Upfronts 2012: GSN Expanding Into Reality Programming

Complete Coverage: Upfronts 2012

New York -- GSN announced a programming and development
slate at its upfront presentation here Wednesday morning aimed at broadening
its brand to include a host of reality shows it dubs "real-life games."

Under new executive VP of programming Amy Introcaso-Davis, a
former Oxygen and Bravo exec, GSN has seven new series in development,
including the previously announced AmericanBible Challenge,
which will be hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. Also on Introcaso-Davis' first
development slate is $100,000 Pyramid,
a new half-hour version of the classic game show produced by Michael Davies'
Embassy Row. 

In the "real-life game" category, the net has the half-hour Pure Gold, about a chain of stores
called The Gold Guys and the customers who come in to sell their gold and share
life stories; The Family Trade, about
a family-owned car dealership in Vermont that operates on the barter system;
and I Do, Now I Don't, about a New
York City business that buys and sells used engagement rings.

Also on tap is Crowning
Glory
, which explores America's most unusual pageants like Miss Klingon
Empire and the Zombie Pin-Up; and War of
the Rose Sisters
, about two auctioneer sisters Beth and Pam Rose who
compete to sell the most.

The series in development join two official series pick-ups
at GSN - the new hour-long Beat the Chefs,
where home cooks try to prove their family recipes can beat a team of
professional chefs for a $50,000 prize; and 65 new half-hour episodes of The Newlywed Game with Sherri Shepherd
returning to host the sixth season.

GSN, which is owned by DirecTV and Sony Pictures
Entertainment, is up 23% with women 25-54 and 12% with adults 25-54 over the
start of the 2011-12 broadcast season.