GSN debuted its new version of The Newlywed Game last night. At least, I think they did. It might have been a 30-minute-long infomercial for eHarmony with a game show scattered here and there.If you haven't heard, the show is brought to you by eHarmony, the web site where people find love and happiness. If for some reason you tuned into the show and forgot that it was brought to you by the dating web site, then the many commercials for it would have reminded you.
If you still weren't quite sure who sponsored the show, the eHarmony question that host Carnie Wilson reads during the game would remind you. Still not sure? Then the eHarmony.com logo that is on every single card that the contestants hold up several times during the game are a dead giveaway.
Yeah, they have the logo on every single card that the couples hold up. This would be like watching Jeopardy and having every contestant's answer be something like "Alex, this answer is brought to you by Stouffer's ... what is The Civil War?"
It's not that the sponsorship is bad. That's been a staple of game shows since the 50s. On the original Twenty-One, Geritol had a couple of giant logos right on the set and Jack Barry did ads for them. But this sponsorship seems to be a little more overwhelming.
As for the game itself? Eh. Carnie Wilson is too nice. It was funny when Bob Eubanks hosted the show. There was an evil side to him that made you feel he wanted to get these couples in trouble.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-07-2009 @ 12:07PM
Zachary said...
Jeopardy already does crap like this, though not as much. Sometimes a guy in glasses reads an extra "clue" about V8 after Double Jeopardy. And last week there was an entire category about The Tudors wherein every clue involved a video clip of the show. Coincidentally (wink) the Tudors just started a new season.
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4-07-2009 @ 12:13PM
Gene Cowan said...
It fits in perfectly with the old 1950s-60s game shows, where every visible surface was emblazoned with a cigarette company logo. As much as I hate the current smearing of logos all over everything on television, it's just a return to the beginnings of the medium when sponsors owned the shows rather than just advertise on them. When you think about it, we've had it pretty good for the last few decades, haven't we?
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