GSN gets happy on Saturday

After all my putdowns of GSN's sorry Saturday numbers, the network bounced back on August 6. That's when GSN freed Saturday from ratings disaster Improv-a-Ganza. The results were pleasant, as I posted on the GSN schedule board.



Other poster: An okay day...



Yeah, you might say so. Of course, this was the best Saturday in a long, long time with 323K/254K prime time/total day averages. Getting rid of Improv-a-Ganza worked wonders. Notice this, GSN execs? Top ten...



9:00PM Family Feud (O'Hurley) 399

8:30PM Family Feud (Karn) 395

9:30PM Family Feud (O'Hurley) 372

12:00PM Million Dollar Password 355

8:00PM Family Feud (Karn) 354

11:30AM Catch 21 346

5:00PM Baggage 346

5:30PM Baggage 346

3:30PM Family Feud (O'Hurley) 337

11:00AM Newlywed Game 306



Bubble show was 6:00PM syndie Deal or No Deal, which is interesting. As expected, old reliables Karn and O'Hurley delivered. Their lead-in even helped High Stakes Poker to 200K numbers for a change. Cut poker to a couple post-midnight hours, give it a decent lead-in, and you might at least get okay demos.



Despite the general improvement, it was Engvall Lingo's worst day ever, not even close to the top ten. Is the ridiculous schedule finally taking a toll? Million Dollar Password got its usual nice ratings. I'll be interested to see how Regis does in the big money marathon tomorrow, with both his shows. We'll have to wait a while for those numbers, though.



The early day window, 9:00AM to 2:00PM, looked a lot better than weekdays. The 285K average easily surpassed this week's 195K weekday average for the same window. Unfortunately, that average partially relied on two very short-run shows, Million Dollar Password and Power of 10, which can't be used every day. If those shows had lasted longer, GSN might have a couple of good entries for weekday mornings or early afternoons.