The Debmar-Mercury syndicated strip hosted by Craig Ferguson will not be back for a fourth season.
The syndicated game show from FremantleMedia North America and Debmar-Mercury will return for a third season following renewals by the Tribune and Sinclair station groups.
The syndicator’s three first-run shows — Family Feud, Wendy Williams and Celebrity Name Game -— posted strong ratings in the week ending Feb. 22. Celebrity and Wendy hit records in household ratings, while Feud matched its all-time high.
The syndicated game show from Debmar-Mercury and FremantleMedia North America is picked up by station groups including Tribune Broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Cox Broadcasting.
For Ferguson, the syndicated game show Celebrity Name Game represents both a change of pace and a transition. He’s leaving his CBS talk show in December, with British actor James Corden taking over next year. “I liked this one because the format was loose and it left a lot of room for playing around and improvisation,” he said. “And it’s a new format, which meant that people weren’t in love with the game itself and wouldn’t get mad at me if I started messing around with it.”
Having a well-known host does not guarantee a new talk show’s survival. Just ask Katie Couric and Arsenio Hall, two of the highest-profile talk show hosts to debut in syndication over the past few years. Both their efforts failed. This week another new batch of shows premieres, and they hope to survive until a second season against very tall odds.
Exclusives
Debmar-Mercury’s new comedy game show hosted by Craig Ferguson will debut this September.
The Craig Ferguson-hosted game show, which debuts in September 2014, will launch on stations owned by CBS, Sinclair and Tribune Broadcasting.
The sale puts the Craig Ferguson-hosted syndicated show to 58 more markets for a fall 2014 debut.
With the sale, Debmar-Mercury has lined up the FremantleMedia North America game show in 40% of the U.S., including seven of the top-10 markets.
Debmar-Mercury and Fremantle have tapped the host of CBS’s Late Late Show to also host Celebrity Name Game, a new half-hour game show they have in the works for fall 2014. The show would serve as a companion to Family Feud.
