It turns out The Game isn’t over yet. It just took a timeout, albeit a long one. The sitcom originally ran on The CW network for three seasons, with the last of the first-run episodes appearing in May of 2009. BET has announced it’s bringing the series back on January 11, 2011. The hope is to build on fan interest that began even before the original series cancellation was announced.
The Game is a comedy/drama produced by Kelsey Grammer and is a spin-off of the series Girlfriends. Tia Mowry stars as a first-year med student who ignores being accepted into Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, preferring instead to follow her boyfriend (Pooch Hall) to San Diego. He’s been tapped by a professional football team as a promising new rookie. Other castmembers include Brittany Daniel, Coby Bell, Hosea Chanchez and Wendy Raquel Robinson.
Even before The Game was cancelled by The CW, BET began syndicating reruns of the series, with some of the episodes garnering higher numbers than they did when they originally aired on The CW. Now the cable channel is looking to expand on its original programming to get more money from their advertisers, money that only high-end scripted series can bring in. With The Game bringing a large fan response in syndication, BET execs were convinced that new episodes would be a viable option to anchor their other new programming.
BET’s senior vice president of original programming, Charlie Jordan Brookins, said, “This is the beginning of building what scripted programming means to BET.” They have a selection of drama projects in development at the cable outlet, yet are deciding to start this new programming with comedies, because they can get them on the air more quickly.
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With the new production of the Game series, they’ll need to downscale from what the show was used to on The CW. To start, they’ll save on the costs and will also take advantage of some tax incentives by moving the series from Los Angeles to Atlanta, where the series is now in production at the EUE/Screen Gems studio.
Stars Mowry and Hall were eager to pick up where they left off, as were many from the writing staff. Some of the scribes who couldn’t return to the writers room are submitting freelance scripts.
Executive producer Mara Brock Akil claims, “Everyone on our team wants to just shock everybody and make it even better than it was on the CW. How do you do that with less money? You have to be more creative. There’s definitely a bigger rock to push up the hill, but we want it to be a huge success not only for us but for the network.”
Brock Akil is willing to work hard to make The Game a success on BET, feeling the show never had the attention it deserved on the old network. “What we never had before was the marketing component to support the show.” Yet as a new flagship series for original BET programming, “they know what they have, and they want us to help grow their audience. That’s exciting for us.”
What do you think? Are you looking forward to seeing new episodes of The Game? How long do you think it will continue this time? One season, two or ?
OMG! can’t wait for 1/11/11 to get here its been to long. I loved that show and I hope all of the original cast returns. LOVE YA BET!!!!!
I’m too geek about the show comin back… omg major fan
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE The Game! Can’t wait.
I luv the game i could watch the same ones over and over again! Im so happy bet picked it up! Its a shame it had 2 get a budget cut but it figures because its a black show, Im mos def backing it up & will b glued 2 the t.v on 1-11-11. I hope they do a marthon & start from the 1st show! black ppl rock!
this is great because this show was the best and i love the cast…hope they get 5 more seasons out of this one….u rock BET!!!!!!!
I CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON TO START. I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO EVERYONE. THIS SHOW WILL NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE, EVEN IF THEY CANCEL IT AGAIN. IM GLAD IT WILL BE ON BET TOO. THIS IS THE TYPE OF STUFF WE NEED IN THE WORLD, MORE BLACK SITCOMS.
I’m so happy the series is coming back! I have waited so long for the return, but unfortunately I think it won’t survive but maybe a season. Cutting costs will make a huge impact.. But for myself and others I hope it survives!! Thank you for bringing it back..
Sooo glad to see The Game coming back and hope BET can blow it out of the water. CW will be wondering what they were thinking to cancel it.
Now that that issue is resolved, what can be done about Girlfriends-with all the original cast?
Me and my daughter have been watching the reruns over and over again and can never enough of it. If you watch something again and again and it makes you laugh like it was your first that is a GREAT SHOW. We both cannot wait for it to come back on and stay on for a long time, the cast is Great I love all.
Yea for you guys for bring it back now there will be a good show that we can look forward to watch, Thanks again 🙂
I can’t wait for the season to get started. I am hoping for good writing with this season. I hope that Melanie and Derwin are married and the baby isn’t his. I am hoping that Janae and baby are written off and we can move on with Kelly and Jason/ Malik and his issues. I think if the writers don’t continue with this baby thing we will have more viewers. We will see. I can’t wait! I have been a fan since the beginning and will ride this through all the seasons to come. Good Luck “Game staff”
I love the game I’m so glad It’s coming back and I hope they never take it off again
The alleged reason CW cnacelled “The Game” was because they wanted ot shift their focus from “half hour sitcoms” to hour-long dramas. This is why the 3rd season of “The Game” and more so the hour long finale had a more drama-esque tone to it (because they were trying every way possible to prevent a cancellation). But alas CW didn’t bite. Ironically enough the only 2 shows at the time that did fall into that “half hour sitcom” category were two African American sitcoms (“The Game” & “Everybody Hates Chris”). It’s even more ironic that CW only put these two… Read more »
OMG!!!!!!!!! It can’t come soon enough, I’m dying, I’ve seen the rereuns a million times and I have all the dvd’s… 1-11-11 is the DATE!
I think that it will do well on BET. There were so many fans just waiting for the show to come back including myself. I’m so anxious!!!!!!! I can’t wait 🙂
I’m so glad this show is coming back! I loved it initially, have watched all the syndicated shows and watch each episode as if I’ve never seen it before. I think the show will last at least 2-3 seasons because it has a whole new fan base! YAY!!!