TVSquad

Hole in the Wall, this summer's latest Japanese game show ripoff, has announced its hosts. Actress Brooke Burns and L.A. weather anchor Mark Thompson will be presiding over Fox's version of human Tetris. Both have game show experience, with Burns having served as the host of Dog Eat Dog and Thompson providing the voiceover for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Hole is being brought to America by American Idol producers FremantleMedia North America and came to be after clips of the Japanese version became hugely popular on YouTube. Ellen DeGeneres also got a kick out of the Japanese competition, not only featuring several clips on her talk show, but even going so far as having audience members participate in her own version.

Oh, the humanity! Wheel of Fortune is not all frivolity and fun. Merv Griffin knew what he was doing when he created this venerable game show. Drama, ensues! You think it's so easy spinning the wheel, buying a vowel, laughing at Pat Sajak's jokes and ogling Vanna's gorgeous gait? Well, it's not. Under all that pressure you'd be surprised -- or maybe you wouldn't -- to see how some people simply come up short in the solution department. The letters all float together and instead of spelling a word you know as well as your own name, you pick the wrong consonant and you're WAH-WAHed in shame and regret. The fortune goes to the next player and you're left with egg on your face.

Watch these great examples and you'll see what I mean (a sample is after the jump). Like Jay Leno's simple "man in the street" questions about common knowledge, you see that there's no telling how stupid people can be, especially with a camera and microphone in their face.

[via digg]

For the pink tile ... it's Trivial Pursuit! The ultimate trivia challenge finally makes the leap back to the television airwaves [thanks posters-jh]. The upcoming syndicated Trivial Pursuit: America Plays has cleared 55% of the nation, including eight of the top 10 markets. What this means to you and me is it's virtually a lock that we'll be able to participate in this new show soon.

Yes, you read that right. The show will feature viewer submitted video questions. You could get your ugly mug ("No, no, not you ... you're beautiful ... I'm talking about the rest of them.") up on the screen asking your very own trivia question. Man, I hope they have a pretty hefty screening process for this. I don't want some redneck yahoo standing there in his cutoff jean shorts and too small high school football jersey yelling "How many interceptions did I make in the big game against the Duke County Daisies in '76? ... or was it '77?"

Endemol USA, the production company behind such shows as Big Brother, Deal or No Deal and 1 Vs. 100, is developing its first project for BET.

Take the Cake will premiere July 9 at 11:00 p.m. The new series not only allows contestants to answer pop culture questions, but also allows folks at home the chance to call in and answer questions (or text their answers) and win a cash prize. The series, hosted by Tocarra and Joe Clair, will also feature guest stars, comedy bits and performances.

Endemol has has success in the past, and it's nice to see the company joining forces with BET. Still, a similar idea, Midnight Money Madness, wasn't quite strong enough to warrant a second season on TBS, so it will be interesting to see how this one fares.

Japanese television makes American television look sleepy. Especially their game shows. I don't even know the official name for this game show, but it's essentially a human version of Tetris. Big walls of styrofoam come flying at contestants who have to contort their bodies to fit through the shape in the wall, or be pushed into a pool of yellow water. It's sort-of like Tetris. I've attached a four-minute clip to this post. For some of those challenges, I have no idea how a human body would get through the space (I think that's the point).

I want on this game show more than I want on The Price is Right.

Video is after the jump:

Let's give Dennis Miller credit: the man isn't afraid to try new things. He's been a comedian, an actor, a sports announcer, a political pundit (of sorts), a talk show host, and a radio show host.

Now, he's going to host a game show.

On August 7, Miller will host Grand Slam on the Game Show Network, a new series that will test players' knowledge in math, verbal skills and current events. The twist is that all of the contestants were big winners on other game shows. Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings will appear on the new game show, along with past winners of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

GSN has bought the rights to the (very) short-lived ABC game show Show Me The Money, hosted by William Shatner. That's a total of seven episodes, including two that never aired.

Wow, what a get! Seven episodes of a lame TV show that lasted for five episodes. Did GSN get some sort of great deal on this? Are they that hard up for shows? It will run Tuesday night, but maybe it should be a daily show, so they can go through the entire run of the show is a week. Maybe they'll have a week long marathon and show the same seven episodes over and over and over again.

A network buys a short-lived game show but no one is currently running Kate and Allie or The Odd Couple, both of which lasted years. Crazy.

Back in November, Julia gave her five reasons why she was going to miss Bob Barker, who is retiring from The Price Is Right this year. Just in time for his tribute on CBS tomorrow comes this list from Best Week Ever, the reasons why they're going to miss the silver fox.

