How we got Comcast to add the Game Show Network

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How we got Comcast to add the Game Show Network

POSTED: Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 8:37 PM

Filed Under: TV

Feel free to thank us later.

I have not seen Catch 21, hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro (aka, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's Carlton). It has been ages since I've seen an episode of seminal '70s game show Match Game. My only recent viewings of Password were on YouTube. I do not get to see a show that is actually titled Carnie Wilson Unstapled.

I do not have GSN: Game Show Network.

The life of a freelance writer allows me to watch a lot of game shows, and the choices on regular TV are slim: Jeopardy!, Price is Right, maybe a syndicated Millionaire. The only Family Feud host I can watch is John O'Hurley. My life is pretty rough, I know. But imagine how much better it would be if I could watch Family Feud as hosted by Gene Rayburn, Ray Combs or Richard Karn. I have, and it is a bright possible future.

I complain so much about not having Game Show Network primarily because my parents, who live in the Far Northeast (also Comcast subscribers), get GSN. They even get it on the same channel — 57 — I watched GSN on when it first debuted in our cable lineup when it replaced SportsChannel Philadelphia in 1997.

Look, this isn't just about my desire to watch more game shows than I already do. There is a real purpose. When I was in high school, I saw an episode of Match Game where I swear the following happened: There was a question about a fictional German man, and one of the celebrity panelists drew a swastika on his card, put it on his arm and paraded around like a Nazi. I need to watch reruns of Match Game in the hope of confirming the existence of this moment.

Not content to just stew, I actually contacted Comcast's PR department to find out why, exactly, I don't get the Game Show Network. Partway through my conversation with the company's PR department, I got this bombshell news: As part of ongoing Comcast upgrades, Center City Comcast customers will have Game Show Network next month! Did you hear that? That's the sound of yours truly effecting more positive change for Philadelphia with this article than I ever have before.

A Comcast PR person explained: Thanks to Comcast's series of acquisitions of former cable companies (and probably demographic reasons), parts of the city have slightly different channel line-ups. Comcast's ongoing "World of More" upgrade is phasing out analog signals for all but a handful of channels. This upgrade, also hilariously called "xfinitizing" an area, recently gave Comcast's customers in Center City a block of HD channels in the 800s. Sadly, my parents don't get to watch Kendra in HD. They're crushed. Comcast will be rolling (xfinitizing?) out 35 to 53 new HD channels to customers sometime soon.

But most importantly, we'll be getting Game Show Network. Comcast hasn't made me this happy since the 2001 Sixers.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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