The ranks of syndicated game shows remains relatively thin, with only five on the docket in the 2017-18 TV season. But the success of Debmar-Mercury’s Family Feud — revitalized since comedian Steve Harvey joined as host in 2010 — has encouraged producers to search for the next big comedic game hit. So far, that task has proved difficult.

The Game Show Issue:Finding an Escape in TV Fun and Games | Game On for FremantleMedia’s Mullin

Disney-ABC tried to push Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, now in its 16th season in syndication, toward comedy after longtime host Meredith Vieira left to host her own NBCUniversal-produced talk show in 2013. The studio tried out hosts such as Cedric the Entertainer and Terry Crews, but those changes didn’t affect ratings.

Disney-ABC finally returned the show to its more straightforward roots, hiring The Bachelor’s Chris Harrison as host in 2015 and moving the show to Las Vegas from New York City at the start of last season. Those moves have given the show a lift, with Millionaire’s ratings up 10% in viewers, 6% in households and 4% among daytime’s key demographic of women 25-54 this year season-to-date through Oct. 29, according to Nielsen.

To capitalize on the success of Feud, Debmar-Mercury and production partner FremantleMedia North America tried out Celebrity Name Game, hosted by Craig Ferguson, former host of CBS’s The Late Late Show. It was initially intended to be paired with Feud on TV stations, but Tribune, which does not air Feud in many markets, ended up acquiring it. In the end, Celebrity Name Game sputtered and ended its run after last season.

This year, Entertainment Studios rolled out its own comic-driven game show with Funny You Should Ask, hosted by Jon Kelley. In the program, comedians such as Gabriel Iglesias, Sherri Shepherd and Louie Anderson improvise answers to questions while contestants have to guess whether they’re right or wrong. So far, it is averaging a 0.5 in households, season-to-date, and a 0.2 among women 25-54.

Looking ahead, Warner Bros. is shopping a show to be hosted by Jane Lynch that studio sources describe as a comedy, but neither a talk nor game show. It’s being targeted for early-fringe and access time slots, so it could run in competition or be coupled with games and sitcoms in those time periods.

In general, new offerings in access are few. But with a lack of new sitcoms on the docket, studios are looking for non-sitcom ways to help stations freshen up access.

Meanwhile, over a year ago, Family Feud surpassed CBS Television Stations’ longtime leaders Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! to become syndication’s top-rated game. For years, it’s also been the top-rated first-run program among women 25-54. But Feud’s numbers are helped by multiple runs on both stations and on cable, while Wheel still relies on single runs. Jeopardy! has double-runs in some markets, but not nearly as many as Feud.

That said, Wheel and Jeopardy!, both produced by Sony Pictures Television, remain potent offerings in syndication after 35 and 34 seasons, respectively. Wheel, syndication’s fourth highest-rated show, averages a 5.8 in households season-to-date, down 3% compared to last year. Jeopardy! is currently the second highest-rated game in syndication and third highest-rated show overall, averaging a 5.9 in households season-to-date, up 4% from last year at this time.

Read more of our INTX 2016 coverage.

BOSTON -- Reports of the death of TV everywhere are greatly exaggerated, executives from Comcast, CTAM, Disney-ABC and Viacom said at an Imagine Park session late on Monday.

“Today, thousands of hours of content is available live, on-demand, and streamed, on your choice of hundreds of apps, across a dozen or more devices -- oh, and it’s free with your pay-TV subscription,” Anne Cowan, senior vice president of communications and marketing for CTAM, said. “We need a lot more love for this experience. Just sayin’.”

The real story about TVE is studded with telling numbers: Double-digit growth in TVE viewing in the first quarter; 84% of frequent TVE users say it’s a reason they’ll stay with their provider for another year; adoption of TVE grew by 36% amongst pay-TV subscribers in the U.S.

Comcast’s Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are a whopping 29 points higher amongst partakers in Xfinity TV Everywhere, said Vito Forlenza, senior director of TV everywhere content and product strategy. “When we saw that, we knew were onto something -- that it was time to double-down.”

Comcast launched its TVE product in 2011 with 45 on-demand titles. Now, on-demand, live and linear content is streaming across 18 devices, with 115 linear networks (and 150 by year end) available in the home, or outside of the home. 

Under a marketing tagline of “if it’s on TV, it’s in your hands,” some 40% of its total video base is using the service, every quarter.

ESPN, which recently added live streaming and personalized notifications (from final scores to in-game highlights) to its app, is averaging 7 million unique devices per month, which is about 30% growth per month, said Julius Lee, senior director of affiliate partnership development and operations for Disney and ESPN Networks.

“We know that fans are accustomed to coming to the ESPN app to check the latest scores, highlights and news -- now they can live stream, too,” Lee said. On its “bread and butter” college football genre, usage (measured in minutes of viewing) is up 72%; in the football nailbiter between Clemson and Alabama, fans watched via the app for 140 million total minutes viewed (a 32% increase), on 2 million unique devices (a 38% lift.)

Some 26 million Nickelodeon fans downloaded the app, and usage is more than doubling, year over year, said Andrew Borak, vice president of marketing in the Viacom Media Networks Content division. At MTV, he said, average monthly downloads are up 54%, and monthly streams are up 84%, year over year. “This past month we hit an all-time high for authentication.”

Now all that’s left is to tackle the remaining barriers. On that list, and based on research conducted by Hub Research, for CTAM: A lack of understanding (54%), a lack of awareness that even exists (53%), an assumption that it costs extra (51%).

“There’s an art and a science to breaking down barriers,” Borak said. “The art is how to use the right language -- how to say it’s free, without saying ‘free.’”

The science is the blending of traditional audience research with consumer insights from specific audiences.

Nickelodeon, for instance, unleashes kids aged 8-12 into a design lab, with instructions to create the “ideal TVE experience.” That effort identified the graphical icon of the lock and the key as the biggest barriers. “They think they have to do something to unlock it, like with a game."

(This article was updated on to correct the number of Nickelodeon fans that downloaded the app and how many minutes viewers logged on the ESPN app for the Clemson-Alabama football game.)