A network that's dedicated to game shows.
Founded in 1994 and currently owned by Sony Pictures Television, Game Show Network originally featured reruns of classic TV game shows from the 1950s onward. At first, the network's rerun lineup ran the gamut from Goodson-Todman stalwarts (such as The Price Is Right, Password, Family Feud, and Match Game) to programs produced by Sony themselves (such as Pyramid, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Tic-Tac-Dough, The Newlywed Game, and The Joker's Wild). In the late 1990s, the network began creating its own games, starting with live call-in programs and eventually branching out into original formats and revivals.
The network has caught flak from a subset of game show fans for airing contemporary and recent showsnote , including the network's own original programming, instead of retro reruns. Their treatment of classic game show reruns since the 2000s hasn't done them any favors. The network eventually lost the rights to the Goodson-Todman library for good, save for a few standouts, and instead focused on a larger push towards original programming.
Beginning in March of 2004, the network began using the abbreviated "GSN" moniker; ushering in one of the most infamous examples of Network Decay. GSN expanded its programming scope to not only include reality competitions, but poker, and even programs that were only tangibly related to game shows or any kind of competition, if at all. Things would cool down towards the end of The New '10s, as the network's programming would shift back towards more traditional game shows and formats. This shift culminated in a 2018 refresh that would even restore Game Show Network's full name.note
Compare and contrast Buzzr, a digital subchannel network run by Fremantle (the current owners of the Goodson-Todman library among others), and the former "Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids" network.
Original GSN programming, counting revivals of existing formats:
- 20Q
- America Says
- American Bible Challenge
- As Seen On...
- Baggage
- Best Ever Trivia Show/Master Minds
- Big Saturday Night
- Bingo America (semi-revival of National Bingo Night, using the same ball cage)
- Black And White Overnite (also known as "Sunday Night In Black & White")
- Burt Luddin's Love Buffet
- Camouflage (hidden words rather than hidden pictures)
- Carnie Wilson: Unstapled
- Caroline and Friends
- Catch 21 (revival of Gambit)
- Chain Reaction (revival of 1980s-90s game show)
- The Chase (update of the UK show)
- Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned
- Club A.M. (and its successor, GSN Live)
- Common Knowledge
- Cram
- DJ Games
- Decades (and its revival, Super Decades)
- Divided (based on UK series)
- Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza
- Emogenius
- Extreme Gong (revival of The Gong Show)
- Fake-A-Date
- Faux Pause
- Friend or Foe?
- Get a Clue
- Grand Slam (US debut of a British format)
- Hellevator
- Hey Yahoo!
- Hollywood Showdown
- How Much Is Enough?
- Idiotest
- Inquizition
- Late Night Liars
- Lingo (revival of the 1980s game show)
- Lovers Lounge
- Mall Masters
- The Money List
- National Lampoon's Funny Money
- The Newlywed Game (2009 revival)
- 1 vs. 100 (Carrie Ann Inaba revival)
- People Puzzler
- PlayMania
- The Pyramid (2012 revival)
- Russian Roulette
- Skin Wars (Reality competition with professional body painters)
- Skin Wars: Fresh Paint (Features people from several artistic fields doing body painting for the first time)
- Split Second (2023 revival)
- Switch (2023)
- That's the Question
- Throut And Neck
- Trivia Track
- Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck (revival of Press Your Luck)
- When Did That Happen?
- Winsanity
- WinTuition
