All GSN all the time

You're probably wondering when I'll get tired of posting about GSN. Well, it hasn't happened yet. Some more of my deep thoughts from the GSN Internet boards about new programming exec Amy Davis and the new prime time schedule...

Other poster, who claims inside information on Amy Davis' plans for GSN: Billy and I thought we both were receiving factual information and until we both see it, [emphasis mine] I'm going to believe what I heard and I'm sure Billy will be saying the same thing.

Until you both see what?

Another poster: So, I do think there will be some viewers who tune in on Friday nights [for the oldies block] that don't normally watch during the day/late night and therefore these episodes won't be worn out to those folks. Just my thoughts.

Sure, that's why GSN can get away with rerun abuse. Even an extremely short-run show like Million Dollar Password has managed to get decent ratings after a lot of rerun cycles. MDP's latest published number on October 15 was 330K viewers, just fine by GSN standards. Most viewers don't watch every episode of any GSN show religiously. There are always some eps that are new (or at least haven't been seen for a while) for some viewers.

When you start talking about a 400-episode order like GSN currently has for Match Game, a bunch of the eps will be new (or long forgotten) for many if not most GSN viewers.

Yet another poster: But your thoughts basically are to say "to hell with the diehards who do watch these shows." Who cares about the rerun abuse? They do.

Diehards like you describe are heavily over-represented on these boards (and Internet game show boards in general) compared to GSN's actual audience. Most GSN viewers do not watch every single ep of Match Game or any show every single day. The audience you talk about is a shifting group of people who occasionally tune in.

So when you have a huge - and it is huge by usual TV standards - number of episodes of Match Game, as GSN does, most of the network's audience will find plenty of new (or forgotten) eps to watch. It's really the secret of GSN's success over the years. A lot of game shows have a lot of episodes, so GSN can get away with grinding them through a lot of rerun cycles.

I don't know how GSN's oldies block on Friday will perform in the ratings. But rerun abuse really won't be a factor, though I'm sure classics fans will blame it if the shows don't get numbers.