New Poker Show Not Doing Well
August 6, 2009
For all of the hype, it was not expected to do as poorly as it did – but
“Face the Ace” did not bring in the number of viewers that the poker
industry thought that it would, and both they and NBC were sorely
disappointed. The new poker show premiered on Saturday and came in last
place in the ratings.
It has seemed as though there has been a wave of poker shows that have done
well over the past few years so it is no wonder that they expected this one
to do well with their viewers as well. However, some say that it has a lot
to do with the night that it premiered and others are quick to point out
that it is summer and ratings are normally lower in the summer.
Either way, no matter what the problem NBC thought they had a sure fire
poker hit on their hands and it was not to be. Last week’s episode saw Don
Topel win $200,000 and this week he will be going for $1 million. The show
airs nine to ten pm Eastern standard time which is prime TV viewing time –
just not enough people seem to be interested.
FOX aired an episode of “America’s Most Wanted” which took the top spot and
NBC ended up last. Both the movie “Red Eye” and a repeat of “Numb3rs” faired
better than the poker show. There was some talk that the numbers would have
been better if affiliates had not pre-empted the poker show with local
programming, especially since the markets that did it were two of the
largest – Houston and Detroit.
