TVSquad

If you go by all of the various stories in the media, it would seem that TV viewers just aren't into award shows anymore. The ratings are often down year to year, and if people are tuning in it seems to be more for the fashions, the red carpet, and maybe to see a particular category/performance by someone on the show.

So it's interesting that there are so many new genre award shows popping up. TV Land has had their own awards (The TV Land Awards) for a number of years now (the latest airs next week with Neil Patrick Harris hosting), and Bravo has The A-List Awards, whatever they are (it aired earlier this week). Now GSN is getting into the game (no pun intended) with The Game Show Awards, a show dedicated to giving awards to game shows, game show hosts, even game show sponsors!

As a lover of game shows, this could actually be fun. The nominees are rather odd in some cases. Sure, for Best Game Show Host we have the usual suspects: Alex Trebek, Drew Carey, Regis Philbin, Meredith Vieira. But for Wheel of Fortune they name both Pat Sajak and Vanna White.

That's an interesting decision, since Vanna just presses the letter buttons. I wouldn't have included Deal or No Deal in the Best Game Show category, at least not with the others nominated, like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, and others. I think in general there are too many nominees for each category. Most of the cats have 10 nominees, and I think when you do that you're not nominating the best in each category you're just nominating the ones that actually exist. But it should be fun, with categories like Best Announcer, Best Game Show Models, Best Price Is Right Game, Best Theme Song, and Best Game Show Sound Effect, and Favorite Parting Gift!

There's a Funniest Game Show Moment category, and one of the nominees is the infamous "Weirdest Place You Ever Made Whoopee" question from the original Newlywed Game. Maybe now we'll get the whole, complete, real story behind that.

The show will also have categories for classic game shows and special tributes to Bob Barker, Monty Hall, and Mark Goodson. The show airs on June 6. Here is the complete list of nominees.