Celebrity Name Game to premiere on 13 May
Ten’s latest shot at the 6pm evening slot, Celebrity Name Game, will hit screens on Monday 13 May.
The gameshow format, hosted by Ten stalwart Grant Denyer, will see teams paired with an Australian celebrity to guess the names of pop culture icons in a similar manner to board game Taboo.
The show will have three initial rounds followed by a final round with a chance to win a $10,000 cash prize.
Ten has struggled to fill the 6pm slot since Family Feud was cancelled in early 2018.
The show, also hosted by Denyer, was popular with audiences when it first launched, regularly pulling in over 500,000 viewers a night. That slipped over time though, and the show ended to just 213,000 metro viewers on its final night.
Denyer jumped to Game of Games which sat in the 7:30pm slot on Sundays but only ran for 11 episodes after dwindling ratings.
Currently Ten’s version of the UK gameshow Pointless is running in the 6pm slot, hosted by network newbie Mark Humphries and ex-The Block contestant Andrew Rochford. It was announced the show had been cancelled earlier this year after just six months on the air.
Denyer was outspoken when Family Feud was cancelled about the fact he believed the network’s overplaying of the format was what lead to its demise.
Speaking on his 2Day FM Sydney breakfast show, Denyer said they “gave it a bit too much”.
“It did good things but we are probably guilty of driving it into the ground a bit too early, we gave it a bit too much. It’s six days a week, twice a day, plus All Star episodes.”
Ten is the only commercial network to not use the 6pm slot for news, with Seven News at 6pm regularly the most-watched program of the evening and Nine News typically occupying the third slot. Ten’s 10 News First airs at 5pm.
Celebrity Name Game is produced by Fremantle for Network Ten and will commence on both Ten and WIN on Monday May 13 at 6pm.
Debut on May 13, cancelled by August 13.
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Talent pool for 10 is getting a little light… would be refreshing to see a show like this hosted by a fresh face.
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Don’t concern yourselves about the talent or the format. I wish them all well and hope for success, but I must say I have little belief in the program’s chances. I predict a spiraling failure. The viewers have had enough of this format, so-called reality and game shows have saturated the market for too many years.
It is my opinion, that a fresh approach to an old system of programming will turn the corner for television, until then, we will witness the steady decline to an even lower level than we have reached to date.
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Can’t wait for this show.
Bit of fun and games with the family and friends. Laughs too.
Get on board it will be a great audition for 10 and Denyers CV which is bigger then him lol. Love ya Grant.
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