Don't give GSN ideas. No reality shows on the Game Show Network. Please. People come to GSN to watch game shows. I know GSN has some shows coming soon but, I'm hoping they fail with the ridiculous names they got.![]()
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Improvaganza wasn't a reality show or a competition show of any kind. It was just a standup comedy show. Apparently GSN thought it would fly because Drew hosts a certain game show and used to host a certain improv show.Reality shows? Maybe. I noticed Improv's ratings fell because it repeated twice in the same night (11pm and 2am Eastern), but always did well Saturday nights.
High Stakes Poker was hardly an enormous fail, or any kind of fail. The show lasted for seven seasons, more than almost any of GSN's traditional game show originals. HSP was often the network's highest rated show in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo that GSN usually knows nothing about. GSN would take more a whole lot more "enormous FAILS" like that. The blackjack shows also did fairly well, and there have been a few other successes in non-traditional programming.Contrary to what some may have you believe, reality does not work and will not work on this network. Every time they've tried it, it has been an enormous FAIL, whether it was Carnage, Instant Recall, or things that masqueraded as "games" but wore out their welcome (Improv and, yes, Poker).
But by and large, the record for non-traditional originals has not been good. And by and large, GSN's record in traditional game show originals hasn't been all that great, either. For every Lingo or Newlywed Game, there's been a bunch of Wintuition-ish flops.
Important note: HSP wasn't a "reality" show in any way. The camera didn't follow Doyle Brunson around his kitchen as he made breakfast. High Stakes Poker was a competition show very closely related to traditional game shows. GSN is in perilous country when it strays from competition, though it often stumbles even in its most traditional programming efforts. That's the story of any TV network. Failure is common, success rare.