Game Show Network hopes to build on the modest ratings performance of Greed's Jan. 19 debut.
The show — which it acquired from Dick Clark Productions Inc. after a two-year run on the Fox broadcast network — averaged a 0.5 rating in its 10 p.m. Saturday evening time slot, said senior vice president of programming Bob Boden.
"We're happy with how well Greed
started out, given the fact that Saturday night is a tough night for television," Boden said.
While GSN will not produce any new episodes beyond the 44 it has acquired, it has added an interactive component that offered viewers a $25,000 prize during the network's debut telecast, as well as a Jan. 20 airing.
The launch of Greed
came on the heels of GSN's announcement that it would develop and launch its first new original series under president Rich Cronin's regime, Russian Roulette. Sony/Columbia Tri-Star International Television will develop 65-half-hour episodes of the series, set to debut in April 2002, Boden said.
The series' concept — in which players literally fall through a hole in the stage if they provide an incorrect answer — has been compared with Fox's recently debuted series The Chamber
and ABC's newcomer The Chair, members of the "contestant-torture" genre.
The network is still ironing out the final details for the show, including its host, Boden said. Russian Roulette
is one of two or three original shows the network will launch during April.
