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Post by caseyabell on Mar 24, 2015 0:03:19 GMT -5
The syndie never even got to most markets in the country, but now it's gone. My post from Game Show Follies... Let's not ask America
As far back as January, Paige Albiniak was dropping hints in Broadcasting and Cable that Let's Ask America might be heading for the final Nielsen question. Paige doesn't make things up. She's usually very well informed on the syndie market, and she was right again this time. Let's Ask America is getting the ax after its third season.Another sign of impending doom was the failure of the Bill Bellamy eps to turn up on GSN, as announced last summer. The first two seasons of Kevin Pereira episodes didn't do much business on GSN and soon went into late night exile. The show won't even have that slot starting March 30. I liked the show and thought it was a fun variant of the survey format. But the numbers were always modest at best and Let's Ask America never expanded much beyond a handful of Scripps stations. Originally intended as a cheap substitute for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, the show just didn't find enough of an audience. The much ballyhooed switch from Pereira to Bellamy as host for the third season didn't help. Still no word on another season for Millionaire. The ratings have continued to droop with Terry Crews, which is not a good sign. |
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Post by couponboy on Mar 24, 2015 9:34:32 GMT -5
Any show that DECREASES the top prize AND blatently decreases the likelihood of people winning big (i.e. eliminating the $1,000 fallback for going all-in in Season 2) is asking to be axed. GOOD RIDDANCE, LAA!!!!!
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Post by phimat37 on Mar 24, 2015 11:19:55 GMT -5
They never really gave this show a chance. Neither did GSN, really. GSN's airing it in the graveyard slot, 3am. GSN never did give it a good time slot, other than 12pm ET, I'd say that's as good as the show's going to get, for now.
It was OK, of the few episodes I've watched on GSN, but I'm not a big fan.
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Post by thekid965 on Mar 24, 2015 11:40:53 GMT -5
The schadenfreude in certain vocal corners of game show fandom over Let's Ask America's demise is off the charts, with reactions running the gamut from unbridled joy that a "bad" show has been axed to claims that the Scripps stations "got what they deserved" for dumping the Wheel/Jeopardy! combo in favor of this project. Some have even declared the show a "failure" despite a three-season run, which is respectable in any era if you ask me.
Frankly, it's borderline embarrassing. I know not every game show in the world has to be beloved, but when did we as a fandom begin actively rooting for a series to fail simply because of the way it came into being? All it does is perpetuate the completely untrue image of the "Internet fans" as a collective of self-entitled, neo-Luddite traditionalists who react to the words "new" and "different" in approximately the same way a mongoose reacts to a cobra.
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Post by gamecrazyh on Mar 24, 2015 12:31:37 GMT -5
Probably the reason why LAA got cancelled, was they replaced Kevin Pereira with Bill Belamy. I saw a couple boards on other sites who think that.
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Post by Mandoli on Mar 24, 2015 13:24:33 GMT -5
Probably the reason why LAA got cancelled, was they replaced Kevin Pereira with Bill Belamy. I saw a couple boards on other sites who think that. I didn't get the show, so I can't comment on host ability. But I'm sure that if this is true, this isn't the only reason behind the cancellation. The show wasn't on in every market, so how does it get better ratings than what it made? |
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Post by tpirrules1972 on Mar 24, 2015 18:52:53 GMT -5
LAA didn't make it to my market and thus I never got to see BB's eps. I thought the show was fine and KP was a capable host based on what GSN got to air. It's too bad it didn't last.
