GSN shows lots of casino-related shows, including poker. Come to think of it, I could substitute a few other channels (ESPN, Travel Channel, Discovery, and probably Lifetime too) in there, and it would read just as well.
But if you like to watch GSN, live in Las Vegas, and are too cheap to spring for digital cable from our friends at Cox, you are SOL.
From the LV Sun:
The Game Show Network, a cable channel that began airing classic game shows a decade ago but has recently ramped up programming of casino game tournaments, boasts 56.6 million viewers nationwide and a strong following among gamblers and seniors in Las Vegas, its No. 4 market.
But local cable subscribers will no longer be able to see GSN in its usual spot on the cable lineup. As of this year, Cox Communications Inc. dropped the channel from its “preferred basic” analog cable lineup and moved it to digital cable, a service that costs extra.
The move has angered loyal GSN-watchers like Dorothy Ames, a retired woman in North Las Vegas.
“I’d been away on vacation and came back New Year’s Eve and it was still running,” Ames said. “Then it was just gone.”
Ames, a regular casino-goer, found GSN by channel surfing and “fell in love” with its broadcasts of classic game shows like “The Price is Right.” She admits being taken with more recent shows like the “World Series of Blackjack,” a GSN creation modeled after the legendary World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe.
“They’re fun,” she said of the gambling programs.
GSN President and Chief Executive Rich Cronin said the network is “very upset” about the move to digital, considered a cable netherworld crowded with little-watched and hard to find niche programs.
Ironically, the next article in the Sun is about the breakthrough success of GSN:
GSN upping the TV stakes: Friday night will be casino night on Game Show Network
Actually, there are lots of cool things on digital cable. Lately I’ve been watching Boomerang a lot (when I’m not working on the book, which is progressing very well). They’ve got stuff like the Superfriends that makes me think it’s a wonder that anyone in my generation developed any appreciation of actual science. Some of those cartoons are so mind-boggling awful that they are extremely entertaining. Check out the Superfriends page for more.