Which is remarkable when you think about it. Nowadays, scripted shows labor through maybe fifteen or twenty episodes and call it a "season." Every year Jeopardy (not to mention the other syndie game shows) produces hundreds of eps while barely raising a sweat. And it's not like nobody is watching. Jeopardy consistently attracts eight or nine million viewers. Okay, the audience skews older than, well, me. But a lot of scripted shows would kill for an audience that size.
Whatever else you might say about our little genre - and a lot of not so flattering things have been said - we can still churn out the product. Which gets back to one of the genre's greatest strengths: low production costs. If a game show hits big, it's no problem to crank out a bunch of episodes for very reasonable money.
In fact, the production glut can lead to overexposure, as a certain network discovered with a certain show hosted by Regis Philbin. But that's a discussion for another day.
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