GSN Has Yet to Order more High Stakes Poker EpisodesWPTE's Contract with GSN Expires May 24 |
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High Stakes Poker, which once spent four seasons as the top-rated show on GSN, has yet to put in an order for more episodes. Although President and CEO of Poker PROductions Mori Eskandani confirmed that GSN has not yet contacted his production company for new shows, he wouldn't rule out that GSN would never buy more High Stakes Poker episodes again.
According to Eskandani, that could happen as soon as tomorrrow or a decade from now. If GSN wants new shows, he said they will produce them. He reiterated that just because GSN has yet to place a call to Poker PROductions for new episodes in the last few months, it doesn't mean that they never will.
The show is currently the lead-in for the World Poker Tour, which is aired on Monday nights. Eskandani said GSN owns upwards of 50 episodes of High Stakes Poker and can broadcast the show for at long as they want. Filming of High Stakes Poker usually takes place in the late spring, but did not take place this year.
Eskandani says GSN is moving away from the casino and card-related programming that once occupied most of the evening time slots starting in 2004 (Poker Royale, World Series of Blackjack, and Celebrity Blackjack were a few of the shows). None of them can be found there now.
“It is possible that they’re trying to figure out how poker could exist within their programming,” Eskandani said.
Poker fans will soon find out if poker fits into GSN’s future plans at all. Last year, GSN bought the rights of one WPT season (the sixth one filmed), and the broadcasting agreement expires May 24. GSN has the right of first refusal to extend the contract. There’s no word on whether GSN will do this, and GSN did not return a phone call seeking comment.
High Stakes Poker and the WPT lost a huge ally at GSN after company president Rich Cronin left only a few months after he helped land the WPT deal.
High Stakes Poker premiered January 2006 and featured some of the most popular poker professionals — as well as a mix of ultra-rich amateurs — as they played cash poker with hundreds of thousands of their own dollars.
Viewers saw these players rake in several pots between $575,000 and $1 million, and viewers also learned what a straddle is.
Poker PROductions currently produces two poker shows: Poker After Dark, which appears late nights on NBC, will run through 2009 (new episodes are being filmed in October and April), and the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship, which is also filmed in April.
Eskandani said he's in negotiations with other networks pitching his other ideas for poker shows, but wouldn't go into detail as to what thay are or where they might appear.
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