2004 Cheers & Jeers

[GSWitch]

With apologies to TV Guide, give your opinion about 2004 game shows.  

CHEERS:  To Ken Jennings for putting himself into the game show record books, knocking off Thom McKee & Dr. Kevin Olmstead.

CHEERS:  To Pax & the WB for still believing in the game show, despite the reality craze.  On The Cover, Balderdash & Studio 7 made it into the summer of 2004.

JEERS:  Fox pulling a reversal Robin Hood "rob from the poor (non cable) & give to the rich (cable)" by quickly yanking The Next Great Champ, the first male only reality show (or as I call it, the Pro Fan/Grandstand of reality).  Sure they can keep The Swan, but they had to dump Champ!  The 2nd insult from Fox since they still snub "O Canada" & The Toronto Blue Jays!

CHEERS:  To a Conroe contestant who dreamed of what no one thought that anyone would do.  Splashing Simon Cowell with a water bottle!  What a bad sport.

[goongas]

JEERS: To Fox for stealing ideas of other network's reality shows.

[dzinkin]

CHEERS to Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Family Feud, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire for keeping the game show genre alive in syndication.

CHEERS to The Price is Right for doing likewise on network TV.  In the same vein, cheer-within-a-cheer to ABC for Super Millionaire.  (Honorable mention to Pax's efforts, well done but sometimes difficult to find on the schedule.)

CHEERS to Rich Fields for continuing a tradition of fine announcing on TPIR.

CHEERS to Randy West for a valiant effort on TPIR, and for a very successful run announcing TPIR Live.  Perhaps someday I'll be able to say so in person.

JEERS to GSN for not delving into the vault as often as we'd like.  (I know why they don't, thanks... doesn't mean I don't wish they would.)  Cheer-within-a-Jeer for the few classics they do air, and for not trying to revive Winning Streak.

As to the board...

CHEERS to Matt and Chris for having faith in my ability to moderate this board.  I'll leave it to others to decide whether or not I've lived up to expectations.

And finally, JEERS to GSWitch for reposting this ludicrous accusation...

The 2nd insult from Fox since they still snub "O Canada" & The Toronto Blue Jays!

...that was debunked by Messrs. Lemon and Scherer the LAST time he posted it, as seen here.

[DrJWJustice]

[quote name=\'GSWitch\' date=\'Dec 29 2004, 10:37 PM\']JEERS:  Fox pulling a reversal Robin Hood "rob from the poor (non cable) & give to the rich (cable)" by quickly yanking The Next Great Champ, the first male only reality show (or as I call it, the Pro Fan/Grandstand of reality).  Sure they can keep The Swan, but they had to dump Champ!  The 2nd insult from Fox since they still snub "O Canada" & The Toronto Blue Jays!
[/quote]

JEERS (or CHEERS, depending on your point of view):  GSWitch, because I have to award yet another Scarecrow for the above comment (refer to Zinkin's post above for the reason).

[BrandonFG]

CHEERS: PAX for their game show block. The evening block is pretty nifty, although I wonder if they'd ever consider doing a block of shows in the mornings? Seriously, would that be economically sound, if they keep similar budgets to Balderdash and On The Cover, and just do everything in-house?

JEERS: To GSN...although Celebrity Blackjack is my new guilty pleasure. Desparate Housewives, my ass. ;-)

CHEERS: Syndicators keeping game shows somewhat alive...though I'd love to see the market add to the 5 we have now.

JEERS: No more H2 and Pyramid.

JEER: Feud and that damn audience. You know I was gonna say it. ;-)

[Craig Karlberg]

CHEERS:  To ABC for bringing Super Millionaire into the mix with its bigger dollar ammounts(Jeer within a Cheer:  The May numbers werem't as good as the February numbers which is why SM is not ready to come back just yet).

CHEERS:  PAX for bringing us 3 hours of game show bliss each weekday(2 1/2 if you subtract the rebrodcast of the NBC affiliate's local 1/2 hour newscast).

JEERS:  GSN for its rebranding on 3/15/04.  Nuff said.

JEERS:  The NATPE for not giving us any new game show offerings again this year.

[TimK2003]

JEERS:  To GSN, nee Game Show Network, for trying to distance their identity from the true "game show" by bringing on reality, talent, and other non-"old-school" definitions of the term 'game show' to the network....

CHEERS: ...To GSN for obtaining the rights to air "Win Ben Stein's Money".




CHEERS:  To those slot machine makers who share their love for game shows with us by continuing to add famous game shows of the past & present into their mix of offerings in the casinos...

JEERS: ...To some of those casinos who, instead of making them nickel video slots, up the ante to $.25 a line (x 45 lines = $10.50 per maximum pull vs a more realistic $2.25).  Bring 'em back down to a nickel -- you'll still probably get all of my money, it'll just take a little longer!



CHEERS: To the underdog networks (WB/PAX) for still believing in the game show genre by putting out some decent quality shows despite non-decent (read: non-existent) ratings...

