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Colin Kroll, co-founder of live game show app HQ , has died of an apparent drug overdose. He was 35. Mr. Kroll's girlfriend called police late last night because he wasn't answering phone calls at his Manhattan apartment. Officers found him unconscious in his bedroom with drug paraphernalia. Attempts to revive him failed, and his death is tentatively ascribed to an overdose of cocaine and heroin. Mr. Kroll had faced career issues before he hit it big with HQ . There were reports about his aggressive and possibly harassing executive style, though no formal complaints were ever filed. Twitter fired him before he founded HQ with Rus Yusopov. At its peak of popularity the live game show app attracted more than two million players and spawned a host of imitators. The show has since declined in popularity, though it still draws a sizeable audience. Rus Yusopov remembered Mr. Kroll in a tweet earlier today. "I will forever remember [Colin] for his kind soul and big heart. He ma

Anybody who reads this blog knows that I'm a hopeless fan of the 1973-82 Match Game . There have been a lot of revival efforts over the decades, up to the current ABC version. Alec Baldwin's show certainly has its detractors. Try this entry on the Buzzr Facebook page for wild-eyed rage. But ABC's effort has endured through a respectable run in prime time. One try at a reboot that I didn't know much about was the unsold 1996 pilot called MG2 . Wink Martindale has relieved my ignorance by posting the pilot on YouTube. (Warning: video quality is poor, as you can see from the screenshot.) This pilot messed around with the format a lot, which I don't mind. After all, the 1973-82 version successfully messed with the stiff-as-a-board original from the 1960s. But the panel and host were forgettable, to say the least, or obnoxious, to say the worst. Charlene Tilton was really bad at the helm. Game Show Pilot Light grumps that she was "someone who has no hosting expe

I've ripped on the oldies boards a lot, and they've ripped on me. But once in a while an oldies board comes up with an appealing bit of game show history. Like the Wheel of Fortune radio show. Around the turn of the millennium, WoF showrunners decided to put Vanna on the radio with a two-minute version of the ubiquitous TV show. Game Show Forum noticed that eBay was selling some of the radio shows on CD. A poster on the thread gave links to a 1998 Billboard story about the radio version here and here. The funniest comment in the story is a warning that radio Wheel of Fortune wouldn't work with every station format... I wouldn't put it on a hard rock station. It would be like, "Here's Megadeath and here's...Vanna White?" That would be an unusual combination. The Billboard story says that more than 150 country, adult contemporary, news/talk and oldies stations were carrying the show. It replaced a radio version of Jeopardy that apparently didn&#

ABC's Match Game will return with another season January 9. The linked story cattily notes that the new go-round of the ancient format will be "returning Alec Baldwin to prime time on ABC after his eponymous talk show crashed in the fall." No, "eponymous" is not a synonym for "lousy." Though in the case of Alec's talk show, the latter adjective would be well deserved. It looks like Baldwin's latest brush with the law - a punch-up with another motorist over a parking spot - will not affect his hosting duties. He's done well on Match Game , and by and large the reboot has hewed closely to the timeless format. ABC's rewind has certainly been watchable. It may be the best effort yet to revive the legendary 1973-82 version. Unlike ABC's Sunday slate of game shows, which easily won their night in the ratings wars during the summer, Match Game didn't win much of anything during the warm weather months. For its ten eps from June thro

It's nice when Buzzr, our little oldies diginet, gets some attention outside the narrow confines of the game show Interwebs. I had never heard of the 2 Paragraphs site, but I assume they limit their stories to two paragraphs (duh). Sure enough, that's the length of their rewrite of a press release from Buzzr about the diginet's Betty White Christmas. I got the same release in my inbox, and the linked story gives me an excuse to rewrite it myself. Come to think of it, the 2 Paragraphs site probably imposes a word limit as well. Otherwise they could dawdle along for two 10,000-word paragraphs, which would pretty much defeat the purpose. Anyway, the site counts 8 days and 71 episodes of Betty in such Buzzr staples as Match Game , Tattletales , Password Plus and Super Password . I don't know if there are any "fresh" episodes of these shows in the stunt, as the oldies boards like to call them. (For the uninitiated, "fresh" means eps that haven't t

As always, Thanksgiving week was soft for syndie game shows. So there was a big bounce back in the week of November 26-December 2. I should say the top three bounced back. There wasn't much happening for the bottom two. TV News Check has the household ratings... Jeopardy 6.4 - up nine ticks from turkey week and into first place Family Feud 6.3 - also up nine ticks for a second-place tie Wheel of Fortune 6.3 - another nine tick rise, it's the thing this week Millionaire 1.7 - flat Funny You Should Ask 0.5 - flat, a big surprise As I said in a comment on a previous entry, America Says has averaged around 450K viewers for its last three prime time runs (December 5-7). Maybe GSN has finally found a way to lessen their reliance on Harvey Feud . Overall, GSN's prime time numbers perked up from the previous week. The network drew 376K/255K viewers prime time/total day for the week of December 3-9. GSN ranked 36th and 32nd in the windows.

