I’ve been a lifelong Game Show Network viewer. I’ve seen the show change logos, slogans and content – incorporating classic programs and starting-up new ones. But a few years ago, I began to wonder why the number of reruns of older shows (from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and even the 2000s) was getting smaller.
GSN started adding more and more episodes of “Family Feud” Steve Harvey. They picked-up the rights to the “Cash Cab” library and created new shows like the addictive, Emmy-nominated “America Says”. The only “old” show that seems to be on the channel is “Match Game”.
And then… this summer I took a trip to California. Part of my 12-day stay in Los Angeles and San Diego for various events and Comic-Con included a hotel that had a channel called BUZZR. I stumbled on it randomly. It’s a staple on Dish Network (which I don’t have at home in NY) and is Over the Air in some, but not all, markets around the country.
BUZZR began in 2015. And it just airs classic game shows: not just “Match Game” but Richard Dawson and Ray Combs “Family Feud”s (which I hadn’t seen in years), “Classic Concentration” with Alex Trebek, “Password” with Allen Ludden, “Card Sharks”, “What’s My Line?”, “To Tell the Truth”, “Sale of the Century”, “Tattletales”, “Supermarket Sweep” – and those episodes of “Password Plus”, “Super Password”, “Press Your Luck” and “Blockbusters” that I used to watch often on Game Show Network.
That’s where they went: to BUZZR. Fremantle Media is one of its parent companies, with many of the game shows shown either Fremantle or old Mark Goodson/Bill Todman productions.
I quickly became obsessed with BUZZR. For several days and/or nights, I had it on in my hotel room – watching the likes of “Concentration” (Trebek hosted that and “Jeopardy!” simultaneously for four years) and “Feud”s with Dawson. Simply incredible television.
As the trip ended, I wondered if I would ever see BUZZR again. But sure enough – it’s Over the Air where I live in Upstate NY, so now it’s on all the time. And it turns out anyone can watch the channel’s feed on their website.
Steve Harvey “Feud”s are great. And I love “America Says” and the creative direction Game Show Network is going in with that show and others. But if you wanna watch the old stuff, the classic stuff, the kinds of game show episodes you just don’t see anymore – buzz on over to BUZZR, and you’ll never look back.