Game Show Network Highlights Linear Audience Gains in Upfront Talks

In a year where linear struggled, Game Show Network was one of the 10 biggest networks notching growth in both total day and primetime in 2020. Going into 2021 upfront talks, the network—whose audience was up 13% year over year in 2020 in total day and total viewers—is touting that growth as its biggest strength. “Over the past four years, as viewers contracted in linear, we've grown” said John Zaccario, Game Show Network's evp of ad sales. “We spent a lot of time in the last three years preparing for this moment in scaling up the amount of programming we have available, and being able to offer viewers a consistent, stripped schedule.” The network, which syndicates long-running game shows and programs on a strip schedule in which subsequent episodes air across all five weeknights, has counted four consecutive years of total viewer growth and ended 2020 with its most viewers since 2015. A large portion of the network’s audience are adults older than 55. “For our audience, they’re spending on categories like fast food, home insurance, travel, casual dining,” said Zaccario. “At the end of the day, that’s what matters most. Whether or not the audience that are watching your commercials are executing a transaction, and ours execute a transaction.” For the last several years, Game Show Network has been building out its original programming lineup on the network, and early production in 2019 helped shield the network from some of the production headaches. The network, which shifted to traditional game show formats in 2018, was of the few networks able to host a somewhat traditional upfront last year even as Covid-19 pandemic derailed most network's upfront plans as advertisers scrambled to adjust their plans and other networks scrambled to fill their schedules. Zaccario says that the early upfront and network consistency has put the company in a good position heading into 2021. “Last year actually set the table nicely for us,” Zaccario said. “Last year, throughout all the disruption and the noise and the unpredictability, we were able to retain a consistent audience. We delivered for the advertisers who were looking for a predictable source of audience to market their goods and services, and I think we got a lot of credit for that.” Game Show Network has ramped up its original content in the past several years and is bringing to the table six originals, including returning series America Says, Common Knowledge, Get a Clue and Master Minds. Season 2 of Get a Clue, which premiered in January, saw a season-to-season lift of 11% in the women 25-54 demographic. “We’re starting to get a lot of traction with the originals,” Zaccario said. New to the schedule this year is Chain Reaction, a revival of the long-running word chain series, which debuted in February with nearly half a million viewers in its premiere week. People Puzzler, which had initially been part of the 2020 upfront lineup but was delayed, is also to a strong start: the series debuted in January as the No. 1 new show launch since 2017 in women 25-54. People Puzzler is based on the popular Puzzler crossword that runs in People magazine, and the show offered a chance for the network to pursue new brand partnerships alongside the magazine’s publisher Meredith Corp. Zaccario touted the show as a success, and said the company may pursue other similar arrangements. “Certainly we are looking for other partners who've got the tentacles like Meredith does help us launch a show,” he said. While Game Show Network's advertisers are primarily focused on linear growth, the network will also highlight growth on digital and social channels, which can offer additional audiences. Game Show Network saw a 42% increase in followers on its social media platforms year over year, and Facebook posts in particular saw a more than doubling in engagement. "[Advertisers] care most about what happens on a linear channel, because that’s where their ads run," Zaccario said. "But certainly there's an inference you can make about the stickiness of our content and the brand affinity people have by looking at the social interactions."