GSN's May ratings - yikes!

[CaseyAbell]

So much for my brilliant idea that Super Millionaire and the new poker series might turn around GSN's plummeting prime time ratings. Those shows may be doing okay relative to GSN's other prime time offerings. But they sure haven't lifted the network out of the Nielsen doldrums.

CableWorld just released the average May prime time ratings for fifty networks. GSN scored a nasty 207K household average and a 0.4 rating. The network hasn't seen numbers this poor since the bad old days of 2003 3Q, before Millionaire arrived. The trend since CableWorld resumed publishing the numbers:

Dec 2004: 0.5 259K
Jan 2005: 0.5 268K
Feb 2005: 0.4 228K
Mar 2005: 0.4 226K
Apr 2005: 0.4 223K
May 2005: 0.4 207K

You don't need a mainframe to see the pattern. Yeah, overall TV viewing levels decrease as summer approaches and the broadcast networks were stunting like mad during May sweeps and sunspots erupted and fill in your favorite excuse.

The ugly fact is that GSN had to do something. So now you know why the network broke several piggy banks to find six hundred million pennies for the Amazing Race license. And you know why prime time is getting blown up completely next month except for the previously mentioned stalwarts, Millionaire and poker.

Hope it works.

[wschmrdr]

Game shows, IMHO, really aren't meant to be a big primetime event; they've for years been a huge hit for the daytime audiences. Granted The Amazing Race and Millionaire and What's My Line have been primetime hits in their day, it just doesn't seem to be a statement of what primetime is all about. It's about the Sitcoms and the Dramas and the Westerns and such.

You must also consider that most people are not going to think of GSN as "The Network for Games." They're going to all know it as Game Show Network, and it's going to be closely related with the daytime. Sure the primetime ratings aren't very good, but maybe someone could point us in the direction of how the daytime ratings are doing. And not just GSN; consider the current shows like Vieira Millionaire and Jeopardy and The Price is Right. I'm sure game shows are doing very well there.

[CaseyAbell]

Sure the primetime ratings aren't very good, but maybe someone could point us in the direction of how the daytime ratings are doing.

Last total day ratings I could find for GSN were published by Starz. The network ran a total day 0.2 in Oct 2004, compared to a 0.4 prime time average. My guess - and it's only a guess - is that the network is doing about the same now. In other words, total day is running about half of prime time.

GSN seems to be operating as cheaply as possible in the mornings and afternoons. It's probably not so much a ratings (and certainly not a demo) play as a "let's just get by without spending a lot" philosophy. They gotta pinch pennies somewhere to afford Amazing Race.

By the way, ratings for the game show syndies are regularly published on the Prof's site and elsewhere, like MediaLifeMagazine.

[xibit777]

GSN was doing great with MG / Lingo / Millionaire in prime time early in 2004.  They had a 0.5 rating then and have never had higher since.  

What's killing primetime I would guess is the CONSTANT repeats.  Dog Eat Dog, Weakest Link, Poker, Blackjack.  It's all just OLD by now. (except for the new BJ / Poker which airs once a night)    They need to come up with new concepts.  Maybe this pool show will do good for a little bit out of the curiosity factor.  Amazing Race will certainly do good.     I think Super Millionaire won't have the *huge ratings* factor because EVERYONE and their grandma knows no big money was won there.  Unless you've been sleeping.   So it's not like they can really advertise "someone might win 10 million" or however much it is.

It's a damn shame that they don't try a winning game show format for the 10-11 hour.   I even think the new season of Lingo would work there to bring up ratings for the short term until they get a new hit.   I think they are being so stubborn by refusing to put a game show in weekly primetime because it admits defeat.  And they need to admit defeat with what they're doing, 204k viewers is TERRIBLE and in the wrong direction.

By the way it isn't a certainty that it was the Saturday night classics that destroyed ratings.  Remember that Crap across America show interrupts all the time.  People probably get sick of it.  I know I'm getting tired of watching it right now during the Friday afternoon.   Plus they had a poor choice of classics with overplayed shows that aren't even true classics like Ben Stein.

Would be nice if Itiparanoid could get some numbers for the saturday night block.  That would solve a lot of debate about that.  Although it still wouldn't factor in the Crap Across America that almost certainly brings down ratings.

[The Pyramids]

[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'Jun 17 2005, 12:36 PM\']

The ugly fact is that GSN had to do something. So now you know why the network broke several piggy banks to find six hundred million pennies for the Amazing Race license. And you know why prime time is getting blown up completely next month except for the previously mentioned stalwarts, Millionaire and poker.

Hope it works.

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Yes. I'm glad 'The Amazing Race' is comming.

The ironic thing is that Ken Jennimhs new show on Comedy Central will probaly get 10x more buzz and curious viewers than the GSN pool show, documentary series and maybe 'Amazing Race' will.

Those at the network may even openly agree. But the'll also tell you how they had a mandate for more casinos and sports in '05 so here it goes.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'wschmrdr\' date=\'Jun 17 2005, 12:59 PM\']You must also consider that most people are not going to think of GSN as "The Network for Games."
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Tell that to anyone who got the network post April 2004. They've probably never heard of it as "Game Show Network".

