WPTV is set to begin airing Let’s Ask America, a daily half-hour quiz show that lets viewers play from home via Skype.
If you follow the TV business you probably know that Scripps, WPTV’s parent company, decided a couple years ago they are done paying for syndicated programming like Entertainment Tonight, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and others, and decided to develop their own programming to fill the 7pm to 8pm hour at all of their owned stations. Let’s Ask America is one of those projects. It started airing last September on several Scripps-owned television stations throughout the US as a test. In Cleveland for example, Let’s Ask America replaced Jeopardy on WEWS-TV.
The show’s premise is simple. It polls America about “fun and irreverent topics”, and during three rounds four contestants who join via Skype have to correctly predict the right answer. For each correct answer the contestants earn money. The last remaining contestant can walk away with their earnings, or choose to wager all of their money for a chance to win up to five times the amount of his or her earnings, up to $50,000.
Earlier this year Let’s Ask America had a charity episode featuring meteorologists from Scripps stations. Kait Parker represented WPTV and WFLX, and former WPTV meteorologist Keenan Smith represented WXYZ-TV.
Let’s Ask America is hosted by Kevin Pereira (G4 Attack of the Show), and will air on WPTV at 7:30pm starting September 9. It replaces OMG! Insider.
Let’s Ask America airs on WFTS (A Scripps station) here in Tampa. It’s a good show. It too replaced Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune, which had aired on WFTS and WWSB. Both moved to WTSP exclusively for the entire DMA 13.
In case you’re wondering about ET, it’s moving to CBS 12.
But what about “The List” ? That’s another show for Scripps stations.
7pm for the list.
Broadcasting & Cable picked up the story last Thursday about WPTV and other Scripps owned stations picking up “Let’s Ask America” & “The List”. I could see Scripps looking to profit from both homegrown shows… the possibility of markets that don’t have Scripps owned stations wishing to carry both show later on.
Meredith has a homegrown show called “Better”, which was/is exclusive to its stations group… recently, the show began popping up in markets that don’t have Meredith owned stations. I could see more TV markets possibly looking to carry “Better” later on. I could see Media General wishing to do the same thing for its homegrown show called “Daytime”. Also could picture NBCU’s “Access Hollywood Live” talk show showing up in more TV markets… this hour-long talk show being a spin-off of the half-hour entertainment newsmagazine show.