Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Let's Play Crosswords

And that's what Program Partners, Merv Griffin, and the William Morris Agency will do this fall as five NBC O&O's have agreed to clear the new game show for next fall.

The stations are: WNBC-TV New York, KNBC-TV Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV Chicago, KNTV San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, and KXAS-TV Dallas.

NBC Universal will sell the barter time within the program. (That's the spots to sell to national advertisers.) No word on how many that will be, but it is expected to be a minute-and-a-half a day. The program is sold on a cash-barter basis. No word on what time periods the show will air.

The parties will also jointly develop a broadband offering for the station's websites.

Merv Griffin created many shows throughout his career including Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, two of the most successful game shows on the air. Griffin also created Dance Fever (The Dancing With the Stars of its day), Headline Chasers (a 1985 game show), and hosted his own long-running talk show.

There was a similar crosswords game show called Cross-Wits that aired in syndication during the 1986-87 season, ironically on those same NBC-owned stations in the top three markets (albeit after 1a.m.)

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