Not that I'm complaining

[14gameshows]

Ok, out the pure blue, GSN is dusting off a whole bunch of classics that us, the diehard game show fans have been wanting to air since...the last time those shows were taken off.  OK, why are we seeing these now?  I mean, what gives?  Trust me, I'm counting down the days to see Password Plus, Super Password, and Rafferty's Card Sharks, but still, in the past, GSN would show its originals rather than some good stuff like the shows mentioned above.  Ever since the Ides of March from last year, they did there best to stray away from the classic shows...all due to the demographics, (in which I find that a whole bunch of hogwash cuz I'm a male and 23...in that coveted demo) and I find DEDog, and ADDerby, and all that primetime stuff boring as crap as crap can get...but if you take some Pepto Bismol, it'll turn black (that's what a nurse told me--this portion of Useless and sick knowledge is brought to you by Subway, have you tried a toasted sub yet?) LOL, but anyways.  Who at GSN decides to program these shows and makes a recommendation to purchase a rights to a particular library?  Did GSN finally discover that they weren't getting the ratings that they wanted during the daytime, so they figured to go back to what started them off anyways?  It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if GSN is really thinking about wanting to purchase more game shows and really stray away from the reality stuff that they were cramming down our throats just one year ago?  You know what, there is light at the end of this tunnel after all!

GSN gets to please it's hardcore fans, internet gamers, and advertisers in one go.  I think this is what Cronin's been wanting to do for the longest but had to go through some serious trial and errors before coming to this point.  But I find it so funny that in the past two years, it went from classics v. originals to game shows v. reality!

[CaseyAbell]

Might want to take a glance at a thread I started on the GSN Classics board about the network's February ratings.

Not that I think GSN's numbers will change big with the greater emphasis on traditional, older game shows. But it looks like they've given up the demo chase for now and they're concentrating on building up their household numbers. Match Game in prime time (this Saturday) sure ain't a demo play.

The card games (which I think are game shows, anyway) look well established in prime time, but anything else the least bit non-trad has been banished.

[14gameshows]

that the ratings were down 33%.  The hype wore off.  Oh, could it be that since GSn would be going 24/7 interactive by this date that these shows are easy to make interactive?

[CaseyAbell]

I doubt that the cutback and disappearance of the horseracing show had anything to do with interactivity. I'm not going to crosspost all the stuff on the GSN Classics thread, but there are lots of angles on the network's latest turn.

Funny thing, the network has always been mostly game shows. Now it's almost nothing but.

The more things change...

[TV Favorites]

I also wonder if GSN is "throwing away" Saturday nights now.  Generally, their target audience is probably out at the movies or with friends on Saturday nights, so they may have decided to give up the night and concentrate on their demos during the weekdays.

If I'm not mistaken, Saturday night tends to skew older viewers anyway for most (if not all) networks.

[CaseyAbell]

GSN couldn't possibly have been targeting 18-34 (the demo where the Saturday night effect is the greatest) with their previous Saturday prime time lineup of Millionaire, Weakest Link and Greed. That schedule skewed old already. But WL and Greed have got to be wearing out by now with all demos after Siberian-labor-camp levels of rerun abuse. I think the network just decided to try other shows in the GAA slot.

I'm glad they started with two favorites of mine. They could have used All New 3's...oh, banish the thought.

[14gameshows]

See, I think sometimes people just have to be patient with what tv (in general, and all of it's patterns) are doing period.  Sometimes you have a winner like the many Law & Order spin-offs and CSI spin offs and sometimes you have duds like American Dream Derby and Star Search.  I also believe that I have to find something new that can attract a new crowd while still holding on to the ones that brought me to the table to begin with.  

GSn's mistake was totally focusing in on the new stuff and putting almost all their marbles on the new things and just barely maintaining their original fans who were there from the very beginning.  Like I said, I'm far from complaining about the new change in April, but hearing about new non-game show related programming for a year and some change to a total overhaul of good gameshows that we've been crying for for quite some times is kinda odd but we will have to see where this is going 8 months down the road.  I think that with this new thing GSn finally have this together.  Forget the complaints about credit crunching and some time compression, you have a schedule that will appease the masses of hard cores and then you maintain your new audience in the late afternoon/early evening/after 8pm crowd.  Throw in that you can play online all day long and you have a winner!  

I've gotten to the point where it is plain useless to fuss about GSN obtaining the rights to PRICE, stopping the credit crunches, time compressions. It does no good.  Credit crunches happens on just about every network...some though air their commercial and then normal screen again (I think this is what GSN should do, have their cake and eat it too), time compression, only because GSn has some new advertisers and the time wanted, they have to compress a little bit to make that revenue so they can renew their G-T license and obtain some stuff from SONY (which I heard aint cheap) that is why there's no TJW and TTD right now.  

ONe thing though I still wont understand is this targeted demo.  I have friends in the business and they say that the 20+ to 40 range have the most money to spend.  Sometimes your network just wont bring me in to watch.  There are tons of great cable channels that are top notch and bring in wonderful ratings but I dont look at them.  They're the ones with the new stuff that is targeted towards me.  I find those things boring to look at.  If your cable network doesn't (according to Nielsen) bring in those people, fine.  But it all boils down to the almighty dollar.  I know the flip side of this rant and I'm not posting it, but it does relate to the almighty dollar and that coveted demo.
There is more to life than just GSN, granted Game shows are and will be apart of my life because that is my thing along side with my faith but still.

[CaseyAbell]

In fact, GSN's strategy looked pretty good last year, especially in the third quarter. The network was getting nice increases in prime time viewership levels over the horrendous numbers in 2003. And despite howls of outrage, there were still plenty of traditional game shows on the network.

What happened is exactly what you suggest, a shaking-out of what worked and what didn't. Poker and blackjack did okay and they're still around in four different versions in prime time. Dodgeball originally clicked but wore out its welcome. Multi-ep reality series just didn't cut it, as the ponies proved. Pickups like Dog Eat Dog and WBSM appear to have done reasonably well.

But the whole prime time schedule is suffering from burnout. There's no first run material in sight until...well, I don't know. So they might as well shake things up with some other shows in prime.

EDIT: Oops, forgot that the second series of civvie blackjack is still in first runs. It's one of my favorite shows, but otherwise, prime time is recycle city.