Is the game show genre dying?

Let's play a game for a second...can you tell me how many game shows were on television in 1975? Answer: 26. That is the most number of game shows in any one season in television history.

Yesterday, the Daytime Emmy Award nominations were announced. Only three game shows were nominated, and, I'm sorry to say, the most popular game show ever on television, "Wheel of Fortune", is not on the list (yes, it has never won an Emmy in the 33 years it's been on, that's an even longer losing streak than Susan Lucci, who by the way, was not nominated this year again). The three game shows that were nominated are "Jeopardy!", "Cash Cab", and "The Price Is Right".

The lack of nominees is proof positive that the daytime game show is on its way out. Out of all those popular game shows we grew up on ("Pyramid", "Press Your Luck", "Hollywood Squares", to name a few), "Price" is now the only network game show left on daytime television. The rest are either syndicated or on cable networks. But the fact is, people are now turning to talk shows like "Regis and Kelly"and "Montel". And this fall, even more talk shows will pop up, all trying to dethrone "Oprah" as the top of the talk show heap.

People are becoming no longer interested in daytime game shows simply because of changing times and habits. They're finding these shows no longer entertaining and interesting.

Now notice I was talking about daytime game shows. Nighttime is a different story altogether. You see, on the other hand, we're seeing more and more of the nighttime game shows like "Deal or No Deal", "American Idol", "Don't Forget The Lyrics", etc. But even that genre is becoming less interesting too. The lower the ratings for some of these nighttime game shows are, the more likely they'll use celebrity editions (that's what doomed the British import "The Weakest Link" in the U.S.). The logic behind these nighttime game shows: to boost ratings. Apparently Fox is getting more mileage from developing nighttime game shows. Take a look at their recent "The Moment of Truth". The more "truth" (read: primetime talk trash), the better their ratings will be.

But from the looks of things, if this trend does keep up, the game show genre will go the way of the "do-do", as other television genres like the Western and Variety show kinds have gone.

Is that your final answer?