Complete Coverage: NATPE 2016
Debmar-Mercury’s Celebrity Name Game has been renewed by Tribune Broadcasting and the Sinclair Broadcast Group for a third season, the distributor said Tuesday.
The game show, starring Craig Ferguson, is cleared in more than 70% of the U.S. for next season. FremantleMedia North America produces the program.
“Celebrity Name Game has been a fantastic addition to our game show programming at FremantleMedia,” said Jennifer Mullin, coCEO, FremantleMedia North America, in a statement. “We knew from the outset that this format had something special and seeing Craig win the Emmy for season one only reaffirmed our beliefs. Now halfway through season two, Celebrity Name Game has hit its stride, showing continuous growth, an engaged fan base and clearly has the potential to entertain audiences for quite some time.”
“Celebrity Name Game works so well because it is funny, serving as a viable alternative and companion to sitcoms on stations’ schedules,” said Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein, copresidents of Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury, also in a statement.
The show was developed by Courteney Cox and David Arquette’s Coquette Productions based on the popular board game Identity Crisis and created by Laura Robinson and Richard Gerrits of North 44 Productions. In addition to Cox and Arquette, executive producers include Mullin, and showrunner Scott St. John. The syndicated, half-hour weekday strip airs in more than 93% of the country, including the top 50 U.S. markets.
