Upfront Update: Game Shows Rule Again at GSN; Pretty Big Tweet-Front at ABC Family

GSNVenue Breakfast hour at Sony Club the gorgeous 35th floor space of Sony39s Madison Avenue building Plenty of french toast bagels and melon served In a fun touch tabletops in the presentation room were lined with show titles and logos Grade 45 JacksPresentation With the network readopting its original title Game Show Network in recent months management declared the genre and spins on it will be the focus from here on quotBy the end of 2015 we39ll have triple the amount of original programming on the network from nowquot promised chief executive David Goodhill quotAnd the quality of the shows will be as good as anything on the airquot Ratings are up double digits from a year ago and more than 70 advertisers made their first GSN buys the last 12 months In what39s becoming the thing to do at events directed at press this year GSN brought in some of their top onair talent including Mark Labbett quotThe Beastquot mastermind from growing favorite The Chase One tall towering and engaging presence Labbett weaved throughout the channel39s showcase quotYou try six years to come with a culture of management intimidation and then you meet this guyquot Goldhill noted early on Mr L and Chase host Brooke Burns supplied repartee and joined their GSN colleagues for a live demo of Idiot Quiz where pairs of contestants put their logic or lack of to the test Need we say who correctly answered one of this show39s clever brainteasers Choice video Hysterical Mind of a Man sequence featuring a faketipsy panelist Grade 45 JacksNews Idiot Quiz hosted by comedian Ben Gielb goes on this summer It Takes a Church first disclosed at last year39s event finally makes it June 5 Congregants at parishes nationwide find potential mates with guidance from fellow churchgoers One more summer or early fall series debut Bodypainting competition series Skin Wars hosted by Rebecca Romijn Pilot work has started on App Wars a Shark Tanklike forum for new app ideas could double as a smart TV app generator and Say What which matches the game of Telephone with memory exercises Of four shows in development GSN appears very taken with The Line a quiz taped around the country involving people on line to play the quiz for big cash The last episode would be produced live if a series results Grade 4 JacksHosts Threeway effort from Goodhill programming chief Amy IntrocasoDavis and ad sales senior exec John Zaccario All buzzed in their portions well Pay attention to Greib an understated yet fun talent Grade 4 JacksOverall Grade 45 Jacks Best pressdirected effort yet thanks to breaking the speech and videos combination up with the live minigame and celebrities showing upABC FamilyVenue The Ziegfield Theater New York City39s lastremaining art deco movie palace on W 54th St It holds more than 1100 seats There was plenty of popcorn and soda for all Grade 5 JacksPresentation If you39re looking for formal presentations where execs do all the talking and upcoming shows dominate look elsewhere ABC Family is heavy on the unconventional Try last year a panel session on making great series from the creators of Switched at Birth Pretty Little Liars etc With Pretty a Twitter darling hundreds of teen and millennial fans of this series packed the Ziegfeld with their smart phones and laptops gathering to watch the fourth season finale on the big screen plus see the cast and producers on stage the hour before in a live table read of the episode39s first three acts The crowd was so fired up about tweeting away and catching the cast live new ABC Family management limited their onstage time to less than three minutes Good move Our early 2014 stroke of genius award goes to whoever came up with the live table read The actors made the most of the opportunity with some fun offthecuff banter the audience hung on every plot turn and everyone appreciated how the finished version of those scenes came out Grade 5 JacksNews Zip until amp8220PLLamp8221 announced its summer season five premiere date after the episode ended Grade 1 JackHost Rachel Smith the entertainment anchor of syndicated weekend series On the Red Carpet did a nice job keeping spirits high and the tweet counts in viewGrade 35 JacksOverall Grade 35 Jacks The live readseason finale combo worked So did the Twitter result more than 16 million tweets for the night about twothirds during the finale At one point more than 26000 people reacted per minute One thought If you repeat this next year include scenes from an upcoming new series to build up attention5 Jacks Excellent4 Jacks Very Good3 Jacks Good2 Jacks Fair1 Jack Poor0 Jacks Worse than badNext up National Geographic Channels and IFCUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and 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Upfront Update: Game Shows Rule Again at GSN; Pretty Big Tweet-Front at ABC Family

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