Thursday, September 28, 2017

On The Air: Funny You Should Ask (2017)

Last month, we took a look at one of Heatter-Quigley's lesser known game shows, Funny You Should Ask. Well, the series is back, now under the aegis of comic-turned-entertainment mogul Byron Allen (ex-Real People).

Jon Kelley (ex-Extra) hosts the new edition, which has a rotating panel of six celebrities, instead of five in the original series. Whereas the original borrowed from the Chuck Barris playbook and had the contestants off stage while the celebrities answered questions, only for the contestants to try to match the answers with the appropriate panelist later in the show, the new version borrows from the H-Q classic chestnut, The Hollywood Squares, in that contestants have to answer yes or no if they agree with the celebrities' answers, which follow the predictable bluffs.

As with most syndicated 1st run shows, stations will run 2 episodes per day, meaning 13 weeks nowadays equals 130 episodes instead of 65. The MyNetworkTV affiliate in the home district has Funny airing at noon (ET) weekdays.

The following promo comes from a West Coast affiliate.



Is it entertaining? You bet. So why isn't it on later in upstate NY? Because WNYA has commitments to air reruns of Fox's animated comedies in late night, as well as other syndicated fare, and doesn't see the value in running Funny at night. I guess they figure folks remember that it was a daytime show the first time around, and.....

Rating: A.

No comments: