GSN morning changes 10/1

[aaron sica]

And then there was one.........

GSN's online schedule from their web site lists a weekday morning change:

8am-10am: Match Game
10am-noon: Deal or No Deal

Too bad there's nowhere else to go to watch classic game shows.

[daveromanjr]

WTF

[Scrabbleship]

The one thing about this that has me somewhat down is the elimination of Pyramid from their schedule. I don't think it would be gone for that long, IIRC the longest GSN has gone without airing any form of Pyramid was just over one year in the 2007-08 time frame.

I sometimes wonder if GSN is aware of the work Buzzr is doing and is packing it in and if so what harm would setting up an OTT service, perhaps using Sony's Crackle, as a venue for the massive library of classic game shows that are just gathering dust. Or given the deal putting Jeopardy! on Hulu, possibly do with Hulu what Buzzr has done with Prime Video and put on an assortment of their core classics (WoF, J!, Pyramid, NG, DG, maybe TJW/TTD). At this point, even that would be better than what GSN has devolved into.

[gamed121683]

I sometimes wonder if GSN is aware of the work Buzzr is doing and is packing it in...

I have as well. I know when most of us heard that BUZZR scored Classic Concentration, most of us were saying something to the effect of “GSN should throw in the towel, BUZZR has won!” Little did we know that they’d actually do it. In the risk of sounding melodramatic, this feels like the end of an era.

[Chief-O]

The one thing about this that has me somewhat down is the elimination of Pyramid from their schedule. I don't think it would be gone for that long, IIRC the longest GSN has gone without airing any form of Pyramid was just over one year in the 2007-08 time frame.

I sometimes wonder if GSN is aware of the work Buzzr is doing and is packing it in

I'm a bit surprised GSN is keeping MG (and all the Harvey "Feud"). Fremantle doesn't own "Pyramid", so it's not like Buzzr will run it anytime soon. I do have to wonder why they're sitting on so much of the Sony-owned stuff; granted, you do have WOF, J!, "Pyramid", "Gong", and TJW all in first-run these days, and I wonder if they don't want to air old shows alongside (shades of what is allegedly keeping old TPIR off the air, even on Buzzr).

I have as well. I know when most of us heard that BUZZR scored Classic Concentration, most of us were saying something to the effect of “GSN should throw in the towel, BUZZR has won!” Little did we know that they’d actually do it. In the risk of sounding melodramatic, this feels like the end of an era.

In all honesty, one of my first thoughts when Buzzr scored CC was, "maybe, perhaps, NBC decided to sell it lock-stock-barrel to Fremantle". I wouldn't know if that *was* the case, but nonetheless, that was a heck of a scoop on Buzzr's part. Now if Buzzr lands "Scrabble", I guess we can finally stick the fork in GSN. I have a small feeling that that subject will be more a matter of "when", and not "if".

[jage]

I love what Buzzr is doing, but their viewership is likely made up of hardcore fans and those longing for nostalgia. Even if they get 10-20K at a time, that's a very tiny blip in the world of cable and less than Harvey Feud ratings by a mile. I don't have hard ratings numbers, just speculation.
Twitter followers 25,000 GSN, 3,900 Buzzr. Yes not a great metric either.

I'm thankful that digital subchannels and streaming have allowed for a niche format that probably doesn't have a ton of legs on mainstream cable. And despite the recycling of episodes, Buzzr is doing many things that hardcore fans love: rare and different shows, full credit rolls, B&W shows, etc.

[beatlefreak84]

I will start this off by saying that I am really enjoying what Buzzr is doing as a "service" (yes, it is a business) for us hardcore fans, especially with the recent acquisitions.  However, I am also not surprised that GSN has decided to largely abandon pre-2000 game shows (with one exception) and, to be honest, I am surprised it took this long to happen.

I, and I'm sure many others here, look back with fondness on the times when USA and CBN/Family Channel showed their game show blocks in the early afternoons each weekday, mixing reruns with new originals.  But, it's worth noting that even the reruns were not really that "old" at the time; when I remember watching the USA block as a very young kid in 1989, the oldest show on the block was Face the Music, which was, even at that time, only 9 years old.  In all of the years USA showed game show reruns after that, the oldest show they aired was $25,000 Pyramid, and many of their shows in reruns were only a few years old at the time.  In fact, shows like Wipeout premiered on USA in reruns the week after it was out of first-run syndication!

The Family Channel wasn't much different; their oldest show was '70s reruns of Let's Make a Deal, but the majority of their reruns were 10-ish years old, combined with their originals.