JEERS: ...To ABC for quietly dissing the seasonal return of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".  Their excuse:  "We have what we need now to be tops in the overall ratings, thank you...But no thanks, Regis"  Hey ABC, why not be greedy and go for the ratings 'jugular vein' as well -- you can fall back into the basement just as fast...Might as well get as much out of being #1 while you can!



CHEERS: To those involved who are taking scaled-down road shows of TPiR Live to the rest of the country and proving that it is popular and viable to either expand and/or come up with other game shows to put on the road as well.  

Anyone for "Whammy Live:  The All New 'Press Your Luck' Road Show"?



And finally, TEARS to those whom we lost in the game show world in 2004, including:

Art James and Gene Wood -- whom, on a personal note, had the chance to spend some time with them in phone interviews of the past.  2 great people who were some of the best in the business!

[goongas]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 10:15 AM\']
JEERS: ...To ABC for quietly dissing the seasonal return of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".  Their excuse:  "We have what we need now to be tops in the overall ratings, thank you...But no thanks, Regis"  Hey ABC, why not be greedy and go for the ratings 'jugular vein' as well -- you can fall back into the basement just as fast...Might as well get as much out of being #1 while you can!

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[/quote]

Is SuperBAM officially a no-go?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 11:56 AM\'][quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 10:15 AM\']
JEERS: ...To ABC for quietly dissing the seasonal return of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".  Their excuse:  "We have what we need now to be tops in the overall ratings, thank you...But no thanks, Regis"  Hey ABC, why not be greedy and go for the ratings 'jugular vein' as well -- you can fall back into the basement just as fast...Might as well get as much out of being #1 while you can!

[snapback]69148[/snapback]

[/quote]

Is SuperBAM officially a no-go?

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[/quote]

At least for February sweeps.  They don't it right now--but things could change and they may need some fresh summer programming...

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 12:50 PM\'][quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 11:56 AM\'][quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 10:15 AM\']
JEERS: ...To ABC for quietly dissing the seasonal return of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".  Their excuse:  "We have what we need now to be tops in the overall ratings, thank you...But no thanks, Regis"  Hey ABC, why not be greedy and go for the ratings 'jugular vein' as well -- you can fall back into the basement just as fast...Might as well get as much out of being #1 while you can!

[snapback]69148[/snapback]

[/quote]

Is SuperBAM officially a no-go?

[snapback]69168[/snapback]

[/quote]

At least for February sweeps.  They don't it right now--but things could change and they may need some fresh summer programming...

[snapback]69178[/snapback]

[/quote]

And if it does return, I think we can forget about it being on Sundays, which was a major nite for Millionaire. It's safe to say ABC has some success in two little-known shows called "Desparate Housewives" and "Boston Legal."

[Johnissoevil]

Jeers to Viacom's few owned stations that aired Pyramid.  Because of them not renewing the show, it was cancelled totally, and it is now restricted to reruns on PAX.  And while we're on the subject...

Jeers to Sony for not trying to find another outlet in those markets to air Pyramid.  At least one of those markets where Viacom dropped Pyramid, Philadelphia, has a few other stations that could've aired it (sans WGTW, which went religious).  I'm sure they could've asked FOX to pick it up for WTXF or Tribune for WPHL.

[Robert Hutchinson]

I won't be so crass as to cheer its cancellation (especially since I still sort of liked it), but JEERS to Pyramid's producers for never relenting on killing the game with a thousand tiny cuts . . . as in "cut to camera three".

[johnnya2k3]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 10:03 AM\'][quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 12:50 PM\'][quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 11:56 AM\'][quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 10:15 AM\']
JEERS: ...To ABC for quietly dissing the seasonal return of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".  Their excuse:  "We have what we need now to be tops in the overall ratings, thank you...But no thanks, Regis"  Hey ABC, why not be greedy and go for the ratings 'jugular vein' as well -- you can fall back into the basement just as fast...Might as well get as much out of being #1 while you can!

[snapback]69148[/snapback]

[/quote]

Is SuperBAM officially a no-go?

[snapback]69168[/snapback]

[/quote]

At least for February sweeps.  They don't it right now--but things could change and they may need some fresh summer programming...

[snapback]69178[/snapback]

[/quote]

And if it does return, I think we can forget about it being on Sundays, which was a major nite for Millionaire. It's safe to say ABC has some success in two little-known shows called "Desparate Housewives" and "Boston Legal."

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[/quote]

What about "Lost"?

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'johnnya2k3\' date=\'Dec 30 2004, 01:56 PM\']

And if it does return, I think we can forget about it being on Sundays, which was a major nite for Millionaire. It's safe to say ABC has some success in two little-known shows called "Desparate Housewives" and "Boston Legal."

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What about "Lost"?

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[/quote]
That's not on Sundays.  The point (I think) was to rule out putting WWTBASM on Sundays because of ABC's success with "Sex And The Suburbs" and the Shatner thing.

Doug -- and the countdown to 900 continues

[Game Show Man]

CHEERS to G. Paul Bailey, and all the Game Show Congress crew (as well as everyone who made the trip out, including the legends) for putting on one of the coolest game show themed events in history this past August (and for letting me help!).

JEERS to the production companies for not being smart enough to develop new game show concepts in the wake of KenJen's run.