GSN/YMMV

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• Network Decay: Oy.
  • In October 1997, the network lost the rights to every show from the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman library except The Price Is Right and the 1994-95 season of Family Feud (where Richard Dawson returned). This time was called the Dark Period, and to be fair it resulted in several lesser-known games being aired (The Diamond Head Game, Juvenile Jury, Pass The Buck, etc.) that the network didn't really show otherwise. The Goodson-Todman shows returned in April 1998, but there was less variety for a while on the daily schedule and some programs remained MIA.
    • Faux Pause, an original series during the Dark Period, attempted to be "Mystery Science Theater 3000 does bad Game Shows" and fell on its face. Two Jerkass "hosts" who clearly didn't know or care about game shows mocked either classics or cult favorites by way of "jokes" that were usually corny and sometimes went into Dude, Not Funny (the Hot Potato episode being a particularly Egregious example). Had they not shown a few genuine rarities (the 1975 Hollywood Connection pilot and an episode of the 1980 Camouflage), this travesty would've been long since forgotten.
  • Then came an onslaught of lame original programming (Extreme Gong, Throut and Neck, D.J. Games) plus the beginning of credit crunches and editing out fee plugs, which would go on to continue to plague the network for classic game show fans. The rights to Price would be lost for good in April 2000, and vintage black-and-white shows of the 1950-69 era became rarer still. The quality of the network has been fluctuating ever since.
  • The March 15, 2004 switch from Game Show Network to GSN, which led to reality, casino, and other "games" quickly debuting on the schedule.
  • The 2009 Game Show Awards, hosted by Howie Mandel and announced by Rich Fields, invited a metric ton of game show celebs and attempted to play up the cheese factor (walking the shag carpet!). Unfortunately, several factors made sure it didn't improve most game show fans' opinion of GSN:
    • Before the special was taped, Bob Barker said he wouldn't show up to receive his Legend Award if Betty White was there (they had gotten into an animal-rights argument over where a particular elephant should be living). While GSN pandered to him, Betty appeared in a pretaped message paying tribute to Mark Goodson.
    • The opening segment, where Mandel meets Barker, has the latter supposedly being God (an idea which provided some fun for game show fans) and Howie waking up to see Bob in bed next to him. While filming the bedroom scene, Barker joked (we hope) that "This is how my Beauties got their jobs!" Damn, Barker.
    • The results were very obviously rigged, with awards typically going to whomever GSN could get to show up. While it was mentioned on the voting page that the producers had final say on the winners (itself idiotic), fans cried major foul when Mandel/Fields got Best Host/Announcer and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? beat out the veterans for Best Game Show.
    • Minigames were interspersed throughout, but had the dumbest people as contestants. See Epic Fail on the main tab for "Name It/Claim It".
  • A 2010 poll on GSN's Web site asked viewers whether they wanted to see A) Wish-Fulfillment Reality Shows or B) Decades-Old Reruns of Game Shows. Clearly, no bias was present.
  • There are constant debates on what should and shouldn't be on the schedules (search for "GSN Dream Schedule"). Currently, the only "classics" on the network are Family Feud, Match Game, Card Sharks and The $25,000 Pyramid, with everything else being from the last 10 years or so.
• They Just Didn't Care: The aforementioned credit crunches.
  • The network uses a time-compression machine, which should be no big deal since 1) most time-compression machines make imperceptible changes and 2) the compression is a necessary evil, given that most of the lineup comes from an era when commercial breaks were much shorter in proportion to program length than they are now. However, the operators clearly have no idea how to run the compressor, leading to frequent video glitches and brief moments where it seems as if everyone is suddenly talking like the Micro Machines man — and the Dawson-era Family Feud intro particularly tends to get butchered. Less commonly, the compressor will "choke" and repeat a short segment multiple times at a progressively faster speed, almost giving the impression of a YouTube Poop.
  • Their "50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time" countdown included You Bet Your Life and The Price Is Right, while not airing an episode of either. Although not too bad on the surface, the same marathon proved that GSN did pay for a 2000 episode of Shop 'til You Drop — a series they haven't aired before or since — while not airing either Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy!, both of which were already on the schedule!