EXTRA! EXTRA! Read All About It: Game Show News Updates (Part 6)

In this week's article, I'm going to once again spotlight some of the headlines that has peaked my interest this month concerning game show news. From Alex Trebek chasing a burglar to a Cash Cab car crash, I'm sure you are going to enjoy reading about what has happened or what's in store for the future in the world game shows. Enjoy!

New CBS game show Celebrity Name Game Featuring Emcee Craig Ferguson 

Courtesy Hollywood Junket

Late night TV talk show host Craig Ferguson will join the ranks of comedians turned into game show host as he will become the host of the new CBS game show Celebrity Name Game. This game show is based on the board game Identity Crisis and pits two contestants each with a celebrity teammate against each other. The object in this game is to identity the names of famous celebrities for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Celebrity couple Courtney Cox and David Arquette are the executive producers of this show.  This is the first game show I have seen since Win, Lose or Draw and Pictionary (90’s version) where the set is designed in the style of large home living room. As for the host selection, I think Craig Ferguson would be a great host for the show because he does an excellent job hosting his own late night talk show and he is incredibly funny and will have no problem entertaining the viewers throughout the program.  You can click here to check out all the rules to the new CBS game show. I haven’t seen any news concerning the premiere date of Celebrity Fame Game, but I will make sure to keep you posted with any new updates concerning the show.   

Alex Trebek Stops Burglar in a San Francisco Hotel Room

Courtesy San Francisco Police Dept.

On July 27, TV game show host Alex Trebek injured himself while chasing a burglar at a San Francisco hotel. Lucinda Moyers, the burglar who was described by her attorney Mark Jacobs as a 56-year-old prostitute, stole Trebek’s money and a $650 bracelet, among other items in his hotel room. Trebek chased the burglar out of his room and into the hallway until he fell in pain after his Achilles tendon snapped and hurt his other leg when he fell. According to Trebek, the incident occurred around 2:30 in the morning, hours before he hosted the National Geographic Wild Championship held in Mountainview, California. Despite the injuries, Trebek was still able to host the Geography quiz competition and assured his audience members that he was all right. According to KGO-TV and Lt. Troy Dangerfield with San Francisco Police Department Public Affairs, “The suspect was later apprehended by security inside the hotel and they recovered some of the stolen items, minus the cash, near an ice machine.” Trebek later said, “We got most of our stuff back, except for the one piece of jewelry that I ever wear. It’s a bracelet my mother gave me many years ago, so that’s gone and the cash.” Moyers was charged on two counts of felony for first-degree burglary and possession of stolen property and is currently in custody at a San Francisco County jail. Her next court appearance is set for August 15. 

Donny Osmond To Host Secret Fortune CBS Pilot

Courtesy The MAC Wire

Over the past few years, CBS have picked up (and dropped) a few game show pilot, including a million-dollar version of Pyramid and The Cube. It looks like third time’s a charm as the network has ordered a pilot of Secret Fortune with Donny Osmond, the former host of Pyramid, as the host of the show. Secret Fortune is based on a British trivia game show of the same name and whose concept revolves around 24 envelopes containing staggering money amounts and the contestants eliminating each envelope one by one by answering a series of questions until one envelope remains. British TV veteran producer Nigel Lythogoe and Phil Morrow, from Wild Rover Productions, will serve as the show’s executive producers. From what I have seen from the British series, this show is a good mix between Deal or No Deal and Trivia Trap (first format) and will fit right it array of today’s television programming since we are seeing more trivia game shows nowadays. 

Wheel Designer Ed Flesh Passed Away At 79

Ed Flesh, the man who brought the Wheel to life on Wheel of Fortune, passed away July 15 at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, California. Publicist Fred Wostbrock reported that 79-year-old Flesh died of congestive heart failure and a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Ed Flesh was the art director who designed several game shows sets including Press Your Luck, Stumpers, 50 Grand Slam, Name That Tune, The $25,000 Pyramid, and Jeopardy! In fact, he was the one who thought of the idea of the Wheel on Wheel of Fortune to spin horizontally instead of vertically, as it started out. He also designed the sets for David Letterman’s first NBC daytime talk show, The Montel Williams Show, and three special episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show. “He truly was a master of his craft,” said game show host Bob Eubanks. 

