Author Topic: Prof: Win Ben Stein's Money Comes To GSN (Read 12308 times)

CaseyAbell · « **on:** September 16, 2004, 08:05:30 PM »

Mr. Steve has been pretty good on GSN's schedule moves lately. He says that Win Ben Stein's Money will take over the 6:00 and 6:30 PM Eastern slots and the 11:00 and 11:30 PM slots as well, come October 11. His prose is a little garbled, so maybe I'm misreading. This would mean WBSM basically replaces Street Smarts on the Adlink schedule. That seems weird, but as much as I've gotten to like Street Smarts, I'd pick Ben any day.

The Prof also comments moronically that the move "goes against the grain" of GSN's supposed trend towards reality shows and other non-traditional offerings. Right, Steve. GSN has been cancelling those shows right and left, if you had bothered to notice.

zachhoran · « **Reply #1 on:** September 16, 2004, 08:37:33 PM »

[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'Sep 16 2004, 07:05 PM\'] Mr. Steve has been pretty good on GSN's schedule moves lately. He says that Win Ben Stein's Money will take over the 6:00 and 6:30 PM Eastern slots and the 11:00 and 11:30 PM slots as well, come October 11. His prose is a little garbled, so maybe I'm misreading. This would mean WBSM basically replaces Street Smarts on the Adlink schedule. That seems weird, but as much as I've gotten to like Street Smarts, I'd pick Ben any day.

The Prof also comments moronically that the move "goes against the grain" of GSN's move towards reality shows and other non-traditional offerings. Right, Steve. GSN has been cancelling those shows right and left, if you had bothered to notice. [/quote]
If SB is correct, then the second helping of Star Search would get the ax between 6-7PM. Street Smarts would then be relegated to weekends. It seems as though we reported Comedy Central still has the rights to air the show until sometime in 2005, however.

CaseyAbell · « **Reply #2 on:** September 16, 2004, 08:43:08 PM »

Star Search's 6:00 Eastern PM slot was already chopped come 10/11, according to Adlink. Seems like Street Smarts and WBSM would make a compatible pair in the 6:00 and 11:00 hours. Don't really understand not using both of them on weekdays.

But what do I know? The whole story might be wrong, though SB hasn't pulled too many rocks lately on GSN schedule changes.

GSN kicks off new series of Dodgeball and Blackjack in the 10/11 week, so it would add to the splash to debut WBSM the same week. (Mixed metaphor alert.)

Anyway, I hope the story is true. It'll be nice to see Ben defending his bucks and other personal items again.

FeudDude · « **Reply #3 on:** September 16, 2004, 10:44:48 PM »

Somehow I don't believe this report is completely true. Not because of SB's supposed lack of credibility, but because I find it hard to believe that WBSM is completely replacing Street Smarts on weekdays. It would make more sense if WBSM was only taking one of the slots in each of those hours. In any case, I think four times a day is too much for either show.

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to seeing WBSM on GSN, and this is more proof that GSN is not abandoning traditional game shows.

whampyl03 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 17, 2004, 01:42:30 AM »

Well, as a huge WBSM fan, I would have to say that this was an excellent move by the GSN programming department that I only wished happened sooner.

inturnaround · « **Reply #5 on:** September 17, 2004, 01:46:18 AM »

[quote name=\'whampyl03\' date=\'Sep 17 2004, 01:42 AM\'] Well, as a huge WBSM fan, I would have to say that this was an excellent move by the GSN programming department that I only wished happened sooner. [/quote]
I doubt it could have happened sooner.

bwood · « **Reply #6 on:** September 17, 2004, 01:46:42 AM »

Not bad. Not bad at all. I was just thinking about this show the other day and how nice it would be if it popped up on GSN (then I thought it would have a better chance to show up on CC late night than GSN, guess I was wrong).
I wonder if they'll start from Season 1 with the pull cards (some of those pull cards with the $$ amounts popped up on ebay a while back). I thought the pull cards were funny, it brought back a little game show nostalgia.

That leads me to a question, when did WBSM switch from the pull cards to monitors?

Craig Karlberg · « **Reply #7 on:** September 17, 2004, 05:35:10 AM »

Around Season 3 or 4 at the earliest as far as the changeover to monitors went.

