'Multimillionaire' aside, game show craze buzzes on

The first of the big-money game shows has bitten the dust, and Fox won't be marrying off any more multimillionaires - if it ever did. But never fear: There are plenty more game shows on the way to take their place. Since the new year, four game shows have come on the air to join ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," resulting in hours of final answers, double-or-nothing questions and manufactured excitement every week. And each network has more game shows waiting in the wings, ready to bring in on a moment's notice. Not much is known about most of them, but we can report that the replacement CBS is readying for "Winning Lines," the mind-boggling number game that was taken off the air last week, has a name that will ring a bell to many older viewers. It's "The $64,000 Question." That's right. CBS is bringing back the one that started it all. "The $64,000 Question" not only launched the 1950's quiz-show craze, but it also pioneered the high-stakes suspense and over-the-top set design for which "Millionaire" is now celebrated. The concept is still being worked out, but don't be surprised if this CBS classic returns with a slightly modified title. Sources say "The $1,064,000 Question" is a leading candidate. Fox, meanwhile, is busy sweeping away the rubble from "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" now better known as "When Ratings Hits Go Bad." "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" aired the day after Valentine's Day and drew 22 million viewers in its final hour, making it one of the week's top five shows. At the end, a self-described real-estate mogul named Rick Rockwell chose his bride from among 50 hopefuls and married her right on the spot. And then the former girlfriends of Rockwell started coming out of the woodwork. One told a San Diego radio station that Rockwell (aka Richard Balkey) professed his love to her just days before the taping of "Multimillionaire" and said he could easily get out of his impending marriage contract. Fox claimed it had done an extensive background check of Rockwell, but, by the end of last week, it seemed possible that the onetime stand-up comic had pulled his biggest practical joke ever. When an Internet site, thesmokinggun.com, published a restraining order that a former fiancee of Rockwell's had won against him nine years ago, Fox finally found its threshold of embarrassment. The network yanked a rerun of "Multimillionaire" and said it would not produce the specials again. But the new genre will live on. Universal Television is selling a game show, "Wed at First Sight," with the same premise (albeit without multimillionaires and with the woman, not the man, doing the picking). Look for it in syndication this fall. Cheap filler None of the other Johnny-come-latelys has even approached the ratings stratosphere of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." The Regis Philbin Traveling Show has rated at or near the top of the Nielsens since starting its three-nights-a-week routine in January. NBC's "Twenty One" also appears to be a bona-fide hit on Wednesdays - at least when ABC doesn't schedule an hour of "Millionaire" against it. Even "Winning Lines" did about as well in the ratings as the show it replaced, "Early Edition," on Saturdays. But these shows don't need stellar ratings to be considered successful. They just need to be reasonably well-watched. For as TV executives are discovering, even mediocre game shows are cheap schedule filler and a quick fix for the age-old problem of reruns. "Each of the networks has two, three, four game shows in development," said Scott Stone, whose Stone Stanley Entertainment produced "Winning Lines" as well as "Shop Til You Drop" for Pax TV. "I think they really like the fact that their bench is deeper. They can bring these shows out and give their more expensive shows a rest." But with jackpots of $1 million to $2 million, are these hey-big-spender game shows really cheaper to make than comedies and dramas? In the case of "Millionaire," it's a moot point, since ABC is charging $500,000 or more for a 30-second commercial on the show. The others, predictably, have begun to cut corners. The producers of Fox's "Greed" and NBC's "Twenty One" were ordered by their networks to cut back the amount of money in their jackpots. "Twenty-One's" Maury Povich was giving away an average of $1 million a week before the prize money was slimmed down. Interestingly, the show that brought big cash payouts to TV, the original "$64,000 Question," cost a mere $11,000 per week to make. As author Jeff Kisseloff detailed in his book The Box: An Oral History of Television, the show's producers would drag out each question over an entire program, then pressure contestants between broadcasts to take their winnings and leave. More to come CBS president Leslie Moonves told reporters in January that game shows couldn't go away too soon for his tastes. But in addition to reviving "Question," CBS is actually leading the charge into the next frontier of voyeuristic contests. This summer it will show an American version of "Big Brother," a Dutch show in which 10 hopefuls share a house for 100 days, watched by more than 20 cameras and overheard by some 60 microphones. They will vote regularly to kick out housemates until their number is reduced to a single winner. (One critic has already tagged it "MTV's 'Real World' meets 'Lord of the Flies.' ") As if that's not enough, "Big Brother" will likely be paired with "Survivor." That show has the same concept, but on a desert island, and for a million bucks. It ought to be called, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire This Badly?" Meanwhile on cable, Game Show Network, which is having its best season ever (and was recently added to the Time Warner Cable lineup), not only shows reruns of old game shows but produces some of its own. How long will this game-show craze last, and how lurid will it get? No final answers here, but I will venture this: Before it's over, we'll see a revival of "Queen for a Day." Somehow, the idea of three luckless ladies telling their most pathetic sob stories for cash prizes - with the winner decided by an applause-o-meter - seems as ripe for recycling today as "The $64,000 Question." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com