Current Renewal Status of Syndicated Game Shows

According to Broadcasting & Cable, several distribution companies are in the market of renewing the contracts of several syndicated series including Warner Bros.’ with The Ellen DeGeneres Show through 2020 on NBC-owned stations, CBS Television Distribution holding on to Hot Bench, created by Judge Judy Sheindlin, through the 2017-2018 season and NBCUniversal expected to renew Steve Harvey. In the world of game shows, veteran game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have been renewed through the 2017-2018 season by CTD, Debmar-Mercury is currently in the market to secure renewals for Family Feud, even though  Steve Harvey’s contract has been renewed through 2021 to host the now-popular game show, and Tribune is expected to renew the sophomore show Celebrity Name Game. Tribune’s decision is partly based on the company searching for ways to replace its downward-trending controversial daytime talk shows, Maury, Jerry Springer and Steve Wilkos.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #78

This week's quick update article will cover some of the latest game show news headlines from the past few days in 200 characters or less including updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. News updates include recent game show ratings, big news from Monopoly Millionaires' Club, Alex Jacob's dominant Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finals performance,  Stephen Fry receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award and an online kickstarter funding campaign which could lead to the production of a documentary based on former "controversial" Jeopardy! champion Arthur Chu. 

"Jeopardy!" 2015 Tournament of Champions Begins Monday, November 9

Beginning tomorrow, the exciting two-week event that is the Tournament of Champions returns to Jeopardy! with the 15 biggest-winning champions from the 31st season and the first half of the current season competing for the coveted, elusive title of Jeopardy! Tournament Champion and the grand prize of $250,000. As with every Jeopardy! tourney, the quarterfinals will air this week, the semifinals will air the following week from Monday - Wednesday and the two-day final round will air next Thursday and Friday. With past champions including Teachers' Tournament winner Jennifer Giles, professional poker player Alex Jacob and Matt Jackson, the 4th winningest regular episode Jeopardy! champion with over $400,000 to his credit, this should be yet another interesting and highly competitive Jeopardy! tournament. Check out the who's going to be playing in the quarterfinals in the list below and stay tuned for the Tournament of Champions for the next two weeks. You can also keep track of the tournament action on Jeopardy.com. Check your local listings for air times.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #75

This week's quick update article will cover some of the latest game show news headlines from the past few days in 200 characters or less including updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. News updates include a live performance of Let's Make A Deal coming to Michigan this weekend, Jeopardy! holding a special online audition test session for Houston residents next week, TLC's Labor Games host Lisa Arch talking with WSRQ Talk Radio's Marilu Henner about her experiences hosting the pregnancy ambush game show and Showtime creating a series based on a former Barker's Beauty model.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #74

This week's quick update article will cover some of the latest game show news headlines from the past few days in 200 characters or less including updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. News updates include Stephen Fry stepping down as the host of the curiously entertaining BBC panel game show QI, another contestant winning Channel 4's Deal or No Deal's £250,000 top prize, Alex Trebek donating $1 million to Forham University, the first champion to win GSN's newest competitive reality series Steampunk'd along with the show's $100,000 grand prize, and a few GSN ratings updates.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #72

Today's update will review 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. Quick updates include the second season premiere of Sports Jeopardy! under a revised format, big winners on The Chase, The Chase Australia, another quarter-million dollar winner on Millionaire and some of the latest ratings updates. 

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #71

This week's update will review 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. This series of quick updates include the ratings for TLC's Labor Games official first night out last Tuesday, the second season of Sports Jeopardy! kicking off next week, Mastermind returning to New Zealand after a 30+ year hiatus and a contestant winning a staggering six-figure sum during the Millionaire's 14th season premiere week.

Craig Ferguson Among Daytime Emmy Award Winners

Last night marked the return of the Daytime Emmy Awards to television with the live broadcast airing on Pop Network, formerly known as the TV Guide Network. Highlights from the 42nd edition of the annual awards ceremony included Days of Our Lives and The Young and The Restless tying for Outstanding Drama Series, Betty White honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award and Craig Ferguson winning his first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host on Celebrity Name Game. Ferguson bested Steve Harvey, Todd Newton and Pat Sajak to win the award. 

"Jeopardy!" 2015 Teachers Tournament To Begin February 2nd

Beginning tomorrow after Super Bowl Sunday, Jeopardy! will be kicking off its fifth Teachers Tournament. The two-week event features 15 of the nation’s brightest and smartest K-12 teachers competing to win tourney’s $100,000 grand prize and a coveted spot in the show's next Tournament of Champions. The runner-up and the third place contender will receive generous consolation prizes of $50,000 and $25,000, respectively. Take a look at the roster of contestants who will be competing in the opening qualifying quarterfinals round this week in the list below. 

