So Long Summer!: 2015 Summer Game Show Highlights

As the 2015 summer television season is slowly coming to a close within the next few weeks, today’s article will take a retrospective look at the highs, the lows and everything else in between of the game shows that have aired within the past three months. Some of game show highlights include moments from Celebrity Family Feud, BattleBots, 500 Questions, Geeks Who Drink and Race To Escape. 

STAY TUNED: BUZZR's "Lost And Found" Block To Premiere September 7

For those of you who have FremantleMedia's digital channel, BUZZR, available on your local station, you are in for a treat within the next few weeks. Starting September 7, the channel will be airing a special "Lost and Found" block dedicated to exhibiting rarely seen game shows and pilots from Fremantle's vault. According to the promo (shown below), some of the unearthed shows to be aired could include Star Words, Body Talk, TKO and Double Dare (no, not the Nickelodeon version).

Second Season of "Monopoly Millionaires' Club" To Debut September 12

The weekly syndicated lottery game show, based on one the world's most popular board games, will be returning for a second season next month. Host Billy Gardell and co-host Todd Newton will be back to help contestants become instant thousand-aires and millionaires. This season, Monopoly Millionaires' Club will move to a half-hour format and will have only three contestants face three $100,000 games with the top winner possibly risking all of their winnings to play the "GO For A Million" end game for up to $1 million. Like the previous season, the studio audience will consist of lottery players and their guests who won a five-day, four-night trip for two to Las Vegas, a stay at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, and a seat in the live audience to watch a taping of the show and potentially win a chance to play on stage or win a share of the competing contestants' winnings in their section.   During the show's 12-episode first season, over $5 million in cash and prizes were given away to contestants who won their way on stage by playing the Monopoly Millionaires' Club lottery game, including two million-dollar winners.

Sky 1 To Debut "One Hundred and Eighty" In September

Fans of Bullseye might be thrilled by this news. Davina McCall, from Channel 4's The Million Pound Drop, will be hosting the new Sky 1 game show One Hundred and Eighty with Freddie Flintoff and professional darts commentator Rod Studd calling the play-by-play action. In the new series, skilled contestants partner up with world-famous darts players to compete in darts-based games and traditional legs of 501 for big cash prizes. The professional players will play against themselves first to determine the prize fund before they are paired with the civilian contestants for the remainder of the game. Competing pros include 16-time world champion Phil Taylor, World Number One Michael Van Gerwen and current World Champion Gary Anderson. Eight one-hour episodes will be produced by ITV Studios for Sky 1 and will be filmed in front of a studio audience at Blackpool Winter Gardens.  Go to Applause Store for more information on how to get free tickets if you're interested in attending a taping of One Hundred and Eighty.

Studio Lambert To Develop Emoji Game Show Format

Studio Lambert, the same producers behind Undercover Boss, is in talks to potentially create The Great Emoji Challenge. The game show, co-developed by 405 Productions, will have contestants solving puzzles and phrases based on decoding the meaning of each emoji for a chance to win up to $1 million. The series is being taken out in the U.S. and U.K. simultaneously and is executive produced by All3Media/Studio Lambert’s Stephen Lambert, Greg Goldman and Eli Holzman 405 Productions’ Richard Joel, and Adam Matalon.

Quick Reviews of "Geeks Who Drink", "Race To Escape" & "Freeze Out"

Since I have been a bit behind on my reviews on some the latest game shows to premiere in the U.S. and the U.K., today’s article will be dedicated to briefly reviewing three of the latest shows to hit the airwaves: Geeks Who Drink, Race To Escape and Freeze Out. Geeks Who Drink premiered July 11 on SyFy with host Zachary Levi, Race To Escape made its debut July 25 on Science Channel with comedian Jimmy Pardo hosting and Freeze Out began its brief summer run last Monday with Mark Durden-Smith at the helm. 

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #69

This week's update will review some of the major news headlines in the game show universe from the past few weeks in 200 characters or less including updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. Updates include another Celebrity Fifteen To One series starting tonight in the U.K., the first season of Sports Jeopardy! coming to a close next month and Anne Hegarty joining the cast of Chasers on Australia's upcoming version of The Chase.