“Celebrity Name Game” To Be Cancelled After Three Seasons

According to Deadline Hollywood, the Courteney Cox/David Arquette-executive produced game show will not be renewed once this season concludes. Jennifer Mullin, Co-CEO of FremantleMedia North America, states: “We’ve had a wonderful time producing Celebrity Name Game and we are exceptionally proud of its three seasons in syndication. While we are not renewing in syndication at this time, it is a format we believe in. We are thankful to our loyal audience, our celebrity guests, the incredibly talented Craig Ferguson, our partners at Debmar–Mercury and Coquette, and our crew — whose passion for this series has been unparalleled.” 


Developed by Coquette productions, Celebrity Name Game is based off the board game Identity Crisis and had two pairs of teams compete against each other with the help of celebrity partners to guess the names of celebrities, places, movies, TV shows and characters for a chance to win up to $20,000. Later in the show’s run, teams had to guess a broader mix of words based off a single letter and identifying celebrities based off their tweets. The show has recently posted a 1.4 household rating (+8% from previous week) and a 0.7 rating among the key Women 25-54 daytime demo. Since Celebrity Name Game premiered in 2014, Celebrity Name Game has aired across affiliate stations owned by CBS, Sinclair and Tribune Broadcasting, covering over 80% of U.S. TV households. In its first two seasons, Craig Ferguson was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for “Outstanding Game Show Host” and won both years. Although the show has mostly averaged a 1.3 household rating for the past three years, it was not enough to keep the show afloat. Celebrity Name Game was co-produced by domestic and international distributors Debmar-Mercury and Fremantle North America.  

This is the third new syndicated game show to get the boot in three seasons or less in the past couple of years since Let’s Ask America ended in 2015 and Monopoly Millionaires' Club ended earlier this year. Unlike the aforementioned series, I will truly miss this show – not only because I’m a fan of Craig Ferguson – but because of how well the show catered to game show fans who enjoy word association games and how well-constructed and fun the format was to attract the interest of average viewers. 

Check out some of the more exciting and comical highlights from Celebrity Name Game in the clip below.

Sources: Deadline Hollywood,  Hollywood Reporter