It’s not easy to fathom that there’s been sort of an austerity movement at an outlet like Prime Video, especially at a time of year when those Amazon Prime members are getting their money’s worth from those annual subscriptions. But since outside of NFL games we haven’t seen a peep of bravado lately for anything they may be doing, even though they possess the largest actual base of ad-receivable U.S. households of any streaming service it would appear that not a lot of them have actually been watching much.
So that might explain why this fall they’ve been emphasizing a strategy of “Winning Wednesdays” with a series of game shows that have been rolling out since mid-October. The most aggressive and largest order is dropping today in the form of yet another brand extension of Sony’s de facto profit center, POP CULTURE JEOPARDY! Its “cadence”, as Prime Video (and don’t you dare refer to it as Amazon Prime Video, as explicit press release language chides) references, will be in the form of three half-hour-ish episodes per week on their way to a total of 40, the largest single season bet both buyer and seller have yet placed on what is merely gravy on a main course whose daily syndicated version already garners in the neighborhood of $80 million pure profit to Sony’s bottom line. But with the exception of some new set elements necessitated by this series’ team format (all but the desks being amortized by a revamp of the mother ship’s look that debuted earlier this fall) and the presence of yet another alternative host, in this case WEEKEND UPDATE anchor and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE head writer Colin Jost, there’s not a lot of incremental cost necessitated in mounting this.
Which means relative to a lot of other projects Prime Video has been involved in lately (Exhibit A: MR. BEAST and Exhibit B: Season 2 of CITADEL) that have produced little more than disturbing headlines and mounting debt, being in a world that in effect mirrors the strategy of FOX–high-profile sports and plenty of lower-cost competitions–is a far safer and yes, advertiser-friendly bet.
PCJ! is indeed a passion project of show czar Michael Davies, who has been intent on growing the JEOPARDY!-verse in more varied ways than ever. It’s a format that borrows heavily from a creative but short-lived VH-1 series of nearly 20 years ago, THE WORLD SERIES OF POP CULTURE, which also featured teams of three competing to answer questions about topics far from cerebral. And much in the manner that the numerous tournaments that have infused the daily series have been conducted of late, PCJ! is a complicated elimination quest where 81 different trios, including a whole bunch of otherwise more bookish champions from the progenitor series, will drumroll their way toward a $300,000 grand prize at season’s end.
At first blush, it looks to be more compelling and brain-teasing than the previous contributors to Prime Video’s quest for a destination day. A high-gloss remake of a property they inherited with the purchase of MGM STUDIOS, now titled ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A CELEBRITY?, has given current NFL wide receiver and celebrity boyfriend extraordiaire Travis Kelce a chance to show the world that he can read cue cards and banal questions as well as anyone. And it’s definitely more engaging that a souped-up evolution of the SHARK TANK format, BUY IT NOW, which, as Mekeisha Madden Toby described it on Prime’s website, is an approach that replaces the tension and education one gets from the likes of Mark Cuban and Mister Wonderful with something, well, more gamey:
Buy It Now is a new Prime Video show that gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their products for a chance to be featured in the Buy It Now store. Contestants will have 90 seconds to convince a live studio audience of 100 everyday customers, as well as a panel of esteemed judges, to fall in love with their products. One contestant from each episode will also win $20,000. Amazon executives Carmen Nestares, Jenny Freshwater, Tanner Elton, and Michelle Rothman tag-team as judges on the panel, which also includes Ring creator Jamie Siminoff as the resident entrepreneurial judge. Amazon acquired Siminoff’s smart-doorbell company in 2018.Prepare for some gamified corporate synergy — Prime Video’s newest game show “Wish List Games” … The five-episode holiday special event is hosted by Nick Cannon, who has proven his hosting chops on shows like “Wild ‘n Out,” “The Masked Singer” and “America’s Got Talent,” and Lele Pons, the YouTuber, actress and singer who currently has over 18 million subscribers.
Each episode of the special will feature real Amazon customers competing for items from their actual Amazon Wish Lists. Prizes can range from everyday household items to aspirational purchases, and contestants have the opportunity to win up to $25,000 in goods from Amazon.
So it appears that both Prime Video and Sony are on similar wavelengths when it comes to maximizing the utility and breadth of pre-existing IP. POP CULTURE JEOPARDY! is the latest version of a program whose previous brand extensions included another short-lived VH-1 series, ROCK AND ROLL JEOPARDY!, a corporate support effort for inhouse streaming partner Crackle, SPORTS JEOPARDY!, and a truly lamentable effort for yet another Sony partner, Game Show Network’s JEP!, which actually had child contestants endure balls falling on their heads when the competitors provided correct questions. You won’t see ratings stories on any of these efforts, mostly because few actually exist and those that do were ones that Sony wouldn’t want you to know.
And amidst PCJ’s rollout is yet another corporate synergy effort being “sneak peeked” at various Alamo Theatre locations around the country this week. Yes, that’s the “super cool” chain of 30-something venues which Sony somehow found a few spare yen to purchase earlier this year, and since they don’t have first dibs on the titles that have been apparently returning butts to other movie theatres they’re relying on JEOPARDY! BAR LEAGUE to do the trick. As Davies is quoted on the show’s website:
(‘)We already know that many people, including me, watch and play along with our show in bars, and we know that many of our contestants come from the thriving culture of bar trivia, so it seemed only natural for us to combine these elements into JEOPARDY! Bar League(“.)
But at least during this Sneak Peek week, you won’t be able to go out and drink with the cool kids on Winning Wednesday. That’s Prime Video’s domain. And don’t you dare call it Amazon.
Until next time…