Yahoo! Group seemed to take this more in stride than some of us here deal with *anything* GSN does.  Whether it's British understatement or simply a higher level of maturity or sophistication is for you to decide.

[ITSBRY]

Does Challenge have a website?  I did a search and couldn't find anything.

ITSBRY
itsbry@juno.com

[SimpsonGeek]

http://www.challenge.co.uk/

[rugrats1]

In my opinion, where\"Celebrity Poker Club\" is concerned, what one channel calls a game, another channel calls a sport -- ESPN has been showing \"The World Series Of Poker\" on a frequent basis these days. And I think The Travel Channel, a self-explanetory name, has also been showing a similar poker tournament series (forget the title).

As for \"Casino Casino\" -- it is, more or less, \"Dealer's Choice\", but in Monte Carlo.


And as for whether or not \"Sushi TV\" fits Challenge's bill depends on if it'll feature Japanese game show clips -- and game shows from Japan tend to lean toward the bizarre.

[whampyl03]

Challenge has allways had (to the best of my past memory) some non game shows on... (Pointing out TV's Funny Bloopers and Pratical Jokes with Dick Clark, US Battledome, and Gladiators (the last 2 can be debatable, though).

[Brig Bother]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 11:59 PM\']
I will say that the good folks at the UK Game Shows Yahoo! Group seemed to take this more in stride than some of us here deal with *anything* GSN does.  Whether it's British understatement or simply a higher level of maturity or sophistication is for you to decide. [/quote]
 I couldn't *possibly* comment.

Regarding poker, Channel 4 had a hugely popular cult following with a show called Late Night Poker, essentially a Texas Hold 'em championship made for TV so it's not unlikely this is the srot of audience they're trying to tap into.

Whether this will make for good shows is another matter. LNP had lots of elements that came together beautifully (not least the informative and exciting commentary by Jesse May and co-commentator) which really got the excitement and tension of poker across really quite well. And! Under the table cameras!

Just putting some people in a casino and seeing what happens possibly won't cut it.

But what Challenge take away they also giveth. Not least a brand new series of Fort Boyard (which I still can't quite get over. It's certainly not the cheapest of things to make and this is a cable channel, it was on a proper terrestrial channel before) which should be excellent. And they've recently bought the rights to show more episodes of Knightmare, a show a lot of people remember from childhood.

The kindest thing I can say about Challenge is that they seem to listen to viewers and they tend to float ideas round the messageboard for perusal. That's quite good really. Although the idea of wrestling worries me a bit.

[Brig Bother]

Oh, and I'm led to believe that Sushi TV will have a large amount of Japanese gameshow content. It's the Takeshi's Castle effect.

[dickoon]

[quote name=\'Brig Bother\' date=\'Sep 9 2003, 01:55 PM\'] Regarding poker, Channel 4 had a hugely popular cult following with a show called Late Night Poker, essentially a Texas Hold 'em championship made for TV so it's not unlikely this is the srot of audience they're trying to tap into.

Whether this will make for good shows is another matter. LNP had lots of elements that came together beautifully (not least the informative and exciting commentary by Jesse May and co-commentator) which really got the excitement and tension of poker across really quite well. And! Under the table cameras! [/quote]
 Furthermore, Celebrity Poker Club is being made by the same bunch of people (Presentable) who made LNP. If they can get Jesse May in to do the commentary on CPC then it ought to be at least very nearly as good; maybe the standard of play being worse will make the TV better. (Seriously.) If they can't get Jesse May, then it should still be pretty good. I say game, I say made for television, I say game show or at least sufficiently close. Sushi TV - surely not a million miles away from Faux Pause and the like?

Can't really find a justification for Celebrity Bloopers, mind you, but I don't feel a need to get particularly fundamentalist over it.

[dougal18]

I preferred it when they were showing Bruce's Price Is Right and PYCR in the mornings.  

They show Knightmare so I mustn't complain too much.