Sony staying game

Studio to finance three series on gameshow net

By JOHN DEMPSEY

Sony Pictures Entertainment has reinforced its commitment to the struggling Game Show Network by financing three gameshows to premiere on the channel later this year.

That announcement highlighted the presentation delivered here on the first day of the TV Critics' Assn. Cable Tour by Michael Fleming, president of the Game Show Network, who predicted that based on carriage agreements with a number of cable operators, including three of the largest -- John Malone's TCI, Comcast Corp. and Cablevision Systems Corp. -- the channel could work its way into the black by the beginning of the year 2000.

Estimates of how much money the network has spent since it began on Dec. 1, 1994, range upwards of $100 million. It has the rights to 50,000 episodes of 65 different gameshows -- the only big ones it's missing, says Jake Tauber, senior VP of programming for the network, are "Hollywood Squares," "Name That Tune" and "Let's Make a Deal." The bulk of the network's schedule consists of reruns of gameshows from this library.

The network claims that it has a subscriber base of close to 15 million homes, based on current rollout agreements with cable operators and on its carriage by the three main DBS (direct broadcast satellite) distributors: DirecTV, Primestar and Echostar.

The new shows are:

• "Extreme Gong Show," a live, five-days-a-week half-hour taped in L.A. that, instead of using a celebrity panel as judges, will ask viewers to phone in their opinion of the amateur performers.

• "None of the Above," a quiz show that will fire twice as many questions at the contestants as "Jeopardy" and will allow home viewers to play along.

• "As Seen on...," a weekly half-hour compilation show featuring the wackiest, most unusual moments from classic gameshows, plus appearances by contestants who have since become celebrities, like Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen and Meg Ryan.