Well, here is the "official" story from our friend, Mr. Beverly. Take whatever you want from this.
Hollywood Squares Axed by King World
The announcement was almost anti-climactic, expected since a decision from the CBS-owned stations to drop Hollywood Squares next fall in favor of The Insider, yet another magazine series from Viacom-owned Paramount Television.
After a valiant two-year attempt to save the sinking game, King World announced the cancellation of Squares Monday at the Television Critics Association tour.
Production will continue through the May sweeps on the six-year-old revival of the celebrity game which brought host Tom Bergeron an Emmy three years ago.
When the series returned six years ago, Squares was considered pivotal for the future of new game shows in syndication after a decline in the genre. With a $6 million annual salary for Whoopi Goldberg as executive producer and Center Square, the show ponied up more money for bigger-name celebrities.
The show reached a zenith with a 4.8 rating in the 1999-2000 season and a ranking as high as ninth in the syndicated Nielsens.
However, by season three, Goldberg's personality----which had thoroughly dominated the show the first two years with reaction shots of Goldberg on virtually every other celebrity's question----began to wear thin. The show's content began to wane with fewer questions on each show. In addition, tampering with the show's end game created a bigger-money but unwieldy format.
Goldberg was dumped at the end of the fourth season after a 48 percent drop in ratings between 2000 and 2002. Former actor Henry Winkler and Michael Levitt were brought in as executive producers and began to stem the ratings bleeding.
Winkler and Levitt developed creative theme weeks, including two featuring game show legends. They restructured the bonus game and significantly increased the number of questions in each episode.
The producers succeeded in stemming the ratings bleeding but the damage appeared to be done when in January 2003, the CBS-owned stations agreed to drop Squares from prime access in 2004. Viacom moved the game to its co-owned UPN affiliate in Los Angeles in the fall of 2002 in favor of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which will likely require a new outlet in fall 2004).
King World withheld an announcement on the show's fate until after the November sweeps. Season-to-date ratings show Squares at a 2.2, falling behind a slightly-resurgent Family Feud among existing game shows and tied with Pyramid.
Source:
http://tvgameshows.net/
