Churning 'em out

A faux tweet quoted a Wheel of Fortune contestant marveling how they can produce six shows a day, thirty-nine days a year. Actually, I think it's five shows a day for 185 a year, but who's quibbling over numbers? Game show producers have always been able to crank out a bazillion episodes quick and dirty.

That naturally tempts network execs when they get a hit prime time game show. ABC's over-reliance on multiple weekly runs of Millionaire has become industry legend. NBC did much the same with Deal or No Deal.

But who can blame them? Get some contestants, roll the cameras, dole out the prize money, rack up the eps. It's not like scripted shows where you gotta pay prima donna actors, directors, writers, and God knows who else, and then the show usually flops, anyway. And even if the show succeeds, you only end up with a relative handful of episodes that you can peddle to syndication for some payback.

The critics who whine about the death of scripted shows on broadcast TV get little sympathy from me. Most scripted fare is garbage, and ridiculously expensive garbage at that. Frankly, I'd rather watch an episode of Deal or No Deal than just about any scripted show currently on broadcast prime time. At least the contestants are sort of real, unlike the overpaid actors.