Colin Jost moderates Pop Culture Danger!
Photo: Vulture; Photo: Prime Video

A few months after the first big step towards game shows with the one hosted by Patton Oswald The 1% ClubPrime Video is preparing to quadruple the genre. Starting next month, the Amazon-owned streamer plans to launch four new game shows hosted by Travis Kelce within seven weeks Are you smarter than a celebrity? to a Danger! Spin-off focused on pop culture and was hosted by SNLThis is Colin Jost. Prime’s focus on game shows, while interesting in itself, is even more notable How The streamer plans to publish and market these shows.

Buffering harkens back to the days when broadcast networks attracted millions of people with “Must-See TV” on Thursdays and “TGIF”. Buffering has learned that Prime will simultaneously release new episodes of three of its new game shows each week, dubbed the “virtual” programming block “Winning Wednesdays.” The goal: to give viewers – especially families – the opportunity to open the Prime Video app every week and find a full evening of similarly themed entertainment.

While this is essentially Linear TV 101, major streamers have largely resisted such blatant attempts at weekly programming lineups. But Lauren Anderson, the Amazon executive who oversees Prime’s game show policy, argues that there should be no shame in following the traditional TV playbook. “The line between what is broadcast and what is streamed is becoming increasingly blurred,” says Anderson, whose official title is head of brand and content innovation at Amazon MGM Studios. “Many customers like some of these patterns developed on the broadcast side, even if they like the convenience of streaming.”

This isn’t the first time Amazon has shown its willingness to break away from the streaming herd when it comes to publishing patterns and programming strategies. With the above 1% clubThe streamer struck a deal with Fox Broadcasting that resulted in episodes of the series (originally intended as a Prime-only show) premiering on linear television and then hours later streaming exclusively on Prime (but not on Hulu, where everyone else does). Fox’s primetime shows air live). ). And Prime sibling streamer Freevee is releasing new episodes of Judge Judy Sheindlin Judy Justice five days a week, Monday through Friday, mimicking the broadcast pattern of their decades-long syndicated show.

“Just as we looked at Judy and said, ‘Yes, we can do daily programming,’ it was also the same thinking: ‘Okay, we’re doing game shows and this is an opportunity to offer something to the customers.’ “They want it the way they want it,” says Anderson, adding that streaming programmers need to be open to a wide range of release strategies: “The question I like to ask myself and the question I want the team to ask is : ‘Why not?'”

Since this programming block approach is new to Prime – as are game shows for that matter – Prime will be taking a slower approach to releasing Winning Wednesdays, giving each of its new titles its own moment in the sun and experimenting a bit with the number of episodes each will have deleted week. Here’s how the rollout will go (watch a promo for the new lineup, including the first look). Pop Culture Danger!below):

➽ Are you smarter than a celebrity? will launch first on Wednesday, October 16th with a mini-binge release of the first three episodes. A new episode will premiere every Wednesday until mid-February (20 in total). The series offers a twist on Fox’s successful mid-acts quizzer Are you smarter than a fifth grader? by placing a contestant in a “classroom” with five famous personalities from comedy, sports and entertainment, including Nikki Glaser, Nicole Byer, Chad Ochcocinco and Lala Kent.

➽ Two weeks later, on October 30th, Prime will premiere Buy It Nowa Shark Tank-style hybrid reality/game show hosted by JB Smoove in which various entrepreneurs have the opportunity to pitch their products first to a studio audience and then to a rotating panel consisting of Amazon executives and celebrity business owners such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Anderson and Christian Siriano. Winners will be added to a Buy It Now store on Amazon (synergy!), while one contestant will also receive a $20,000 cash prize per episode. After a three-episode premiere, new episodes will be released weekly until January 8th.

➽ Coming just before Thanksgiving, November 20th Wishlist gameshalf an hour moderated by The Masked Singeris Nick Cannon, in which contestants compete in a series of over-the-top games and challenges. The Prize: Everything on the entrant’s Amazon wish list (up to $25,000). Unlike the other titles in the Prime Game Show series Wishlist games will stream all five episodes simultaneously, serving as a holiday event of sorts.

➽ The last and probably largest part of the mystery “Winning Wednesdays” will be released on December 4th with the premiere of Pop Culture Danger! Teams of three will compete in a tournament-style spin-off of the long-running syndicated quizzer, with Jost serving as host. Prime has ordered a whopping 40 episodes of the new series Danger!which will allow three new episodes to be broadcast weekly until February.

Photo: Prime Video

As soon as the new incarnation of Danger! For the first time, Prime’s “Winning Wednesdays” will feature five episodes of three different game/competition shows released weekly, essentially replicating the feel of a broadcast network’s primetime lineup, but for a streaming audience. Interestingly, Anderson says she and her team didn’t agree on the idea of ​​creating a game show block until long after the shows began production. “It wasn’t intentional,” she says. “They were all produced in different cycles and schedules. But when we brought them in, we said, ‘Oh, that would be great.’ We really wanted to fly a flag.”

Anderson, who credits Prime’s planning team with taking a retro approach to the show’s release, says launching under the broad banner of “Winning Wednesdays” could help them stand out from the crowd. It also helps that unlike scripted shows, where eight or ten episodes have become the norm, game shows can still produce many episodes at a cost-effective rate. “You can do fun, interesting, different things if you have enough episodes to play with,” Anderson says.

While the ability to produce large numbers of episodes relatively inexpensively played a role in Prime’s decision to delve into game shows, Anderson says quizzers’ historic popularity with television audiences was a more important driver. “It’s one of those genres that’s been around for a while, and it sticks around because people love it,” she says, pointing out that older game shows on Amazon’s Freevee platform, the game show content Networks including Buzzr and GSN perform well. And the fact that games are generally family-friendly makes it easier to appeal to larger audiences and enable cross-generational shared viewing, which is more important than ever since Prime Video is an ad-supported service by default. “Game shows are so big,” Anderson explains. “People love them and they’re fun for the whole family. Every decision I make is always driven first by the question: “What is the audience responding to?”

While it’s still too early to say whether the Winning Wednesdays block will continue with a new slate of game shows once these first four series reach the end of their first seasons in February, Anderson hints that it’s at least theoretically possible . “We have other things coming up beyond what we have already announced,” he says. “But we don’t want to put too much effort into it either. We want to see how audiences respond to this and then incorporate that into planning other content to accompany the game, including a reboot of American gladiators announced in June. This project, along with Are you smarter?is a direct result of Amazon’s purchase of MGM, and Anderson says the company is considering developing more games and gaming-related shows from the storied studio. “We’re really excited about the library we got with MGM,” she says.

Anderson’s enthusiasm for game shows is also somewhat personal: The executive says she still often watches old episodes of classic titles, especially those that feature the celebrities of the day, such as The $25,000 Pyramid. “I really enjoy looking back at the guests and the conversations they had,” she says. “I like living in that space.” When asked by a game show-obsessed reporter if she’s thinking about reviving other classic formats, Anderson actually admits that she’s done just that, referencing the 1990s hit Shop until you drop as an example.

Unfortunately, given the realities of the television business, it’s not always easy to revive long-dormant titles. “Some of these things are a little complicated,” she says. “There are levels that even I am still just learning about when it comes to rights. It is often a challenge. Even some of the shows we Are do – it takes persistence to get these things over the finish line. But I’m absolutely stubborn.”