"People Puzzler" coming to syndication

[colonial]

Debmar-Mercury has announced that it will offer the first three seasons of GSN's "People Puzzler" for syndication in Fall 2023 ...


https://deadline.com/2022/12/debmar-mercury-game-show-network-leah-remini-hosted-people-puzzler-syndication-1235185582/


The package includes more than 300 episodes.



JD

[BrandonFG]

I know America Says didn’t do so well in syndication, but I’m surprised GSN hasn’t tried this to get a little more exposure for some of its other originals.

[BillCullen1]

They've got 300 episodes for three seasons? That's a lot for a GSN show.

[pds319]

For a daily show, a standard GSN season is usually 65 episodes. They've been doubling up the episode orders recently since it's cheaper to keep production going for a couple more weeks than knocking it all down to start again in 8 months. The article says there's 325 episodes in the package so it's likely season 1 was 65 with seasons 2 and 3 hitting that 130 order.

[DJDustman]

Heyyy. I'll get to see myself on twice in syndication  .

[tvwxman]

And this is why local TV is dying. What's the point in this? No investment in a new product that a local station can brand better,  and a little money spent to fill a hole with programming that can be seen elsewhere more often, which assuming they get some new eyeballs to PP, will just lead those eyeballs to another channel plugging in the same content?

[PPatters]

And this is why local TV is dying. What's the point in this? No investment in a new product that a local station can brand better,  and a little money spent to fill a hole with programming that can be seen elsewhere more often, which assuming they get some new eyeballs to PP, will just lead those eyeballs to another channel plugging in the same content?

Syndicated reruns tend to be a great investment for local stations.

[bulldog_06]

And this is why local TV is dying. What's the point in this? No investment in a new product that a local station can brand better,  and a little money spent to fill a hole with programming that can be seen elsewhere more often, which assuming they get some new eyeballs to PP, will just lead those eyeballs to another channel plugging in the same content?

Syndicated reruns tend to be a great investment for local stations.

Especially with such stations like MyNetwork TV and CW that carry syndicated content a lot.

[PYLdude]

And this is why local TV is dying. What's the point in this? No investment in a new product that a local station can brand better,  and a little money spent to fill a hole with programming that can be seen elsewhere more often, which assuming they get some new eyeballs to PP, will just lead those eyeballs to another channel plugging in the same content?

Syndicated reruns tend to be a great investment for local stations.

You do know you responded to someone who works in television, right? And who might have a little bit of a better perspective?

[PPatters]

You do know you responded to someone who works in television, right? And who might have a little bit of a better perspective?

But am I wrong?

[Jimmy Owen]

Cable shows look like cable shows. Daytime filler at best..

[tvwxman]

You do know you responded to someone who works in television, right? And who might have a little bit of a better perspective?

But am I wrong?

Ok I'll bite.

Yes, mostly. Something cheap like People Puzz will be inexpensive to buy and slot (as compared to something like WoF or Kelly Clarkson, which cost lots of $$$), but here's the rub, local stations only get a few ads to sell during syndie programming, so the payoff is limited.  They can charge more based on the ratings...which, let's be honest, reruns of PP are not going to light up the airway, esp since there's a chance someone has already seen the show.

Cheap, easy to program, but little output.

Local TV thrives when they produce their own stuff (like local news) , in which they get to sell ALL of the ads. 22 minutes in an hour = 44 30-sec ads. That's way more lucrative, but costs more than cheap syndie programming of reruns from another channel .

[Dbacksfan12]

reruns of PP are not going to light up the airway, esp since there's a chance someone has already seen the show.

Perhaps I’m extrapolating more than I should out of this comment, but couldn’t that be said for any rerun?  Furthermore, how many people besides a diehard will remember that Megan from Topeka won $2500 on episode 19?

[tvwxman]

reruns of PP are not going to light up the airway, esp since there's a chance someone has already seen the show.

Perhaps I’m extrapolating more than I should out of thus comment, but couldn’t that be said for any rerun?  Furthermore, how many people besides a diehard will remember that Megan from Topeka won $2500 on episode 19?

It's a good point. The counterpoint is : People search out hit shows that have millions of viewers and have hit the 100 ep mark to be brought into syndication.  People remember plots, jokes, set ups, storylines. Game shows don't bring that to the table.

(Most) game shows are not like that. With the exception of Wheel and Jep, there aren't many game shows that have reached "appointment television" over the years. And sorry, Price fans, it's no longer appt tv. And neither are the prime time shows. Their ratings are good but not good enough, and the problem with them is their airings are too sporatic and not set in stone (like Wheel and Jep).

[BrandonFG]

I see both sides of the coin. It's been a decade since I worked in TV so I know things have changed a lot. Case in point: the wall-to-wall newscasts, which as Matt points out, are more lucrative than buying whatever syndicated show.

However, I see this being a show that the indie or "My Network" affiliates pick up, or said sister stations from my example. Our MNTV station aired America Says reruns at 10:30 am, and I think the national ratings were no better than what 25 Words or Funny You Should Ask pulls, give or take a tenth of a point. For this experiment to work, I imagine you have to do more than the middle-of-the-pack first-run shows already serving as background noise. If you're not pulling much higher than what GSN sees, it's a bit of a wash, IMO.

If the other stations are like my local MNTV affiliate, this might become a surprise hit but I wouldn't expect it to set the world on fire ratings-wise.