Among the reasons are the women who kiss Bob on the cheek when they come up on stage (I think I saw a guy do it once) and the $100 bill that he keeps in his pocket that he gives to bidders who get the contestant's row price exactly right.

I remember several years back when he used to have the contestant actually reach into his pocket to take out that money. Thankfully they changed that.

Recently I mentioned that NBC had a new game show in the works called The Great American Singing Bee. The game show would require contestants to sing lines from pop songs. Well, now FOX has just greenlit a similar game show, this one called Off the Charts (working title). The new series will feature a live band with a singer that will play part of a song. Then, the contestant must sing the rest of the song. The prize money increases as the songs become more obscure.

Meanwhile, CBS is still working on its own new adaptation of the classic game show Name That Tune, though there's not much new information on that particular project just yet. CBS is also creating another reality show called Life As a Song, which has real people breaking into song and dance numbers in order to make annoucements to friends and family.

Of course, one "Great American Singing Bee" was already on NBC many, many years ago, but this is different.

The Great American Singing Bee is a new game show from producers Phil Gurin and Bob Horowitz, who will each produce different versions for American and UK television audiences. Contestants will be given lyrics to songs and asked to sing the missing words. This is very similar to an old family game called SongBurst, which was based on pretty much the exact same idea.

MANswers, a new game show for Spike centering on the kind of questions men want to ask but don't find "socially acceptable" will be given a nine-episode run and will debut sometime this fall. The show will pit contestants against one another and include re-enactments and interviews with experts.

Variety reports that some of these so-called "socially unacceptable" questions include "how long can a man survive on just beer?" and "what's the best organ to eat if you're a cannibal?"

No matter what the context or setting -- whether he's hosting TV shows like "National Lampoon's Funny Money" on the Game Show Network, performing stand-up comedy on "The Tonight Show," starring in his own half-hour special on Comedy Central or countless other TV appearances, Pardo's work is not only highlighted by a wonderfully expressive mug, but you could be excused for thinking he invented The Deadpan Expression, The Arched-Eyebrow Look Of Disdain, The Are-You-F**king-Kidding-Me Wide-Eyed Expression, or the Grin of Real (or Feigned) Surprise, among others. We need to point out that, while some of these facial masterpieces are presented in response to things a contestant, guest or audience member has said, sometimes Pardo is reacting to things he himself says!

1. Where were you born?
I was born on the south side of Chicago... that's the baddest part of town.

Another European import gets a stateside remake. In TV land, it's sometimes cheaper to buy somebody else's idea than to come up with one of your own. This would be funny principle if we started teaching it in schools. "I was going to do my own science fair project, but then I realized, I could just do a remake of the photosynthesis experiment that won two years ago." Kids could pay each other royalties for old book reports. I see a whole new economy in the works for the playground set. Anyway, these international translations are obviously working out quite well for the networks, Simon Fuller (American Idol) and Ben Silverman (The Office, Ugly Betty). So, why shouldn't they work out for producer Ashton Kutcher who has already made a bundle marketing Beauty and the Geek worldwide?

Kutcher is translating the British Game Show in My Head for CBS. While the production company has remained quiet on the details, we know that the show involves a hidden camera element and is casting "everyday people who are ready for a little fun in extraordinary situations." They're looking for people who considered themselves to be "daredevils, risk takers and great sales people." The pilot will be shot later this month. Anyone out there seen the British version? Got any insight for us?

Does anyone out there remember Starcade? I sure don't. However, I've been getting up to speed by watching full episodes of the '80s game show. Starcade pitted two contestants together to answer trivia questions about video games and then play different arcade games for points. If you were a child of the '80s as I am, it's cool to remember all the games you used to play. They even have an episode that features Dragon's Lair, which I remember as being the most frustrating arcade game I ever played.

Reruns of the series popped up on G4 from 2002 - 2004, and according to both IMDb and Wikipedia, the second unaired pilot of Starcade was hosted by Alex Trebek. I assume he was taken off the show for asking contestants questions about both Kierkegaard and Frogger.

The episodes are worth checking out not just for the cool retro look, but also for the great "prizes," such as the portable record player pictured on the right.

Burnim-Murray Productions and October Moon Television are attempting to sell a new comedy game show for syndication. The series, called Laugh Off, would give unknown comedians a chance to compete in different contests centered around stand-up, improv, charades and mime. If watching people you don't know perform mime is your idea of a good time, then keep your eyes on your local listings.

When I first heard about this, I thought of Comedy Central's short-lived game show Make Me Laugh that featured established comedians trying to make contestants laugh. That series only lasted one season, and earlier versions from 1958 and 1979 didn't fare much better, either.