Buzzr's Latest Moves Have People Buzzing

Text by: Cyndi Seidelman

Buzzr has gotten a lot of press lately over a bunch of moves that they have pulled off. I will talk about the three major ones involving a major acquisition, A new way to watch Buzzr & a shakeup to their Friday Night Lineups starting in February.

Supermarket Sweep Is Acquired By Fremantle And Will Air On Buzzr: This is clearly a major acquisition by the company on many fronts. Once thought to have been buried forever thanks to Al Howard not wanting anybody to mess with his baby, the format acquisition allows for potential revivals in both the US and the UK. Not sure if either Dale Winton or David Rhuprhect will return to either show, but at least this gives a glimmer of hope for a new version. What is a glimmer of hope for fans is that starting January 15th, Buzzr will air episodes of Supermarket Sweep.  People asked what episodes they would start with and according to uploads on the channel's Facebook page and the advanced schedule, it'll be the 2nd season of the Lifetime version. I look forward to seeing this again...at least through other means since Seattle's local stations nor DirecTV carry Buzzr as of yet. But for those that do get it, it now becomes appointment viewing.

Buzzr Is Now Playing On Twitch: This move was a complete surprise by all.  Buzzr has started airing a few select titles from their library on Twitch via a marathon of sorts.  The current schedule is a bit weird in Beat The Clock (Hall), Body Language, Password Plus, Card Sharks (Eubanks), Family Feud (Anderson), Two episodes of Match Game (Rayburn), Two episodes of Blockbusters (Cullen) and two episodes of Tattletales before going looping back. So, you get roughly a 4 hour lineup of shows, which is quite cool that will repeat six times a day and refreshes with new episodes the next day with the weekend being a catchup of sorts.  I like it and the interactivity with fans old and new are quite enjoyable. There is a major flaw with this and that's ads will pop up at random spots during watching. These ads will play in the middle of shows, even if you have an AdBlock program. These ads aren't done by Buzzr, but instead Twitch itself. If you want a workaround, you can exit out of the stream and then come back and the cycle should reset or sign up for Twitch Prime and those ads will go away. At least if you are stuck with ads, Buzzr will get a cut of the ad revenue, so they could see Twitch as more viable and expand the lineup from a 4 hour one to a 6 hour one by adding a few more shows. So, it's something to look out for.

Modern Shows Added To Friday Nights Starting February: The most recent piece of news and the one that's drummed up the most controversy among fans is this news. Starting in February, Buzzr will air a three hour block of modern Fremantle shows. The three shows are Celebrity Name Game, Family Feud with Richard Karn and Temptation: The All New Sale of the Century. Some fans see this as an affront to them because they see Buzzr being the Classic Channel and anything before the 2nd Bush Administration shouldn't be on there. The biggest amount of kvetching is about Temptation and how they let what was considered the worst revival they've ever done on the schedule.

To answer the critics, I answer back with this: Aren't you the same fans who complain that Buzzr doesn't show anything fresh and just rerun abuse the hell out of certain shows? Now that Buzzr is showing you something fresh and also with Celebrity Name Game and Family Feud with Richard Karn, very enjoyable, you're also complaining? I guess you can't please everyone and with Temptation: please no one at all.  I actually see this change being successful....for Celebrity Name Game and Karn Feud. Temptation will be buried and something will be used to replace Temptation...maybe John O'Hurley's To Tell The Truth. It makes sense for these shows to air since they are most likely already digitized and could be aired at anytime. Hopefully, these moves will give Buzzr an edge to get into more TV markets.

That's the latest Buzzr news and I hope everyone has a great 2018!