GSN Orders 'CHAIN REACTION' From Michael Davies and Sony Pictures Television

GSN Orders 'CHAIN REACTION' From Michael Davies and Sony Pictures Television

Revival of the Popular Word Game to Air Third Quarter '06

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The leading network in prime time game shows, GSN, the network for games, announced today that it has ordered 65 episodes of the new series, CHAIN REACTION, executive produced by Michael Davies ("Who Wants To Be A Millionaire") for Sony Pictures Television (SPT). CHAIN REACTION is the first program produced for the 60-million home network by SPT and Davies under GSN's previously announced three-series commitment. GSN plans to air the half-hour game series as part of its prime time lineup beginning mid-summer.

In making the announcement, Rich Cronin, GSN's president and CEO said, "At this time when networks are rediscovering the power of game shows in prime, GSN is pleased to offer an exciting interactive word game that is totally addictive. We think that viewers will love the challenge of CHAIN REACTION, and we're thrilled to have Michael Davies bring his unique talent to GSN."

"When GSN sent me the tapes of the original Chain Reaction I was blown away by how good the game was -- I couldn't stop myself from shouting out the answers," said Michael Davies, executive producer of CHAIN REACTION and CEO of Embassy Row. "'Playalongability' is a vitally important element of any strip game show -- but our remake of this little known Sony format has so much more -- it's funny, fast-moving, clever and drips with class. I couldn't think of a better program with which to kick off my relationship with GSN."

Taped in New York City, CHAIN REACTION is a revival of the 1980 game show which aired on NBC. In the show, teams compete against one another to complete chains of words after the first and last words of the chain are revealed. Each word in the chain is related in some way to the word directly above and/or below it. The new twist in GSN's version is that, Davies will be pitting teams of men against women.

The show's interactivity will allow viewers to play along at home at GSN.com to solve puzzles and have the chance to win prizes or get discounts on merchandise. Players on the show and at home are presented with a verbal grid with seven spaces for words. The first and last words are revealed and the two teams compete to find the five words in between by determining the relationships between contiguous words. One letter of each missing word is offered as teams take turns trying to guess the word pairs to complete the chain.

An example of a chain that will played on the series is as follows:

FLOWER
P _ _ _ _
L _ _ _
D _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Q _ _ _ _
MOTHER

The correct word pairs are: flower power, power line, line dancing, dancing queen and queen mother. The final chain is FLOWER -> POWER -> LINE -> DANCING -> QUEEN -> MOTHER.

Davies remains executive producer of prime time network hit "Wife Swap" and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," now in its fourth year of first run syndication. Over the last 12 months, Davies' New York-based company, Embassy Row, continues to grow and has significantly increased its production of game shows, comedy, documentary films, sports and web content for partners ABC, Sony, GSN, VH1, ESPN, Comedy Central and Yahoo!.

About SPT

Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry's leading content providers. SPT produces and distributes top-rated, award-winning programming in every genre, including series, movies and family entertainment for network and cable television; first-run syndicated series; off-network syndicated programs; and theatrical releases. SPT (www.sonypicturestelevision.com) is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company.

About GSN

GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming. The network features game shows, reality series, documentaries and casino games. As the industry leader in interactivity, GSN has allowed viewers to play-along with on-air programming via their computers and GSN.com since 2000. Now reaching more than 60 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation. For further media information, visit GSN's press website at corp.gsn.com.

-GSN-

Source: GSN

CONTACT: Cindy Ronzoni of GSN, +1-310-255-6933, cronzoni@gsn.com

Web site: http://www.sonypicturestelevision.com/

Web site: http://www.gsn.com/
http://www.corp.gsn.com/

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