GSK's 2009 Mid-Year Review

This is the second time I've done a mid-year report on this blog.

This year has marked the end of traditional game shows on the major broadcast networks. On January 2nd, the primetime version of "Deal or No Deal" was put on hiatus until May 4th, when it was cancelled shortly after the May 18th episodes. "Million Dollar Password" also got shelved on January 7th and returned on May 31st for two more episodes; it is likely cancelled as well. Additionally, for whatever reason, there were no "The Price is Right" Million Dollar Spectaculars held this season.

After it was shelved in the middle of the Fall '08 season, FOX's "Hole in the Wall" was a "schedule off and on" during the early parts of 2009. It returned on January 18th with a $100,000 win, but the show went off the schedule after that. Its first schedule yanking of the year also resulted in both "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" being put on hiatus as well by the time I turned 23. "Hole" returned on February 8th but got yanked again until the first day of March. "Hole" was gone for good after the March 15th episode.

As for "Lyrics", it returned on May 22nd and aired its last episode on June 19th. As of last Friday, "5th Grader" is back in first-run until at least August 7th. A syndicated version of the show will air this fall.

One last FOX game show, "The Moment of Truth", will finally begin its second season (albeit likely a burn off) on August 5th, the same day as the season's last performance show of "So You Think You Can Dance".

Let's move on to other things. Back on January 13th, we reported that "Millionaire" might be coming back for a limited primetime run on ABC thanks to the success of the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". It officially came to fruition on April 22nd, when it was announced ABC would be doing 11 new prime-time "Millionaire" episodes starting August 9th with Regis Philbin back as host. On that same day, Kara DioGuardi made her debut as a judge on "American Idol". She has proved to be a very controversial person off-camera that it's not a guarantee she will return next season. During that week, the syndicated "Deal or No Deal" did a special week of shows where finding the Splenda case in any round of a game automatically added $10,000 to the next bank offer. Four out of five times that week, thanks mostly to early bad luck, the games ended anti-climatically thanks to the Splenda case being found and no cases of at least $10K or more were left on the board.

The month of February was mostly unventful thanks to its sweeps period being moved to March this year because of the DTV conversion at the time; ultimately, the DTV conversion happened on June 12th. However, the last week of the month had its moments- former "Jeopardy!" champion Roger Storm winning a quarter million dollars on "Millionaire" (although he could've doubled that), the dominant Troy Ross winning the fourth season of "The Contender", "Wheel of Fortune" celebrated 5,000 episodes and the "Top Chef" season finale ending in disaster when Hosea Rosenberg stole the victory from favorite Stefan Richter.

March began with new seasons of "High Stakes Poker" and "Celebrity Apprentice", as well as the first episodes of "TPIR" directed by former "Whammy!" and "Deal or No Deal" director R. Brian DiPirro. The first Friday "Price" episode of that month featuring Jack Wagner gave us a good example of the bad things that can happen when you don't showcase a special guest star properly. The contestants are supposed to be the ultimate stars of game shows, not anybody else (or even the hosts, for that matter). The second week of that month had the season's last two $250K winners on "Millionaire", including Carlos Giron having all four lifelines intact by the time he reached the $250K question.

For the first three weeks of March, "Wheel" went to SeaWorld Orlando (and would complete its stay there on the week of April 6th). "Jeopardy!", meanwhile, went to Las Vegas on March 10th to first do a celebrity special (won by former "Million Dollar Password" celebrity Aisha Tyler), then its signature Tournament of Champions that was won by nine-time champion Dan Pawson over Larissa Kelly (the only female ever to win at least six games in regular competition). The same week that ended, "Wheel" produced its best week of the season other than Canada Week (the week that had the first-ever million dollar win) with $367,600 given away, including a $100K win by Plezetta West that Monday.

April was a big month for GSN. On the 5th, "High Stakes Poker" gave away a new record pot of $919,600 to Tom Dwan; the young Dwan mostly dominated that season of the show. One day later, the new version of "The Newlywed Game" began and "Catch 21" started its second season.

