Demo chase

In the previous post I mentioned that GSN has put reruns of its 2014-16 reality show Skin Wars on Game Show Central. I figured that somebody would pipe up that the show was terrible. Sure enough, a commenter did exactly that.

To be fair, I agree with the commenter. I gave Skin Wars a blistering review. I also noted in the review that the show's premiere drew 687K viewers, a superb number by GSN standards.

Even more importantly, Skin Wars skewed extremely young for GSN, with a later ep drawing 227K viewers in the 18-49 demo. That's an enormous number for our little geriatric-leaning game show network. There's a reason you see all those ads for Medicare supplements and diabetes meds on GSN.

While Skin Wars tapered off a bit by its third season, it was still drawing nice numbers and even nicer demos in the GSN world. The final ep got 584K total viewers and a 0.15 18-49 rating. Both figures were just fine for GSN and the demo number was really good.

Game show hardcores like myself and most of the people who read this blog are always going to be tough sells for reality shows on GSN, or anywhere else. But Skin Wars performed exceptionally well for the network with the critic who literally counts, the Nielsen Company.

What finished Skin Wars on the network was the 2017 change in command at GSN from David Goldhill, who had greenlighted the show, to Mark Feldman. The new president came in promising "persistent commitment to our core audience through game show programming." That meant the current all-traditional game show lineup, which left no room for reality fodder like Skin Wars.

But GSN has decided that reruns of the show might do some business on Game Show Central. That outlet for GSN originals already featured Extreme Dodgeball, an earlier non-traditional effort. They may be right that Skin Wars will find a few viewers on GSC.

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