New Coke flopped. From the numbers that GSN gave for Blackjack and Dodgeball, they hardly seem to be flopping, as much as some might hope.
In fact, the TCA barrage of press releases tells me that the network recognizes what it does best: game shows and closely related competition shows. The three current shows talked up in the releases are Blackjack, Dog Eat Dog and Dodgeball. The first two are traditional studio game shows and the third is a sport/stunt show not far away from the genre.
The two new shows mentioned - pool and horseracing - are again competition shows with lots of gameplay involved. The horseracing show sounds like it might edge further towards "reality crap," to use a favorite phrase from the GSN boards. But competition and gameplay look like they will be prominently featured in both series.
Meanwhile, shows that tend further away from the game show genre towards reality - Fake-a-Date, Vegas Weddings, KvS, Mole (regrettably) - are going or gone.
Maybe the honchos recognize that when people tune into a "network for games," they want to see...games, not Real World. "Games" include more than traditional studio game shows, but GSN might find the most success by sticking as closely as possible to competitive gameplay.
