GSN Moves Poker Programming to Sunday Nights

Monday is no longer poker night on GSN. Beginning this weekend, Sunday night will become the new home for poker programming on the cable network. GSN has extended its marquee poker show, “High Stakes Poker,” through Season V, and it will now move episodes to Sundays. In addition, it owns the rights to carry Season VI of the World Poker Tour, which will also air, coincidentally, on Sunday nights on Fox Sports Net.

In a press release distributed by GSN on Thursday, Vice President of Programming Kevin Belinkoff stated, “We think poker on Sunday night is a great way for viewers to end their weekend and begin their week. With High Stakes Poker and World Poker Tour, we’re proud to have the best poker in the world and we’re looking forward to establishing Sunday night on GSN as the home of poker on television.”

Earlier this year, GSN elected not to pick up its option to air the seventh season of the WPT, sending the tournament series scrambling to find a new media outlet. Several weeks later, it partnered with Fox Sports Net. The seventh season of the WPT will debut on Sunday nights, seemingly pitting FSN against GSN in a battle for poker viewers. “High Stakes Poker” will hit the airwaves at 7:00pm ET, while the World Poker Tour will be seen at 8:00pm ET. Fox Sports Net runs a national block of programming every Sunday night across all of its regional channels.

“High Stakes Poker” was one of the first television serials to air a cash game instead of a No Limit Hold’em tournament. It has been filmed in several casinos around Las Vegas, including the Golden Nugget and The Palms. The show has included numerous instances of side betting as well as running the board twice. For those at home, the show is catchy because it has featured Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Jamie Gold, Gus Hansen, Antonio Esfandiari, Sammy Farha, and Brad Booth, just to name a few. The show is hosted by A. J. Benza and “Welcome Back Kotter’s” Gabe Kaplan.

Season VI tournaments on the World Poker Tour include a win by Kevin Saul in the Bellagio Cup III. Saul, who is known in the online poker world as “BeL0WaB0Ve,” defeated Mike Matusow heads-up in that event. “Action” Dan Harrington won the aptly-named Legends of Poker tournament, defeating David Pham heads-up and pocketing $1.6 million. At the Fallsview Casino in Canada, Scott Clements, who owns multiple bracelets in Omaha events, bested Jonathan Little to win $1.4 million. Other winners during Season VI included Gavin Griffin, Phil Ivey, Brandon Cantu, Erik Seidel, and the WPT World Champion, David Chiu.

GSN programming includes a variety of game shows spanning past and present, including “Press Your Luck,” “Lingo,” and “Family Feud.” It also airs episodes of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” “Dog Eat Dog,” and “What’s My Line?” Fox Sports Net is composed of 16 regional channels which together penetrate about 80 million homes in the United States. It serves as the television home to nearly two-thirds of all American MLB, NHL and NBA teams. The World Poker Tour is traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol “WPTE.”