A thread on Game Show Paradise actually bashes GSN! Yes, I know it's hard to believe that an oldies board would bash the cable network, but it did happen. All right, I'll go easy on the sarcasm. Of course, GSN is not beloved on the oldies boards because it mostly runs game shows with less than twenty years of dust on them. But this particular thread dumps on GSN for its "Kids Zone" of children's shows which ran in the late 1990s. I can barely recall the Kids Zone, except that it seemed mostly dull. GSP seems to think the Zone was just awful because, well, they usually think GSN is just awful in general. This is the board that once went nuts because they thought GSN was going to run Toddlers and Tiaras . One poster is really out to lunch, though, on FCC rules and regs... I think GSN's Kids Zone block was originally designed to meet U.S. Government laws requiring networks to air the bare minimum of three hours of educational/informational programming for young

Now and then a mustache turns into big news on Jeopardy . It's usually Alex Trebek's forays into facial hair that draw attention, but not last week. As a faux tweet noted, retired Allegheny County, PA detective Dave Leffler showed off his lengthy whiskers Monday through Friday. His run finally ended on an opera clue, which (believe it or not) I knew. The ex-cop won't forget Aida any time soon, but he has over a hundred grand to console himself with. The linked story says that Dave worked sex crimes and fugitive cases for nearly thirty years as a patrol officer and then detective. The mustache looks like it's been developing for almost as long. Dave gave a long interview published before his final episode aired. He made what he had to know was an ironic remark about the "dreaded opera category." He also talked about the audition process and production protocols on Jeopardy . But things really perked up when he spoke eloquently about his years as a cop. I sta

A couple of sports-related items popped up in Google News about game shows. Okay, one item was about sports and the other was about, let's say, performance art. The real sports story was yet another reminder of the Red Sox World Series win this year. As a confirmed hater of the Sox and Yankees, it pains me that Wheel of Fortune had to dredge up hurtful memories that were just starting to heal (see screenshot). Maybe we'll get lucky and Boston will lose a hundred games next year. That's wildly unlikely, but hope springs eternal. The less, er, serious "sports" story concerned pro wrestler Mick Foley. A Jeopardy clue referred to his infamous (in wrestling circles) "Mr. Socko" stunt. I had to brush up on my feeble knowledge of pro wrestling to understand the reference, but Wikipedia came to the rescue. Mr. Foley was so delighted with his Jeopardy moment that he tweeted out his glee. Nice to know that he's a fan of the only game show with a Peabody.

Already did my weekly ratings report, but the stats for December 5 were notable enough to merit their own entry. The news was very good for two game shows in the cable wars. Deal or No Deal debuted on CNBC to terrific numbers by the network's standards. The 8:00 PM episode checked in with 796K viewers and a 0.18 18-48 rating. The following ep at 9:00 PM did even better. 865K viewers and a 0.21 18-49 rating. These numbers compare to CNBC's prime time average of only 242K viewers last week. Yes, DOND more than tripled the network's usual audience in the peak viewing hours. If Howie and friends can keep up anything like the debut ratings, CNBC execs will be falling over themselves to renew the show. I was a little down on GSN's America Says in the weekly report a few days ago. But December 5 proved to be just fine for John Michael Higgins and company. The perky Family Feud knockoff drew 472K viewers and a 0.06 18-49 rating. Those are the best numbers I've seen fo

Fox has announced that Steve Harvey will anchor their New Year's Eve bash. Last year's NYE effort by the Family Feud host brought some cackles on Twitter about his fashion choices (see screenshot) and some more substantial criticism over a few racial remarks. But as usual in TV land, the Nielsen Company had the last word. Harvey and co-host Maria Menounos, who will also return to the show, drew record numbers for Fox's NYE to-do. For those who don't remember or never knew, Steve Harvey officiated at Maria Menounos' wedding on last year's bash. I doubt that she'll get married again, but maybe the Feud master will preside over another couple's nuptials. Or maybe not. Let's just hope the weather is a little warmer and Steve can wear something less goofy. The mammoth white coat and hat have got to go.