If we translate this model to GSN, this would mean *all* of their reruns would come from the 21st Century, with a large number of them being in recent years, and a moderate mix of originals.  And, Match Game aside, this is what they've done.  Imagining USA still airing a game show block today, I would be extremely shocked if they were airing PYL, Scrabble, and Pyramid still.  They likely would have moved on to Cash Cab, Temptation, or even Crosswords, for example.

What am I saying here?  As much as we may lament the loss of our "classic" GSN, we need to also be thankful that we had a channel that continued to air classic game shows from the 1970s and 1980s for as long as they did!  As a game show fan, I'm disappointed, but, as a realist that GSN is a business, this move is not surprising to me at all, and, frankly, I'm amazed it didn't happen sooner.  Similarly, I don't think Buzzr is a sustainable business model as-is either, but, as a game show fan that loved Classic Concentration as a kid, I will enjoy it when it returns!

Anthony

[BrandonFG]

Honestly, I can't think of too many cable networks that show that many 20th Century shows outside of Seinfeld, Friends, Full House and Family Matters. Maybe Walker, Texas Ranger. Obviously, it's more than those five, but TBS, Nick at Nite, TV Land, etc. all air more stuff made in the last 15 years. The older shows end up on channels like Antenna TV, MeTV, and for the game show fans, Buzzr. Like Anthony said, it was the same way when we were younger. Unfortunately, Wheel with the manual puzzleboard or Trebek with the original 80s/90s mustache prolly won't serve as much more than a novelty.

As for the morning lineup, yeah it's bland, but marathons are what cable networks do nowadays. Comedy Central and TNT have done it for years.

[aaron sica]

When GSN first bowed in 1994, I was 20, and I loved being able to see game shows I loved and remembered from the '70s and '80s. It's now 2018, and classics to the 20 year old set are now shows from the '90s and 2000s. It's unrealistic to think GSN would hold on to the older shows forever. Those 90's and 2000s shows are now "classics" for the younger set....This of course goes beyond game shows.

[BillCullen1]

And then there was one.........

GSN's online schedule from their web site lists a weekday morning change:

8am-10am: Match Game
10am-noon: Deal or No Deal

Too bad there's nowhere else to go to watch classic game shows.

On the other hand, we get to see more of Meghan Markle before she became a member of royalty. Bring out the tea and crumpets.

[tvmitch]

When GSN first bowed in 1994, I was 20, and I loved being able to see game shows I loved and remembered from the '70s and '80s. It's now 2018, and classics to the 20 year old set are now shows from the '90s and 2000s. It's unrealistic to think GSN would hold on to the older shows forever. Those 90's and 2000s shows are now "classics" for the younger set....This of course goes beyond game shows.

This is a very good point, well said, Aaron. I hadn't looked at it through that lens, but you're right.

[Ian Wallis]

When GSN first bowed in 1994, I was 20, and I loved being able to see game shows I loved and remembered from the '70s and '80s. It's now 2018, and classics to the 20 year old set are now shows from the '90s and 2000s. It's unrealistic to think GSN would hold on to the older shows forever. Those 90's and 2000s shows are now "classics" for the younger set....This of course goes beyond game shows.

It does go beyond game shows - music is another.  The station I listen to leans towards "Hot AC" (if that's what they're still calling it these days).  Not so long ago they would still play some of the bigger hits from the '80s in their regular rotation.  Now, those songs have all but disappeared.  About the earliest they go is around the start of the millennium.  I heard one of the DJs on that station recently call a song from around 2000 as "old school".  I know there are oldies stations that specialize in the classics from previous decades, but the fact that pop radio these days all but ignores everything except the more recent songs is telling.  Why do I still listen?  Because I still try to look for the needle in a haystack, and find those occasional Hot 100 hits that are still worth anything (although they are few and far between).

The problem with BUZZR is that a lot of us can't get it.  I'm grateful for what GSN aired over the years, but it brings me back to my famous response to a letter I wrote to David Schwartz in the mid '90s, which I've quoted here several times over the years.  I inquired about some of the shorter-run shows in their library.  David stated "yes, we have them and they will air one of these days".  Sadly, a lot of them never did.

Unfortunately the stuff most of us here grew up with is being lost to a new generation.

[Dbacksfan12]

The problem with BUZZR is that a lot of us can't get it. 

Anyone with a high-speed internet connection can access the stream...

[snowpeck]

The problem with BUZZR is that a lot of us can't get it. 

Anyone with a high-speed internet connection can access the stream...

Anywhere in the world too, as it doesn't seem to be geo-blocked.

[SuperMatch93]

I heard one of the DJs on that station recently call a song from around 2000 as "old school".  I know there are oldies stations that specialize in the classics from previous decades, but the fact that pop radio these days all but ignores everything except the more recent songs is telling.

I still remember how shook up I was a couple years ago when I saw Smash Mouth in the oldies section of a local record store.