Melissa Peterman
ABC Family is looking to expand its presence in the reality TV world, picking up two new unscripted series: Dancing Fools, hosted by Melissa Peterman (Baby Daddy) and the docusoap The Vineyard...
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Janice Renee, Al Milstein and Bob Barker
Truth or Consequences, one of the most popular game shows from the early days of TV, could be making a comeback. The Gurin Company, which produces Oh Sit! for The CW, has licensed the rights to the show and is currently shopping it to networks.
"Truth or Consequences is a great collection of game, stunt, hidden camera, reunions, surprises, strange talents and unique guests," says Phil Gurin, president and CEO of The Gurin Company. "It's just a really fun show. We're taking the original show and making it bigger."
Truth or Consequences ran for 38 years on radio and TV, including on both CBS and NBC, and later in syndication. The show, which Gurin licensed from Ralph Edwards Productions (which launched it on radio in 1939), was Bob Barker's first TV job in 1956. A town in New Mexico renamed itself Truth or Consequences, N.M., in homage and is still called that to this day.
The game show puts ordinary people in...
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Phil Gurin
Did Oh Sit! hit the fans? Final ratings for the new CW competition series' Wednesday night premiere will be out later today, but the network already plans to air episode two of Oh Sit! tonight at 8/7c (leading into the series premiere of the new singing competition The Next). Oh Sit! — which was originally titled Extreme Musical Chairs, until The CW decided to have some fun with the title — centers on 12 contestants who go through a series of physically challenging obstacle courses to order to claim a chair (as a live band performs). The last player on a chair wins a cash prize. Jamie Kennedy hosts, along with Jessi Cruickshank, with Tanika Ray as the sidelines reporter. Executive producer Phil Gurin (The Singing Bee, Shark Tank) took time to fill out our TV Guide Magazine showrunner survey and explain why Oh Sit! happens.
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Queen Latifah
The CW is joining in on the reality music competition series circuit with a new unscripted show from Queen Latifah.
The Star Next Door will feature a nationwide search for undiscovered artists on the brink of stardom. Superstar mentors, including...
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OK, we know he simply cannot dance, but can he front a good game show? Crossfire cohost turned MSNBC newsman Tucker Carlson has been tapped to host Who Do You Trust?, a quiz-show pilot produced for CBS by Phil Gurin (The Weakest Link). As Variety notes, a precedent was set for such an incongruous transition when a former Richard Nixon speechwriter ultimately wound up hosting... anyone, anyone? Win Ben Stein's Money, that's right.
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• ABC is fast-tracking production on National Bingo Night, a prime-time game show that will afford viewers at home a chance to win prizes — all the while not having to inhale the chain-smoking of the 93-year-old lady playing 24 cards next to you. UPDATE: ABC has set a Friday, May 18, 9 pm/ET debut for Bingo, to be hosted by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's Ed Sanders.• Also per Variety, CBS is developing a game show of its own, from Weakest Link producer Phil Gurin and in which strangers have to wager on how much they trust each other. Or something like that, details are sketchy.• TNT's development slate includes Leverage, a Mission: Impossible-like action series; Mrs. America, about a woman valiantly juggling career and family; a remake of the 1960s series The Saint; and a family drama tentatively titled A.D.
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