If Chuck Barris was positing himself as a parody of Ted Mack with the original Gong Show in the 70's, he created a tough act to follow.
Game Show Network, now known simply by the acronym GSN, tried to revive the series under the name Extreme Gong a number of years back, but because GSN wasn't in as many homes as it is now, it didn't get a fair chance to succeed. Sony, which co-owns GSN and holds the rights to most, if not all, of Barris' game show library, decided to try again in 2008 by reviving the Gong Show name, but also attaching the name of its new host, comedian Dave Attell, to the title. The new Gong, co-produced by actor-comedian Adam Sandler's production company, spent two uneventful months on Comedy Central, occupying a late-primetime slot that Attell was accustomed to with his previous CC series, Insomniac. Clearly, this 21st century Gong wasn't going to be family friendly, unlike the original series.
So what went wrong? A glaring lack of word of mouth, that's what. While CC did its best to promote the show, they didn't do a lot of mass media promotion, that is, placing ads in most major magazines like TV Guide or Time. Most folks only tune in to CC for three things: South Park, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, & The Colbert Report. Sony & CC were hoping Gong would make it four. Nuh-uh.
Following is a sample, taken from a Gong podcast, it looks like:
Rating: D.
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