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Post by caseyabell on Mar 24, 2015 20:17:54 GMT -5
"All it does is perpetuate the completely untrue image of the 'Internet fans' as a collective of self-entitled, neo-Luddite traditionalists who react to the words 'new' and 'different' in approximately the same way a mongoose reacts to a cobra." That's a completely untrue image? Um, okay. Anyway, as I said in the blog entry, I liked Let's Ask America and wish it could have done better in syndication and on GSN. The three-year run is a little misleading. The show only lasted that long because Scripps stations were more or less stuck with the in-house product. Nobody else wanted the show much at all, and after a while even the Scripps stations weren't interested. As for Bellamy replacing Pereira, I thought the change was desperation, an attempt to find the next Steve Harvey (who never seems to come along). Millionaire has tried the same Hail Mary, with predictably poor results. As Baba Wawa might say, wumors are wunning wampant that Millionaire will soon follow Let's Ask America into that Nielsen good night. One more thing: a commenter at the BuzzerBlog Facebook page wanted Let's Ask America replaced on GSN with classics. The elegant reply: "Why can't you guys watch that shit on YouTube?" And for some reason, I'm always the guy who gets slammed as anti-classic. Oh well, who said life is fair (wink)? |
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Mar 24, 2015 21:53:33 GMT -5
I just have a big Kanye shrug-ish response to this, tbh. Never got a chance to see the show outside a couple clips on YouTube which means I never got a real chance to possibly fall in love with the format or anything. Decreasing the prizes I would say definitely wasn't a good thing to do though.
There's going to be a whole new game show channel, while not 100% devoted to classics, will be showing more than GSN's number of offerings so I can't say I'm going to care that much what GSN puts in its place, so that "shit" in question (which I gather is the black and white Goodson-Todman shows) will have some kind of home on television. Not to mention if it's a Sony show someone wants, chances are you won't be able to watch those much longer since they're putting block notices on a number of their classics. Even rarities like Break the Bank from 1976 and Chuck Woolery's Wheel of Fortune. So YouTube isn't always a safe haven for those.
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Post by caseyabell on Mar 25, 2015 7:01:29 GMT -5
"I can't say I'm going to care that much what GSN puts in its place, so that 'shit' in question (which I gather is the black and white Goodson-Todman shows) will have some kind of home on television."
I should say that the elegant reply didn't come from BuzzerBlog "officially," just from Cory Anotado, who is one of BuzzerBlog's contributors. And as everybody on the game show Interwebs knows, you have to expect that kind of comment from Anotado.
But BuzzerBlog did officially reply with a swipe at "ancient" game shows, which apparently means anything before 1990. Here's the thing. I've gotten endless grief as anti-classic just because I've pointed out that pre-1990 material has been steadily disappearing from GSN. Which is like pointing out that the sun rises in the east.
Meanwhile, for some reason, BuzzerBlog escapes the wrath of classics fans, even though the blog has no use for the older shows and never discusses them except to dismiss them. (Or worse, as Anotado does.) I've even had classics fans defend BuzzerBlog in comments on my blog. Weird things happen on the Internet.
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Post by pyramidpower14 on Mar 25, 2015 10:16:01 GMT -5
"I can't say I'm going to care that much what GSN puts in its place, so that 'shit' in question (which I gather is the black and white Goodson-Todman shows) will have some kind of home on television." I should say that the elegant reply didn't come from BuzzerBlog "officially," just from Cory Anotado, who is one of BuzzerBlog's contributors. And as everybody on the game show Interwebs knows, you have to expect that kind of comment from Anotado. But BuzzerBlog did officially reply with a swipe at "ancient" game shows, which apparently means anything before 1990. Here's the thing. I've gotten endless grief as anti-classic just because I've pointed out that pre-1990 material has been steadily disappearing from GSN. Which is like pointing out that the sun rises in the east. Meanwhile, for some reason, BuzzerBlog escapes the wrath of classics fans, even though the blog has no use for the older shows and never discusses them except to dismiss them. (Or worse, as Anotado does.) I've even had classics fans defend BuzzerBlog in comments on my blog. Weird things happen on the Internet. I am a fan of classic game shows, Casey, and your blog is by far my favorite. I think you are more than fair and far from anti-classic. Some might disagree with me, but I think you are more of a "realist" as opposed anti-classic. You enjoy the classics, but like me, you realize that times are changing, they don't really put up the greatest numbers (and definitely not great demos) for GSN, and so they unfortunately will be steadily diminished. As frustrating as it is, the TV game is pretty much entirely about demos and advertising dollars - that's the stark reality, and I'm not sure if everyone understands that.
