GSN Renews "Idiotest" For Second Season

Yesterday, GSN announced its second season renewal of their latest new original series, Idiotest. This marks the third first-year show the network has renewed in 2014 in addition to It Takes A Church and Skin Wars. Sixty-five episodes have been ordered for the upcoming season and comedian Ben Gleib will return as the show’s host and producer. Although I personally haven’t been keeping up with the ratings for the show, according to Deadline, the series is coming off of three straight weeks of ratings increases and its first season nearly doubled its time period average (+82%) among women 18-49 compared to last year. 

BIG NEWS: Ken Jennings To Play "Millionaire" November 14th & 17th

After defeating over 150 competitors and becoming one of biggest-winning champions on Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings is looking to take on a new challenge: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. In about three weeks, Jennings will be faced with 14 questions in an attempt to become fourth million-dollar winner in the syndicated version of Millionaire and the 13th top prize winner overall in the show's history. Jennings will be playing as a part of the show's "Guinness World Record Edition" theme week. He was the former world record holder for earning the "Largest Cash Prize Won on a TV Game Show". The record was broken last year when Andrew Kravis won $2.6 million on the ill-fated NBC game show The Million Second Quiz. 

First Webisode of The Price Is Right's Nationwide Male Model Search Debuts Monday, October 27th

The Price Is Right’s first nationwide male model search is at the halfway mark as the remaining contenders continue their journey in the semifinal round. Beginning on Monday at 3pm EDT (12pm PDT), home viewers will have the chance to see how the remaining competitors will fare in the next stage by watching the first episode of the contest's six-webisode miniseries on PriceIsRight.com. Viewers can also participate in the "Twitter party" conversion at that time by using the official #NextPriceModel hashtag to chat with other followers, judges and finalists. The judges’ and finalists’ Twitter handles are listed below. Make sure to follow them if you want to send them your questions and get the behind-the-scenes scoop on the competition. (Oh yeah! Don’t forget to follow @PriceIsRight on Twitter as well.)

Sunday Highlights: Shows To Watch Tonight (October 26th)

Believe it or not, today is actually a pretty eventful day for game shows with U.S viewers looking forward to another installment GSN’s Time Capsule later tonight, and a new episode of Family Game Night: Celebrity Edition in its new time slot on Discovery Family (formerly The Hub Network). Internationally, Canadian viewers will look forward to a new episode of CBC’s Canada’s Smartest Person and U.K. viewers will have a chance to enjoy ITV brand new primetime game show, Keep It In The Family.

"Let’s Make A Deal" To Air Musical-Themed Special November 13 + Something Interesting

After “30,000 Reasons To Love Me” won the show’s first-ever Emmy Award earlier this year, thanks to the musical stylings of Wayne Brady and Cat Grey, this news is not surprising in the least. In perhaps an attempt to capitalize on the success of the award-winning song, each deal within the special episode will feature Brady and announcer Jonathan Mangum serenade contestants with a series of comical songs to help them win prizes and avoid any and all Zonks. The duo have incorporated various improv songs in deals on previous episodes including "The Foot Massage Song", "The Chocolate Song" and a freestyle rap about a prize behind a curtain.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #67

Happy Monday, everyone! Today's update will review some of the major news headlines in the game show universe from the past week in 200 characters or less including updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. Headlining updates include Bradley Walsh hosting a new family game show, GSN's Mind Of A Man possibly returning in syndication next year, and a million-dollar winner unfortunately proving that money is not always the key to happiness. All syndication ratings are from the week ending October 5.

VIDEO REPLAY: Tesla Model S Won Playing "One Away" on "The Price Is Right"

It looks like lightning struck twice for The Price Is Right's second installment of "Dream Car Week". Throughout the week, the CBS daytime show has offered contestants a chance to play pricing games with luxury automobiles at stake including a Maserati, a Range Rover and a Porsche. Today's featured car was a Tesla Model S. After winning the day's first item up for bid in contestant's row, Vanessa Ansoorian made her way onto the stage to play "One Away", the first game of the day and one of the more tougher car pricing games, for the Tesla. This was, to say the least, a very surprising, jaw-dropping win. Check out Vanessa's $79,000+ win in the clip below. On a quick end note, although she won her pricing game, Vanessa fell short in the Showcase Showdown and walked away with only (to use the term loosely) $81,212 in prizes.

Evening News Updates For October 13, 2014

This evening's article will cover a few game show highlights from the past few days including SNL’s parody of Hollywood Game Night featuring SNL alums Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, a huge win on the first day of The Price Is Right’s second Dream Car Week and Sports Jeopardy getting off to a great start in regards to its viewership.

Quick Review of "Sports Jeopardy!"

The latest Jeopardy! spinoff, hosted by veteran sportscaster Dan Patrick, plays similarly to the original version. The only differences between the two shows are the contestants playing for points in the game, the winner of the game receives $5,000 while second and third place earns $2,000 and $1,000, respectively; there are four clues per category and they are valued at 250, 500, 750 and 1000 (500, 1000, 1500, 2000 in Double Jeopardy!). The season’s three highest scoring players return to compete in the two-game Championship Match at the end of the season where the winner receives $50,000. 

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #66

Good evening, everyone! This article will cover some of the latest game show news headlines from the past week in 200 characters or less including updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. Today’s updates including how GSN's hour-long block of rare classic game shows performed ratings wise, details concerning the first celebrity edition of the U.S. version of The Chase and a Dutch network airing a new game show pitting brainy children versus brainy adults. All syndication ratings are from the week ending September 28.

Super Deal & $500K Wins On "Let's Make A Deal" And "Million Dollar Minute"

This week in the wide world of game shows started off with a bang as CBS's Let's Make A Deal and Australia's Million Dollar Minute both witnessed huge wins yesterday and today, respectively. Lisa (still searching for last name) became the third contestant in the Brady era of Let's Make A Deal to win the $50,000 top cash prize in the Super Deal and Dougal Richardson became the biggest winner in the history of Seven Network's Million Dollar Minute after winning more than $500,000 last evening.

"Let's Make A Deal" Debuts New Game, "Accelerator", Monday, October 6th

A couple of weeks ago, The Price Is Right debuted a new game (albeit a revival) to their stage. On Monday, October 6, Let's Make A Deal will follow suit by premiering a new high stakes game of their own called "Accelerator". The Roulette-styled game will give a lucky trader a chance to spin the large Accelerator wheel for a chance to win a brand new car. To win the car, the contestant must spin three times successfully and spell out the word "CAR" by landing on one of the letters in each spin. The catch is every time the contestant lands on a letter, the letter is replaced with a Zonk space and the game automatically ends if the ball lands on a Zonk. After each turn, the contestant will be given a chance to take a cash offer in lieu of potentially leaving with the game with nothing.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #65

Today's article will cover some of the latest game show news headlines from the past week in 200 characters or less including updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. Today’s updates include Jimmy Fallon getting involved with a new NBC comedy game show format that shows some resemblance to Make Me Laugh, one of the most difficult quiz shows on U.K. television returning for a second civilian series and information on how you can watch your favorite GSN game shows in person. All syndication ratings are from the week ending September 21.