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Sometimes you just gotta laugh. An aggrieved barfly sent an email to the local paper complaining that GSN is on TV at his favorite tavern. What happened to having ESPN or something manly on the tube? In particular, the bar patron was really p.o.ed about the reruns of the 1970s  Match Game . He didn't think the show was funny, and he suggested that it was on GSN only because it's the one game show from the era which survives on tape. The local paper's TV critic responded rather grumpily, too. He said that GSN started out by running lots of "ancient" game shows because nobody else wanted them. He admitted that GSN has managed to stay in business - well, yeah, that's pretty obvious - and that the network now runs some newer shows and even some originals. He then mentioned the current ABC version of Match Game and implied that GSN may be trying to play off it. The critic and barfly are obviously not older-is-better game show fans...or any kind of game show fans

It was a drab week for syndie game shows, as most of them lost a little in the ratings. But the losses were small as the summer weeks rolled on. TV News Check has the blah household ratings for the week of July 16-22... Family Feud 6.3 - up a tick in mostly a down week Jeopardy 5.6 - flat Wheel of Fortune 5.3 - down a tick Millionaire 1.6 - down a tick Funny You Should Ask 0.4 - what else, down a tick Always been a fan of the show, so I'm happy to report that Cash Cab returned with serviceable numbers. 918K viewers and a 0.29 18-49 rating. Those would be gigantic figures for GSN but they're only decent for Discovery. While I wait for TV Newser to post the cable averages, there's a bit of GSN schedule news related to the ratings. America Says gets another rerun slot at 5:30 PM weekdays starting August 6. GSN really likes how the show has performed. A second season looks to be happening, even if the network doesn't want the news leaked just yet. (See my post -

In what has become a relatively celebrated interview with TMZ , Alex Trebek has started the Great Retirement Hoohah again. According to his interview with TMZ, there's a good chance he's done. Asked the odds that he stays after 2020, Trebek said it's "50/50 and a little less." Oh, boy. Here's comes the endless speculation about will he or won't he and who will take over the show. Alex suggests a fairly obscure Los Angeles sportscaster as a possible successor. I doubt the show would try somebody so little known nationally, but another sportscaster possibility is Dan Patrick. I thought he did a nice job on Sports Jeopardy , even if the show wasn't a runaway ratings winner. Sooner or later Alex is going to have to retire. He's 78, after all. The health problems have been piling up, even if he looks great for his age. His teasing hint will give the game show Interwebs something to yak about, anyway. UPDATE: Dan Patrick says he's not interested in

With not much game show news on a slow weekend, I'll post about a syndie game show that was still in original eps last week. Jeopardy had an entire category about actress Gal Gadot, and the Internet took notice. The beauteous Gal herself tweeted her appreciation. Gal fan Ian Flynn (see screenshot) nailed all but one of the clues. Another contestant swiped the $1,000 entry, probably much to Ian's chagrin. That contestant, Ryan Terpstra, ended up winning the episode. Which just shows that it's always nice to get the high-dollar clues in any category. My own acquaintance with Gal Gadot's career is slight, to put it mildly. I just don't get out to the movies much any more, and I don't even watch them often on TV. I'm getting to be a crotchety old game show blogger. On the other hand, I do know a lot about baseball. How about all those deadline deals?