Playing Catch Up: News Updates From The Past Week

Because I haven’t had much time to regularly post updates on the TBIR Facebook and main page, today’s article is dedicated to briefly covering some of the more prominent game show news stories from the past week including FremantleMedia’s BUZZR facing a trademark suit, BBC unsurprisingly renewing Pointless, Australia’s Seven Network ordering a new game show from ITV Studios and The Price Is Right heading for Nigeria.

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #85

This week's article will be reviewing some of the latest game show news from the past week in 200 characters or less. Updates include an "enriching" highlight from Monopoly Millionaires' Club, GSN Games absorbing a UK social gaming company, the latest edition of The $100,000 Pyramid looking for contestants to compete on the reboot and Jeopardy! banning Canadian contestants for the time being.

“The Price Is Right” Heads To Primetime With Three Reality Show Specials

Beginning in March, The Price Is Right will be taping special primetime episodes paying tribute to popular CBS reality shows Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race. Each episode will feature audiences filled with super fans, as well as prizes and guest stars related to the respective shows including Phil Keoghan, Jeff Probst and Julie Chen. The Survivor special will be taped on March 7 at 8:30am, the Big Brother special on March 22 at 12:00pm and the Amazing Race special at 8:30am. Go to On Camera Audiences for more information on how you can obtain tickets for the tapings. The specials will air later this year. 

News In A Flash!: Quick Game Show Updates #82

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 a few updates featured on the TBIR Facebook page. News updates include The Price Is Right bringing back its annual Socially Awesome Week, a local Philadelphia affiliate news station holding a contest with the winners receiving tickets to attend a taping of Wheel of Fortune, Logo greenlighting a new game show starring Skin Wars judge RuPaul and Jeopardy's upcoming adult online audition test dates.

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. 

CBS Daytime Debut: New Seasons Of "Let’s Make A Deal" & "The Price Is Right " Begin September 21

The second week of September’s game show premiere month will be centered around CBS and the season debut of its two veteran game shows, Let’s Make A Deal and The Price Is Right. Entering into its seven season, Let’s Make A Deal’s premiere week will introduce the "Mega Deal" to viewers for the first time in series history. Unlike the Big Deal and Super Deal, the new Mega Deal gives contestants to win every prize presented in the show – totaling over $100,000. To kickoff the 44th season of The Price Is Right, the show will be paying a tribute to each decade the series has aired on CBS each day next week from the 1970s on Monday, all the way up to the 2010s on Friday. A new pricing game will also be unveiled during the premiere week. Check out the promos to both shows in the clips below and stay tuned to see The Price Is Right look back through its history and if history will be made on Let’s Make A Deal. Check your local listings for air times.

"The Price Is Right" Celebrates Social Media With Socially @wesome Week

The Price Is Right is dedicating this week to social media and all of its glory with Socially Awesome Week. All this week, the show will be live tweeting using the #PriceIsRight hashtag and viewers will be treated with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of today's episode, participate in a custom T-shirt contest and chat with some of the show's production crew and models on Reddit. If you haven't done so already, make sure you follow The Price Is Right, Drew Carey, George Gray and Rachel Reynolds on their respective Twitter handles. 

Game Shows To Watch For The Next 48 Hours

This week seems like a moderately busy one for game shows — well, at least for the next two days. Tomorrow,  HLN premieres its first-ever game show, Keywords, with former Figure It Out host Summer Sanders and CBS's daytime talk show The Talk revealing this year’s Daytime Emmy nominations including the nominees for “Outstanding Game Show Host” and “Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show”. On April Fools Day, both CBS daytime game shows, Let’s Make A Deal and The Price Is Right, are marking the occasion by hosting special episodes featuring the cast of LMAD kidnapping Drew Carey and legendary host Bob Barker stopping by set of TPIR. Later that evening, Idiotest returns for a second season. I also have news of a last-minute decision by GSN to pull Monopoly Millionaires’ Club.

