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GSN Orders 'CHAIN REACTION' From Michael Davies and Sony Pictures Television
Revival of the Popular Word Game to Air Third Quarter '06
SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 5 -- The leading network in
prime time game shows, GSN, the network for games, announced today that it
has ordered 65 episodes of the new series, CHAIN REACTION, executive
produced by Michael Davies ("Who Wants To Be A Millionaire") for Sony
Pictures Television (SPT). CHAIN REACTION is the first program produced for
the 60-million home network by SPT and Davies under GSN's previously
announced three-series commitment. GSN plans to air the half-hour game
series as part of its prime time lineup beginning mid-summer.
In making the announcement, Rich Cronin, GSN's president and CEO said,
"At this time when networks are rediscovering the power of game shows in
prime, GSN is pleased to offer an exciting interactive word game that is
totally addictive. We think that viewers will love the challenge of CHAIN
REACTION, and we're thrilled to have Michael Davies bring his unique talent
to GSN."
"When GSN sent me the tapes of the original Chain Reaction I was blown
away by how good the game was -- I couldn't stop myself from shouting out
the answers," said Michael Davies, executive producer of CHAIN REACTION and
CEO of Embassy Row. "'Playalongability' is a vitally important element of
any strip game show -- but our remake of this little known Sony format has
so much more -- it's funny, fast-moving, clever and drips with class. I
couldn't think of a better program with which to kick off my relationship
with GSN."
Taped in New York City, CHAIN REACTION is a revival of the 1980 game
show which aired on NBC. In the show, teams compete against one another to
complete chains of words after the first and last words of the chain are
revealed. Each word in the chain is related in some way to the word
directly above and/or below it. The new twist in GSN's version is that,
Davies will be pitting teams of men against women.
The show's interactivity will allow viewers to play along at home at
GSN.com to solve puzzles and have the chance to win prizes or get discounts
on merchandise. Players on the show and at home are presented with a verbal
grid with seven spaces for words. The first and last words are revealed and
the two teams compete to find the five words in between by determining the
relationships between contiguous words. One letter of each missing word is
offered as teams take turns trying to guess the word pairs to complete the
chain.
An example of a chain that will played on the series is as follows:
FLOWER
P _ _ _ _
L _ _ _
D _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Q _ _ _ _
MOTHER
The correct word pairs are: flower power, power line, line dancing,
dancing queen and queen mother. The final chain is FLOWER -> POWER -> LINE
-> DANCING -> QUEEN -> MOTHER.
Davies remains executive producer of prime time network hit "Wife Swap"
and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," now in its fourth year of first run
syndication. Over the last 12 months, Davies' New York-based company,
Embassy Row, continues to grow and has significantly increased its
production of game shows, comedy, documentary films, sports and web content
for partners ABC, Sony, GSN, VH1, ESPN, Comedy Central and Yahoo!.
About SPT
Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry's leading
content providers. SPT produces and distributes top-rated, award-winning
programming in every genre, including series, movies and family
entertainment for network and cable television; first-run syndicated
series; off-network syndicated programs; and theatrical releases. SPT
(http://www.sonypicturestelevision.com) is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company.
About GSN
GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network
dedicated to game-related programming. The network features game shows,
reality series, documentaries and casino games. As the industry leader in
interactivity, GSN has allowed viewers to play-along with on-air
programming via their computers and GSN.com since 2000. Now reaching more
than 60 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all
major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned
by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation. For further
media information, visit GSN's press website at corp.gsn.com.
-GSN-
SOURCE GSN
http://www.sonypicturestelevision.com
http://www.gsn.com
http://www.corp.gsn.com
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