I understand the frustration of oldies fans, because I am one of them, but it seems we are in the minority in today's society, and it seems there is little we can do about it. GSN has given us a great deal of classic gems over the last 20 years, so it's not like there's nothing to be grateful for. Plus BuzzrTV is launching soon, and hopefully it will spread across new markets, so that fans of the oldies all over can enjoy a network similar to what GSN was back when it launched in 1994.
As far as BuzzerBlog goes, I think the only reason it escapes the wrath of classics fans is because classics fans probably have forgotten that it even exists. As you said, BuzzerBlog pretty much has no place for old game shows, and so classics fans probably don't even visit that website anyhow. The only reason classics fans used to visit BB on a regular basis was because Alex used to post the PDF schedules for GSN on a regular basis; but he stopped doing that, and of course you took up the task on Game Show Follies (which is greatly appreciated by the way).
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Post by caseyabell on Mar 25, 2015 11:12:11 GMT -5
"I am a fan of classic game shows, Casey, and your blog is by far my favorite...As far as BuzzerBlog goes, I think the only reason it escapes the wrath of classics fans is because classics fans probably have forgotten that it even exists." Thanks for the kind remarks. Funny thing is that classic game shows are apparently about to make quite a comeback on TV with the launch of the Buzzr subchannel. I'm not sure if my cable system here in DFW will pick up this subchannel, though I'm hoping. Currently it picks up only one subchannel of the Fox O&O. As for BuzzerBlog, I just read quite an interesting post by none other than Cory Anotado. In the post he frankly lectures the rest of us game show bloggers and commenters on our lack of "media literacy," whatever that is. To be fair, he makes some good points, but it's difficult to listen to such advice from that particular source. For instance, he wants us not to shoot from the hip. Well, Anotado has shot plenty from his hip and continues to do so, as with his "shit" comment about classic game shows. Yeah, he's dumped on me in the past, which gives me something in common with four billion others, give or take a few million (slight exaggeration). One comment of his really stands out: "Other blogs, intentionally or otherwise, seem to refuse to put any thoughtful consideration into the current state of game shows." I guess BuzzerBlog is the only thoughtful game show blog out there. Thanks for enlightening us, Cory. |
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Post by WarioSajak on Mar 25, 2015 18:01:01 GMT -5
When BuzzerBlog got revamped, over at the Game Show Forum I asked where the years upon years of old articles had gone to...and pretty much out of nowhere, got a PM from Cory saying "Why does it matter whether the old Buzzer site is still up? Did you write anything particularly noteworthy?" I responded that I was just wondering whether the old posts were still present due to all the stuff the site covered over the years, to which he replied "What stuff has Buzzer covered over the years that isn't handily summarized in a Wikipedia article?" Um...a lot? His comments came across as kinda jerkish, and this latest comment about why we can't watch "that shit" on YouTube (immediately following an official BuzzerBlog comment putting down the classics as "ancient shows") only confirms how I feel. (Never mind that people tend to call such shows "classics" because they're good.) Not to mention if it's a Sony show someone wants, chances are you won't be able to watch those much longer since they're putting block notices on a number of their classics. Even rarities like Break the Bank from 1976 and Chuck Woolery's Wheel of Fortune. So YouTube isn't always a safe haven for those. Even so, said rarities do fall under their ownership (Barry-Enright and Merv Griffin, respectively), so it's not too surprising that it'd essentially be blanket takedowns. It's Sony's right, sure, but sometimes it does feel like a bad move PR- and especially money-wise. That said, they seem to generally ignore clips and episodes put up by former contestants, so at least there's that. |
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