VIDEO REPLAY: "The Price Is Right" Kicks Off #UDecide Week With $75,000 Rat Race Win

Two weeks ago, The Price Is Right gave viewers a chance to vote on various elements for this week's #UDecide series of episodes via Twitter including which prizes should be given away, what pricing games should be played and which exclusive behind-the-scenes clips should be shown to the home viewers. The first #UDecide segment occurred during the third pricing game upon the viewers choosing the $100,000 version of "Rat Race" over "Grand Game". Anthony Cork was the lucky contestant who had the chance to win the super-sized grand prize if all three of his chosen rats placed, or at least win $75,000; $15,000; or $10,000 if one of his rats came in first, second, or third, respectively. It wouldn't take long for Cork's luck to run out temporarily after winning only one rat to compete in the race. Although his chances of emerging victorious were slim, Cork beat the odds and became $75,000 richer. Check out his photo-finish victory in the clip below and make sure you stay tuned all this week for TPIR's #UDecide Week!

FremantleMedia North America To Launch Buzzr TV On FOX O&O Stations

If you are a die-hard game show fan, you might want to check this out: FremantleMedia North America is planning to launch a digital multicast channel solely devoted to classic game shows called Buzzr TV. FOX owned-and-operated stations have picked up the Buzzr TV to air in 17 top markets beginning this summer. The deal was brokered for FremantleMedia by Debmar-Mercury distribution. Some of the vintage shows expected to air on the new channel could include Goodson-Todman classics like Match Game, What’s My Line?, To Tell The Truth and Password. Debmar-Mercury will shop the channel to other stations during the National Association of Television Program Executives confab, which runs through Thursday in Miami Beach. This seems like the perfect opportunity for FremantleMedia to enter into the multicast market, especially with the success Wiegel Broadcasting and Tribune Broadcasting have had with MeTV and Antenna TV.

STAY TUNED: TPIR's Nationwide Male Model Winner Reveal & Gift Ideas For The Day

This week is going to be another eventful week on The Price Is Right. Beginning tomorrow, the show will be revealing the winner of the first-ever nationwide male model search for the long-running CBS daytime game show and each episode for the next two weeks will be offering a “Gift Idea of the Day” just in time for the holiday season.

Thanksgiving Holiday Watch List (Nov. 26-28): "The Price Is Right", "Let’s Make A Deal", "Millionaire" and GSN Marathons

On Thanksgiving Eve (Wednesday, November 26) during CBS daytime, The Price Is Right and Let’s Make A Deal will be celebrating the holiday with special Thanksgiving-themed episodes. On Let’s Make A Deal, contestants will be dressed as turkeys, pilgrims and pumpkins and will play themed games including a 3-Turkey Deal for big bucks and games involving a Turkey hotline and a giant pumpkin that has apparently caught the eye of the "hungry" cast. As a special bonus, the studio audience will receive a family heirloom cookbook project featuring tools and directions on how to create your own cookbook filled with family recipes. Check your local listings for air times.

VIDEO REPLAY: Mark Contreras Becomes Third Biggest TPIR Daytime Winner

This season's edition of "Big Money Week" started off with a bang with Steven Heine winning $100,000 playing "Rat Race" on Monday's show and ended on a high note with Mark Contreras becoming the third biggest winner on the daytime version of The Price Is Right after winning $100,000 in "Grand Game" and his Showcase. To be more specific, Contreras won $143,545 for the day including four pairs of sunglasses, an outdoor kitchen with a gas grill and a mini refrigerator, patio furniture, a Honda Civic Natural Gas and $100,000 in cash. 

STAY TUNED: Million-Dollar “Plinko” on The Price Is Right’s “Big Money Week”

So far this week, nearly $500,000 has been up for grabs in the three super- sized pricing games combined during the third edition of The Price Is Right’s “Big Money Week”. Today’s featured pricing game for the special theme week will be raising the stakes by giving a contestant a chance to win up to $1 million playing “Plinko”. When it comes to big payouts, “Plinko” is the game to play. We’ve seen some pretty incredible prizes at stake within the past few decades of the game’s existence including the inflated increase to the now-permanent $50,000 format; $100,000 during primetime specials, $500,000 during the first “Big Money Week” and various other prizes including trips and cars during the All-Plinko episode last season. This year, the records for “highest daytime winnings” and “biggest daytime pricing game win” could be easily broken in one turn at $200,000 a chip. Check out this exclusive short sneak peak some snapshots of today’s episode featuring the million-dollar “Plinko” game.

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.

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.)

"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.

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.