GSN's January Schedule

More changes for GSN’s schedule started today and some are already in effect. For those who have not seen them yet, they are as follows, all times are Eastern:

WEEKDAYS:
11:00 am Wheel of Fortune (replaces syndie Match Game)
11:30 am Tic Tac Dough (replaces Super Password; though Super Password stays at Noon)
1:00 pm Match Game (replaces Jeopardy!)
2:00 pm Jeopardy! (replaces Password Plus)
2:30 pm Password Plus (replaces Match Game)

LATE SATURDAY/EARLY SUNDAY:
1:00 am Twenty-One (replaces Trivia Trap/Now You See It; though both shows remain on weeknights at 1-2 am)
2:00 am Body Language (replaces Let’s Make A Deal; though it remains on weekday mornings)
2:30 am Beat the Clock (replaces Let’s Make A Deal)

LATE SUNDAY/EARLY MONDAY:
12:30 am Super Password (replaces Double Dare)
1:00 am Double Dare (replaces Body Language)
1:30 am Double Dare (replaces Beat the Clock)
2:00 am Body Language (replaces Anything to Win)
2:30 am Beat the Clock (replaces Anything to Win)

NIGHTLY:
3:00 am What’s My Line? (replaces The Amazing Race)
3:30 am I’ve Got A Secret (replaces The Amazing Race)

Most of these changes I’m really satisfied about. It’s nice to see more Sony-owned series out of the vaults. I love the fact that Wheel of Fortune is back on the line-up. The season they’ve chosen to air is 1994-95. While I’d love to see an older season (basically anything except 1988-89), I’m really glad they didn’t go modern and air a 2000+ season like they’ve done with Jeopardy!. By the new millennium, Wheel to me begins to lose that level of simplicity and starts to focus more on its own glamour. It’s really obvious if you see a first-run episode today. I can watch new episodes every once in a while, but the “gotta watch every night” feeling is gone now for me. And I’m not sad about it replacing the daytime syndicated version of Match Game (1979-82), GSN has rerun that a lot in the past 3 years; including an instance where they were airing it at three different times at three different positions of the run. Weekends only with that doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

I’m impressed that they’ve gotten Tic Tac Dough (1978-86) as well; the season they are airing is 1979-80, so we‘ll be seeing champ Thom McKee soon. Double Dare (1976-77), Beat the Clock (1979-80), and Body Language (1984-86) each get one extra airing on the weekends. What’s My Line? (1950-67) is now back on 7 days a week again as of last week. A great decision to me that’s long overdue; the once-a-week airings for over a year drove me insane. You don’t put a show that has over 700 existing episodes on once a week. And The Amazing Race is off GSN and remains on Fox Reality Channel, a much more appropriate network. Then after What’s My Line? is I’ve Got A Secret with Garry Moore.

The only thing I’m truly not happy about is the fact that Ray Combs’ era of Family Feud is disappearing yet again as of next week. And it’s really not the fact that it’s being pulled, but more about how they’re in the final season and it would have been really nice to see the finale before it left the schedule. It will be replaced by the Dawson era.

Other than that, I’m really excited about the majority of the new schedule, mostly the additions and changes. Seeing more Sony shows these past several months are always a good sign. Hopefully they’re getting a bit of a better deal from them. Not only do they own good game shows featuring the likes of Pyramid, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and The Joker’s Wild, but they have a great library filled with all kinds of classic shows and I wish that it was easier to get these shows in syndication and on DVD faster than they already are.