The middle of April '09 was very eventful. On the 14th, Temple student Drew Magathan became "Wheel of Fortune's" most recent $100,000 bonus round winner; the endgame was then lost the next nine times (resulting in "Wheel" getting SKUNKED for just the second time this season). Kevin Joyce then produced the highest one-day regular game score of the season on "Jeopardy!" on the 15th with $49,699; he won the rest of that week's games but then lost the following Monday, leaving with $113,299. The 16th saw Bob Barker make a very special guest appearance on "TPIR" with a special Showcase (on an episode that had TWO cash games being played, which is unheard of in daytime).

April ended with a bang with the news that the syndicated "Deal or No Deal" will return for a second season, but this time air in HD from the Sonalysts Studio in Waterford, CT as a cost-cutting measure. Also, Liz Murphy came just one conservative FJ! wager short of becoming only the second-ever female six-time champion on "Jeopardy!", leaving with $123,302. And Team Shelby came back to win the second season of "Bullrun".

As we began May, the deaf couple Margie & Luke Adams came so close to pulling off an inspiring victory on "The Amazing Race XIV" but faultered on the very last Roadblock and lost the million to Tammy & Victor Jih. That same night, Joan Rivers edged out Annie Duke to win the second season of "Celebrity Apprentice". The following Tuesday, Helen Phillips upset the favored Tara Costa with an all-time record weight loss percentage of 54.47% to win the seventh season of "The Biggest Loser"; also, Pam Rayburn fell one wedge shy of becoming the second millionaire ever on "Wheel" during her bonus round. The next Sunday, JT completed a clean sweep victory on "Survivor: Tocantins". Also that week, "Price" began offering Hyundais for the first time, at least in a while, on Thursday. At this point, the show began offering more foreign cars than in the past thanks to the current national economic situation.

The middle week of May once again brought a lot of excitement. On the same day the primetime version of "DOND" concluded (Monday, May 18th), Sam shattered the "Cash Cab" winnings record with a $6,200 Double Ride win. Tuesday, George Diaz set a season-high "Price" winnings total of $82,352, including a $24K+ Jeep in Any Number, $26K on the Big Wheel and a $29K+ Showcase. The effects of his big win were deeply felt in June, with not too many really big winners on the show during that time. Additionally, neither Golden Road or Triple Play have been played on the show since March 9th. On the same day as Diaz's big win, Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas won "Dancing with the Stars'" eighth season over Gilles Marini & Cheryl Burke, in a season rattled with injuries (most notably by Jewel & Nancy O' Dell). Wednesday, Kris Allen added another "American Idol" upset to the record books when he defeated L.A. native Adam Lambert. Thursday, Justin Bernbach began an eventual seven-win run on "Jeopardy!" that added up to $157,001. And Friday saw an unbelievably-close bonus round win on "Wheel".

June started off with the second American season of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!". The most notable moments of its run were produced by the couple nicknamed Spidy, Heidi & Spencer Pratt. After going off and on the show the first two weeks, they eventually left the show for good, but not without leaving bad publicity for NBC. Also, "Catch 21" began a special series of six episodes with their top prize doubled to $50,000. It was almost won on June 3rd & 5th, but was won on the 4th by a man named Andrew.

On Saturday, June 6th, GSN held their first-ever Game Show Awards, but it wasn't well-received. The following Saturday, the 13th, GSN debuted their Big Saturday Night block with two new game shows debuting, "20Q" and "The Money List", as well as several wraparound segments that offer cash and prizes to members of live studio and at-home audiences. "The Money List" is the first GSN show to offer returning champions. While both of the shows got positive reviews, the BSN segments were not. On the 20th, the Brits won out as Ross Pearson and James Wilks won UFC contracts on "The Ultimate Fighter".

Unfortunately, the first half of the year ended tragically, as four major TV personalities that had some relation to the GS world died within a span of just eight days- Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Frad Travalena and, of course, Michael Jackson.

Stay tuned for much more of the second half of 2009.