Financial transaction

Our little Game Show Network has lately run into a couple problems named Drew and Wendy. But that doesn't mean GSN is headed for bankruptcy. DirecTV, one of the network's corporate parents, has sold a 5% stake in GSN for $60 million. The transaction values all of the network at $1.2 billion, which seems pretty good for the home of Match Game reruns.

The press release doesn't specify the buyer. Maybe Sony bought back the stake to add to their previous 35% share. Maybe somebody else wanted a slice of the pie. DirecTV says they realized a $25 million pre-tax gain ($16 million after-tax) on the sale, which reduces their ownership of GSN to 60%.

I mentioned Drew and Wendy and, yes, they are problems. Douglas just posted GSN's viewer numbers for Tuesday, May 3. Until Love Triangle and Improv-a-Ganza appeared on the scene, the network was enjoying a very nice day. Sherri Shepherd chipped in 400K+ viewers for each of her Newlywed Game episodes in the 6:00PM hour. Richard Karn's Family Feud did its usual good business with another 400K+ number at 4:30PM. Several other shows tossed in 300K+ contributions.

Then Love Triangle hit at 7:00PM, losing half its lead-in from Sherri. Improv-a-Ganza did about the same dismal number at 8:00PM, and the deadly duo's repeats later in the night really crashed and burned. That dragged down GSN's overall viewership averages for the day to 259K/249K prime time/total day. (Grubby little technical note: the total day number excludes the 8:00AM and 3:00AM hours.)

Sooner or later the $1.2 billion network will get tired of Wendy and Drew screwing things up, and we'll see major cutbacks in their timeslots.