Reboot-o-mania

A few posts back I noted that our little genre is reboot-happy. Once a game show format succeeds to any extent at all, somebody starts cooking up a new version or knockoff. Right now we're awaiting the debuts for rewinds of Card Sharks, Press Your Luck and Hollywood Squares.

Yes, as someone once observed, there is nothing new under the sun. Or over the sun, for that matter. If they've got game shows on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, they're probably rebooting them out there, too. There are only so many ways you can get contestants to play games that people (or Alpha Centaurians) might be interested in watching.

Still, it's kind of depressing to watch the same old formats get recycled in the same old ways. At least GSN threw a few tweaks into the Family Feud format and came up with America Says. GSN won't get any plaudits from the game show Interwebs, but the Nielsen Company has approved. This fall's upcoming 25 Words or Less is a reworking of Password, but it's not quite a paint-by-numbers clone.

Oh well, if ABC can copy old-time Pyramid down to the last detail and get an audience, who am I to complain? They're copying something good, anyway.

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: