Upfronting with GSN

The GSN upfront came and went today. Amid much hoopla about how swell the network is doing, GSN greenlighted their own versions of two game shows: Minute To Win It (from NBC) and The Chase (from Britain's ITV). Everybody has known about the first show for a while. Apolo Ohno will bring the stuntfest to air June 25. Buzzerblog's Alex Davis, diehard fan of Brit game shows, had been heavily hinting about the second show. No airdate or host was announced for The Chase.

The development slate includes a couple items I've already blogged about: The Imposter, a reality-ish version of To Tell the Truth, and Where Have You Been All My Life, a dating show that Brooke Burns hosted a pilot for. Brooke allegedly didn't impress the execs, so who knows about that project.

There are some other things in development, a mix of traditional game shows and reality stuff. Grumpy me isn't particularly impressed by any of the ideas. If I had to guess, I'd say that the survey-based Mind of a Man would be most likely to succeed with GSN's audience. The reality shows frankly all look like losers with the network's viewers. Especially Dance Rivals, some weird competition between two dance studios in Orem, Utah (honest!)

You'd think that Dancing With the Stars would have soured GSN execs on anything remotely connected to choreography.

UPDATE: Interesting that the development idea getting the most press is It Takes a Church. It's a church-based dating show. Yeah, sounds strange to me, too. But maybe I should have expected it after American Bible Challenge blew the Nielsen doors off.