LOS ANGELES — Clenching his fist in celebration, Game Show Network President Michael Fleming looks at the numbers on a piece of paper with a sense of wonder.
They’re television ratings from the night before, but have nothing to do with his network. Rather, they indicate another stunningly large audience for ABC’s quiz craze, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” For Fleming, that’s the next best thing.
You would think now would be a great time to be running a cable network devoted to game shows, and you’d be right.
The previously little-noticed Game Show Network is surfing the wave of interest in “Millionaire.” It is gaining in viewers, attention and, most importantly at this stage, in cable systems that offer its service.
“It does, in some way, justify what we’ve always known — that this is a very powerful genre of programming,” said Jake Tauber, a former “Match Game” writer who is head of programming at GSN.
In December, the Game Show Network was added to cable systems in 1.8 million homes, nearly double the best month ever in its five-year history. Roughly one-quarter of the nation’s television homes have access to the network.
It has always had to struggle to be noticed by the people who decide which networks are picked up by cable systems, Fleming said. They tend to be middle-age white males, a group that traditionally has little interest in game shows.
“Now they are calling us instead of us calling them,” Tauber said.
Viewers of the Game Show Network get a steady diet of classic quizzes and a handful of originals, like “Inquizition,” a challenging test of knowledge with an impatient mystery man as host, and “3’s a Crowd,” a remake of a relationship show with host Alan Thicke.
The classics, including “Match Game,” “Family Feud” and “The Newlywed Game,” are like a look into a time capsule with excruciating haircuts, clothing styles and social mores. The late “Match Game” host Gene Rayburn’s leer is definitely the product of a different era.
Producers of many of these chestnuts hung onto the tapes, in some cases storing them in their homes, correctly anticipating a lucrative new market. The not-so-prescient left some unfortunate historical gaps: all but about 100 of the old “Hollywood Squares” episodes with Peter Marshall were thrown away and forever lost.
For the future, the Game Show Network is counting heavily on an interactive television world where people will be able to play along with their games at home.
Only a small fraction of viewers now have the digital equipment necessary to do this, but the network is catering to them. “Inquizition” allows contestants at home to compete with players on the show, and win cash prizes.
The network is even going back to the tapes of old game shows to concoct ways viewers can play along. It expects the new games the network develops to all have some interactive element.
“It will set us apart from everyone on the television landscape and set us apart from any other service,” Tauber said.
In one sense, “Millionaire” has made Tauber’s day much busier. More Hollywood producers are working on developing game shows now, so the Game Show Network has more to choose from for the future. Of course, they also have more competition for the best games.
Fleming and Tauber, like most people in television, have their own theories about why “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” became a big success. It’s easy for people to play along as they watch, particularly because many of the questions are so easy, Tauber said. And the focus on one player enables viewers to either root for or against the contestant.
The Game Show Network executives are most heartened that many young people are watching, because it introduces the genre to another generation.
Since September, the average number of people watching the Game Show Network at any given time has crept up from 200,000 to 260,000. That’s nowhere near the 28.8 million viewers that “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” got in its first five airings of the year. Still, it beats the alternative.
“We were a little concerned that it might go the other way,” Fleming admitted.
He’s still a little worried, actually.
“All of a sudden we’re looking at a prime-time television schedule that has a game show on a major network every night of the week,” he said. “That’s some pretty stiff competition for us. It could still have a backlash.”
For now, it’s all fun and games.