This has to be the BEST move GSN's made all year. As a tradditionalist, I'm stoked & can't wait to see ol' Ben pull his famous "dunce cap" routine on some hapless soul.

catnap1972 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 17, 2004, 06:55:33 AM »

[quote name=\'FeudDude\' date=\'Sep 16 2004, 09:44 PM\'] Somehow I don't believe this report is completely true. Not because of SB's supposed lack of credibility, but because I find it hard to believe that WBSM is completely replacing Street Smarts on weekdays. It would make more sense if WBSM was only taking one of the slots in each of those hours. In any case, I think four times a day is too much for either show.
[/quote]
GSN moves Street Smarts to 7 & 7:30 -> problem solved.

See if I'm right.

MikeK · « **Reply #9 on:** September 17, 2004, 10:21:22 AM »

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'Sep 17 2004, 05:35 AM\'] Around Season 3 or 4 at the earliest as far as the changeover to monitors went. [/quote]
Wrong. The monitors debuted with the start of the 2nd season. (Source)

CaseyAbell · « **Reply #10 on:** September 17, 2004, 10:25:07 AM »

Moving Street Smarts to 7:00 would be fine with me. I'm not a big fan of the Wicked Witch and Her Court, so getting rid of her 7:00 weekday run on the 10/11 schedule sounds good. You could also do a half-and-half of WBSM and Street Smarts in the 11:00 hour.

It does seem weird that GSN would license 640 eps of Street Smarts, only to pull it off the air completely on 10/11. GSN execs even praised the show's younger-demo performance in the Houston Chronicle story.

CaseyAbell · « **Reply #11 on:** September 21, 2004, 02:48:17 PM »

It's official. Or at least it's on Adlink. WBSM takes over the 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM Eastern hours on 10/11 (with the exception of Celeb Blackjack at 11:00 Tuesday). So I guess the Prof was right. The other good news for me is that Street Smarts doesn't disappear entirely, but instead gets a seven-day double-run strip at 1:00 AM. Um, not the best hour but I might catch it on the weekends at midnight my time. And All New 3's a Crud will no longer get all that ridiculous time on the 10/11 schedule.

Another small tweak: GAA vanishes from Saturday night, along with that potpourri (I'll take it, Alex!) of game shows. Instead it's the Wicked Witch at 9:00 PM Eastern, followed by pure Chuckage from 10:00 PM to midnight. I kinda liked some of GAA's goofiness, but it wasn't anything close to a must-see.

An extremely traditional schedule by anybody's reckoning. Even if you rule out Blackjack - no, I won't argue that again - it's game shows and more game shows. Though I assume the WL's on Monday are placeholders for the pool and horseracing shows coming next year.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 21, 2004, 03:00:18 PM »

I had taken a quick look on your other Adlink posts and didn't see anyone bring this up (as I said, the look was quick), but it seems that we also effective Monday lose one hour of programming on GSN in favor of informercials. Or am I just going goofy (prolly in every respect ;-) )?

Doug

CaseyAbell · « **Reply #13 on:** September 21, 2004, 03:04:26 PM »

No, that happens on the 9/27 schedule. It had been announced a while ago.

One more note: they're flogging my puppy hard. No, not my black lab. Dog Eat Dog continues to get five showings a week as far as the Adlink eye can see, including four in prime time. Those couple dozen eps will be reduced to dust. (Brooke's bust to dust? Horrible thought.)

Oops, now that I look at the 11/1 schedule, the Dog only gets four hours. Celeb Blackjack goes at 9:00 and 10:00 PM on Tuesdays, with Street Smarts at 11:00. A typo? he said with a shrug.

Just a few more numbers on how traditional the 10/11 schedule is. Counting Blackjack, prime time is 20 out of 22 hours game shows. Not counting Blackjack (grrrrr...) it's 16 out of 22.

The numbers are even more lopsided for all the programming hours. Excluding Blackjack it's 86% game shows. Including Blackjack it's 91%. Remember that when the Prof fumes about GSN tilting away from game shows. He should be celebrating and running I-told-GSN-so items.

aaron sica · « **Reply #14 on:** September 21, 2004, 03:44:11 PM »

Casey....

Question not related to the discussion, but just an "I gotta know" thing. Your name - Casey A. Bell or Casey Abell?

Just wondering...