“Crash” Cab Incident in Canada’s version of Cash Cab 

Adam Growe, the host of the Canadian version
of Cash Cab. Courtesy London Free Press 

Hours after the show wrapped up its filming for the day on Saturday, a 61-year-old man was hit by the producer who was driving the vehicle used to pose as the Cash Cab. New York Daily News reported on July 17 that the producer was driving back to the storage facility, returning the fake taxi. Shortly after, the man, who was a resident of Surrey, British Columbia, was rushed to the hospital. Sadly, the man died shortly after he was rushed to the emergency room. Castlewood Company’s (Cash Cab’s production company) president, Andrew Burnstein, released a statement to The Sun saying “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim, his friends, and his family. My heart also goes out to the driver of the vehicle, a member of our technical staff, who is shaked and devastated by this tragic accident, as is our entire team.” The car involved in the accident was not affiliated with the Yellow Cab Company, although Canada’s Cash Cab vehicle uses the Yellow Cab Company’s logo in order to make the Cash Cab look genuine and authentic. The accident is still under investigation and no charges have been filed so far. 

Jeopardy! Fan Creates Web’s Largest Trivia Game Site

The official Sporcle logo. Courtesy Sporcle.com

It all began with Matt Ramme, a Fremont-based computer programmer, creating an online game in 2007 to help him learn all the presidents of the U.S. He claims that his knowledge of the U.S. Presidents will help him better at Jeopardy, according to an article in KOMOnews.com. Little did he know that his computer game would give birth to give to one of the Internet’s most popular and challenging trivia games websites calledSporcle. Sporcle is a website which features over 200,000 quiz games on thousands of subject topics from Disney characters to the most populated U.S. cities. How did the name of the website come to be? According to Romme, “An oracle is an all-knowing being, so I just played around with the word and came up with Sporcle. And it stuck.” Although Ramme is responsible for the creation of Sporcle, frequent users like Luke Hemphill, a clerk for a Seattle concrete producer, created 95 percent of the quizzes. “I’m a big fan of Jeopardy!”, says Hemphill. “Yes, I’m addicted to Sporcle. I always love learning and that’s one of the reasons I love Sporcle so much. You really get to learn new things that I would never have known before.” Sporcle is also popular, among college students who attend universities such as Ohio State, Michigan, and Maryland (who is currently the top-ranked college in total points). Ramme and company even called upon the expertise of 74-game Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings to test their website against the trivia master himself. The staff at Sporcle pit Jennings against one of their quiz games of famous TV catch phrases. In three minutes, Jennings correctly answered 29 out of the 30 questions correctly. The only catch phrase he was hung up on was “Suit up”, which is from the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. It seems that Sporcle has earned the “seal of approval” from Jennings as he said, “If you are good at Sporcle, you’re good at Jeopardy.” I have checked out this website myself and it’s a pretty cool and challenging trivia website. So, if you get a chance to, check out Sporcle.com, the website filled with “mentally stimulating diversions”.  

More Headlines

Name That Tune Goes Live in Vegas 

Starcade Gets Online Game August 28

ABC To Develop New Game Show The Exit List

Old News: Million Dollar Money Drop Cancelled?

The $100,000 Pyramid Coming To Facebook

Boxer Manny Pacquiao Hosting His Own Game Show (Is there anything he can't do?!)
Repo Games Renewed For Second Season

Sources: Hollywood Reporter, Philippine Daily Inquirer, KGO-TV, New York Daily Post, KOMO News, The Faster Times, Hollywood Junket, Buzzerblog, The Examiner, TV Guide, TVSeriesFinale.com.