Sweeps months are supposedly not that important any more. Some reports say that Nielsen is "sweeping" all the time. No matter. TV News Check still reports the year-over-year changes for syndies in the November sweeps. And if you follow TV ratings, you know that the numbers keep declining year after year. All those alternative media outlets... Family Feud 6.3 - down a couple ticks from November 2017 Jeopardy 6.2 - also down a couple ticks from a year ago Wheel of Fortune 6.1 - down a tick from last November Millionaire 1.6 - flat, which is not bad nowadays Funny You Should Ask 0.5 - flat at the unchangeable number GSN had a forgettable week for November 26-December 2. 336K/252K viewers prime time/total day. The network ranked 39th and 31st in the windows. I'm afraid that personal fave America Says is hurting GSN's prime time ratings. Sigh.

After all the depressing medical news about The Price is Right icon Bob Barker lately, there are some better tidings. He recently put in a Skype appearance on the show for his 95th birthday. The linked story runs through the litany of health issues for Mr. Barker over the past few months and years. Such problems are hardly unexpected for a 95-year-old, but it's good that he was able to show up on TPiR, admittedly only through a webcam. Closer , the site with the bubbly article about Bob's appearance, is the "nice" publication in the National Enquirer empire. So they conclude their story with this rousing finale... In our opinion, Bob looked better than ever on Skype despite his recent health issues. Here's to many, many more birthday celebrations for him on The Price Is Right! Happy birthday, Bob.

Finally got around to watching the sneak peek of the rebooted Deal or No Deal on the NBC web site. For the most part, the episode was just like old times. Howie was a little older and now bespectacled, but he still looked to be in fine fettle. The models were as beauteous and well-coifed and well-dressed as ever, and the contestant was the usual nutcase risk-taker. Well, Luis Green was beyond a nutcase. After spurning multiple six-figure offers with only one real case left in play, he finally faced an offer of $333,000 and only two cases: $5 and $750,000. Just to make things more excruciating, the show had wallowed in his life story. Luis was adopted at age 12 after shuffling through several foster homes. With the familiar This Is Your Life sentimentality from the original, the show had hyped the suspense to the maximum. And you guessed it, star-crossed Luis left the show with...five bucks. Which just proves that after all the hype and buildup and gush, Deal or No Deal comes down to

My previous post about an older-is-better thread at Golden Road has brought some adoring fan mail...on the thread itself. I had previously posted my responses as an update, but I'm lazy. So I'll get an entirely new blog entry out of the amusing rumpus... A couple posters on the Golden Road thread more or less agree with yesterday's blog entry. But a couple of other posters dump on me, which just rips my heart out. First, I don't take Geritol. Do they even sell it any more? And no, I don't have any respect for whoever it is who doesn't have any respect for me. So we're even. Did some googling (that always sounds a little kinky) on Steve Gavazzi, the guy who has no respect for me. I had never heard of him, but he seems to be one of the bosses at Golden Road . He definitely likes to throw his weight around on the board. Too bad he can't boss me around on this blog. He also carries a torch for the golden olden days with Bob and Roger, which is no surpris

Rambling around the game show Interwebs, I stepped in some of the usual older-is-better nonsense at Golden Road . This time it was the well-worn whine about how contestants on The Price is Right aren't what they used to be. The players are just so excited nowadays. Don't they know that the TPiR set should be a funeral home? This brilliant line of thinking leads to the usual grumps that nobody should watch the show any more because...OLDER IS BETTER. To put it mildly, this thread is highest-grade manure, even by the web's demanding standards of manure. There has always been plenty of mirth about the over-caffeinated players on The Price is Right . The classic statement was Gary Burghoff's parody on Match Game in 1975. That's more than forty years ago, if you want to do the math. Which leads to the real point of this entry, a bit of praise for Gary as one of the very best of the semi-regular panelists on the greatest game show ever. He started out a little wobbly

Readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of America Says , GSN's lively knockoff of Family Feud . So I really wanted to see how the GSN original would fare in prime time. As the oldies boards like to complain, the peak viewing hours on GSN lately have been the exclusive preserve of the show America Says is knocking off. So far I've gotten two data points from Show Buzz Daily . America Says drew 311K viewers at 9:00 PM on November 28 and 363K viewers the next day. Both times the show got a 0.05 18-49 rating, which is okay for the ancient skewing GSN. For the four weeks before the debut of America Says in prime time, GSN averaged 389K viewers for the all- Feud peak viewing hours. So my personal fave isn't doing great compared to Steve Harvey and friends, but it's not wiping out, either. My wild blue speculation: if America Says can draw about 350K viewers fairly often, it will get another run at 9:30 PM. After all, GSN seems eager to reduce its reliance on Fr