Sony E-mail Leak Shows Alex Trebek Upset At Producers & Sony Executives

Amidst all of the personal messages that have been unveiled to public thanks to the Sony e-mail-hack debacle, a series of e-mails had surfaced yesterday showing an irate Alex Trebek expressing his discontent with the producers and Sony executives after he was asked to re-tape a segment of Jeopardy! during Kids Week due to an incident with a contestant named Gabby Fusco. After the Fusco had ended Double Jeopardy! with -$1,400 and was unable to play in the Final Jeopardy! round on Wednesday’s show, a producer wrote via e-mail that “she was visibly upset” and ran backstage crying with her mother. 

Afternoon News Updates For Tuesday, November 18

Good afternoon, game show fans! Today's brief batch of updates include the current state of the 2014 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, Ten Network's Family Feud building upon the success of its show by unveiling a new home game, Million Dollar Minute making a "game-changing" adjustment to its format and GSN airing a retrospect honoring classic game shows.

November Sweeps Highlights For The Week of November 10-14

Millionaire introduced this year’s November sweeps month with the show’s first-ever "Whiz Kids" week. The second week of sweeps month is going to be quite eventful. Special, DVR-worthy episodes include with Ken Jennings attempting to reclaim the top spot among the list of biggest-winning American game show contestants on Millionaire, The Price Is Right airing its third "Big Money Week", Let’s Make A Deal debuting its first-ever all-musical special, former Jeopardy! champions set to play the quarterfinal rounds in this year’s Tournament of Champions and the third season of GSN’s The Chase premiering with its first celebrity episode. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get into it.

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. 

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #63

Today's article will cover some of the latest game show news headlines from the past few days in 200 characters or less (except for one). This morning's updates include another network acquiring Family Feud reruns, GSN reviving one of its most successful original relationship/dating game shows and syndication ratings. All syndication ratings are from the week ending September 7.

Game Shows To Watch For The Week of September 14th

In the second week of Fall game show premieres, the top three game shows in syndication return with new episodes filled with big money, tough trivia questions and funny moments. Veteran syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Family Feud begin their new seasons today. Today’s article will highlight all three shows and what the viewers can expect for each show this year. Before I proceed with this article, let me present you with this fun fact: these three shows have aired for a combined total of 79 years in syndication. Like the show co-hosted by John Davidson, that’s incredible. 

Halftime Highlights: Top Game Show Moments From January-June 2014

As we enter into the early beginnings of the third quarter of the year 2014, The Blog Is Right is going to take a look back at some of the key moments that occurred during each month of the first half of the year. Think of this as somewhat of a halftime show without the cheerleaders, mascot races, monkeys riding dogs or Chris Berman voicing over the highlight reel. Keep these number one monthly moments in mind as they will more than likely reappear in this year’s end-of-the-year Top 10 Countdown list.

Afternoon News Updates For June 23, 2014

Today's early afternoon updates will recap some of the more prominent game show news headlines from this past weekend including Let's Make A Deal and host Steve Harvey winning their first Daytime Emmy in their respective categories, ITV possibly reviving Name That Tune and Wipeout returning to ABC for its primetime summer schedule.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #56

Today’s article will cover many game show news headlines and updates featured throughout the week in 200 characters or less along with some that may have been already covered on The Blog Is Right Facebook page from a new game show in the making hoping to absorb some of the success and viewers from ITV's Release The Hounds to NBC's Million Second Quiz surprisingly becoming an award-winning show (and no, it's wasn't Bennie Award). All syndication ratings, with the exception for the ones mentioned otherwise, are from the week ending May 25.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #55

Good afternoon, game show fanatics! Today’s article, as with every "News In A Flash" article, will cover many game show news headlines and updates featured throughout the week in 200 characters or less along with some that may have been already covered on The Blog Is Right Facebook page from contestant calls to a mobile platform puzzle game (similar to Boggle) possibly being brought to life as a television game show. All syndication ratings are from the week ending May 18.

Game Show Highlight of The Week: Julia Collins' Double-Digit Winning Streak Continues

Good afternoon, game show fans! I hope everyone had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. Let's get back to business, shall we? Arthur Chu’s reign of terror seems like an afterthought compared to Julia Collins rocking the Jeopardy! world with her amazing, active 16-game winning streak. Within the past four weekdays, she had surpassed Chu’s $297,000+ total, ensured her victories with four straight “locked” games and added $92,090 to her bank giving her a current running total of $337,700.