America says, numbers say

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 Fremantle and Feud. Sure, they might have to pay a small ratings price for an hour of America Says in prime time compared to an hour of Family Feud. But they might reckon that the eventual benefits outweigh the short-term costs.