Not surprisingly, your argument falls short again.

[CaseyAbell]

I'm sure the Saturday night block got fantastic numbers. That's why it lasted about as long as the horseracing show.

When Millionaire was fresh on GSN, it was able to hold up the prime time averages pretty well. The numbers have inevitably softened as the show has been ground through brutal rerun cycles. But as late as January, 2005 GSN was still doing respectable prime time numbers. So there might be some life left in the old warhorse, after all. The network isn't giving up on the show. It just licensed a bunch of new episodes.

GSN has to hope that there's lots of life in the new warhorse, Amazing Race.

[Jimmy Owen]

The main question is: Are they meeting expectations?  Have they been able to change the audience from the Geritol set to Mt. Dew drinkers?  If so, the new sked is a success!

[xibit777]

Saturday Night block had many overrun or just flat out boring shows.   Ben Stein was overrun.  Newlywed Game and Love Connection are for the morning housewife crowd.    Yeah they had a few nice weeks of Saturday Night Classics, but until we ever find out numbers specifically for each block, no one can say classics won't work in prime-time.   Plus that stupid show Games Across America probably turned off viewers as well.  Not many people who like classics are going to like that junk.

Maybe you would like to give your insight on why someone would sit through 10 minutes of commercials to watch a show they can watch with 3 minute commercials earlier in the day??

The only weeks of saturday night classics that were impressive to me were :

1) Super Password - it was shown before the regular time slot started airing
2) PYL - Larson episodes
3) Password + -  Ludden episodes that haven't been seen in a very long time


The other 7 or 8 weeks of sat. night classics were the same old thing that anyone can see during the day. (only without the annoying 10 minute commercials)

[itiparanoid13]

I'm in NYC right now, so if I don't post it soon enough, I appologize.  .4 could be a lot worse for GSN, but it's not great.  I'm probably thinking wrong here, but GSN didn't advertise for Super Millionaire until that weekend (Saturday).  I was advised from a viewer about that.  It might have been a better idea to adverise a few weeks before hand so people know it's on.  I might be speaking out of my ass here, but it might be a semi decent idea for GSN to advertise that they will air new episodes of Millionaire, sort of like what ABC Family did when they picked up some Whose Line episodes that were only played once on ABC.  Get some renewed interest in the show.  If anything, I can get the ratings tomorrow by the latest.

[itiparanoid13]

OK, Super Millioanire is doing very very well, actually.  It's average is .6.  Poker Royale has not been doing so good.  It's getting a .3.  They say that Saturday Night Classic is extremely hard to get ratings for, but they'll see what they can do.  I wrote the same thing at Buzzer, just with added words to make it an article.

[xibit777]

Cool.  Thanks for the info.  Itiparanoid comes through again.      It's nice to know that Super Millionaire is getting such strong ratings.   It's always good when a new game show does well on GSN.

Too bad for Poker Royale, but I find it boring anyway.  Poker / BJ just isn't my jive.

I wonder why it is hard for them to get Saturday Night Classics ratings.  They must have used those ratings in their decision to scrap that block of shows.  I'm not surprised that they put Super Millionaire and Family Feud on Saturdays.  They're putting the 2 best ratings preformers together on a night where older people would be watching.  Even though classic lovers might not like it, it sounds like a good move until Amazing Race comes.

[Jimmy Owen]

Maybe Fridays are not a good night for the show.  Most 20-something males would rather be playing poker than watching it on Friday night, or it could be GSN came in late to the fad.  CNBC's poker show (with the same ol' players as all the others) didn't appear to set the world on fire either, judging by the prime time averages.

[CaseyAbell]

Super Millionaire is only doing 0.6? This indicates how Millionaire's ratings have softened in general. A Multichannel story in April said that Millionaire (the plain old variety) was doing 0.7 season-to-date. If Millionaire's numbers really are sliding - and they seem to be - it's not hard to understand why GSN's prime time averages keep spiralling down.

It looks like GSN is doing a "low" 0.4 due to Millionaire at 0.5 or 0.6 (for about one-third of prime time) and everything else averaging around 0.3.

As for the Saturday night block, give it up. The thing bombed. Forget it.

Looking forward, if Amazing Race only matches Super Millionaire's 0.6 - with probably much younger demos - GSN's prime time averages would perk up considerably. If Amazing Race can't improve on the 0.3 that everything else in prime time besides Millionaire seems to be averaging right now, well, it's a lot of money tossed away.

We'll see what happens in the July and August ratings.

[The Pyramids]

[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'Jun 21 2005, 10:03 AM\']Super Millionaire is only doing 0.6? This indicates how Millionaire's ratings have softened in general. A Multichannel story in April said that Millionaire (the plain old variety) was doing 0.7 season-to-date. 

We'll see what happens in the July and August ratings.

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Indeed. I hope 'Race' and 'Millionaire' make a good pair.

But when I  see those 'Ball Buster' promos I think 'newcommber most likely to be replaced by more runs of Lingo at 10'. (If its makes it to a second or third run in repeats you can kindly say I was wrong).