In its second outing, the poker contest/reality show Face the Ace averaged 1.46 million viewers, and a 0.3/1 (rating/share) with adults 18-49. Even for Saturday night it was the lowest-rated, least-watched show on broadcast all evening. Dead last place for the hour, trailing by far repeats of Finding Nemo and 48 Hours Mystery and a new episode of America's Most Wanted which performed almost six times better than Face with adults 18-49.
No disrespect intended to any fans of the show -- I've never seen it -- or Steve Schirripa, who I loved on The Sopranos. Face the Ace is ending its prime-time run as of last night's episode. Apparently the plan from the time the show was announced was always to air it twice in prime-time and then move it to Saturday afternoons. I'm not sure where and when it will be moved, though. In my program guide the only episodes I can see upcoming are airing on CNBC, and they might be reruns of the shows already aired on NBC.
Wow, I wonder how many episodes were filmed.
Saturday afternoons starting Sept. 12. Sounds like the way NBC airs the Heads-Up Poker Championship. I’m still not sure why Steve Schirripa is hosting the show.
Didn’t this show used to run late, late night post-Fallon on NBC? Maybe I’m thinking of a different poker show–or possibly something on a different network.
How Low can you go? Appeartly to the CW’s levels, but then again CW is a small network. Hopefully NBC does pull this in the fall.
Well, maybe NBC should just put on some repeats of their classic sitcoms like Frasier, Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers etc. They would bet much better ratings.
** I meant doesn’t **
Maybe they need new people in charge
Don’t you see? NBC is running an experiment to see if any show can possibly get lower ratings than Kings.
Maybe they should concentrate on shows that are just a tad more family friendly than gambling.
In response to the person who wrote…”Maybe they should concentrate on shows that are just a tad more family friendly than gambling.”
For starters, poker is considered by many academics and others to be a “game of skill” not a “game of chance”.
This means that poker is considered to be the same as playing chess, where its the players “skill” that determines the games outcome.
A “game of chance” would be like buying a bingo or scratch ticket where there is no skill involved.
So poker is not gambling….
Secondly…the show aired at 9pm eastern time on a Saturday night…..WHEN DID SHOWS FROM 9PM ONWARDS BECOME FAMILY PRIMETIME???? Its not like its on at six or seven pm, and there’s nothing in the show’s content (such as language,violence,sexuality) that would make it inappropriate for younger viewers….the playstation games you are probably letting them play unsupervised all the time are more inappropriate then this show,lol.
I love poker myself, its a fun past time. I like alot of poker related tv shows like poker after dark and the world poker tour. But this show certainly doesn’t come close to that level of quality.
I must still have a life since I didn’t know this show existed.
Why don’t they just stick Al Roker on the air to kill another hour of NBC time.
NBC obviously didn’t promote this show enough. I didn’t even know it was on. I would’ve watched it. NBC really needs to clean house and start over.
As a poker player some answers to above questions:
The1337: According to Card Player Magazine, 7 episodes were made.
greenogo: The show you’re thinking of is Poker After Dark which is still running. A much better show. It is serious poker with pros playing with their own money. It runs 5 nights a week with a Saturday recap show. Almost every hand is shown.
From what I’ve read in the poker press, I get the feeling this show didn’t cost NBC much of anything. Full Tilt poker provided the pros. They are the main advertiser, and I expect they put up the prize money.
Poker in prime time doesn’t work unless it’s on GSN or ESPN where numbers and ratings are much smaller. The Discovery Channel did very well with the World Poker Tour but their new CEO called the WPT “ratings crack cocaine” and dumped it last year. Face the Ace is terrible. The host is terrible the format is bad since there is no commentary and it shows that the pros are not entertainers.
The economics of poker on television seems to be that the large portion of advertisers are internet poker sites. With the exception of the World Series of Poker on ESPN (now running through November) other advertisers seem to stay away from shows the promote gambling.
Just so you know – I watch all these shows and generally really like them. Except Face the Ace which stinks.
That late night show is called “Poker After Dark”.
Maybe we were a little too hard on Kings?
Bring back the XFL? (JOKE)
Fwiw, Full Tilt Poker is currently running qualifying rounds for more contestants, with the final set for Novemeber.
The whole show is basically an ad for Full Tilt, so its gotta be dirt cheap. The only ads I’ve seen for the show were on CNBC and I thought it was airing on CNBC until I checked the schedule.
I couldn’t watch the show, my cable company did not air it – instead substituted a prepaid program about MUSIC!!!
Full Tilt Poker said they couldn’t help me get the cable company to air the program!!!
Since other Poker shows receive respectable viewership – is there something happening here?????
I just got around to watching episode 2 and in the credits it says “Returns to NBC September 12th” (doesn’t say a time).
“How Low can you go? Appeartly to the CW’s levels, but then again CW is a small network. Hopefully NBC does pull this in the fall.”
Umm… you do know that CW = CBS, right?
I watched the first episode of Face The Ace and I could care less if I watched another. I am a big fan of High Stakes Poker as well as the WSOP. I think AZtop is right on when he mentions that poker players are not entertainers. I think many of the people in the poker industry looking to make a few bucks fail to realize is that the game of poker will never die. The WSOP’s turnout was up to par for the most part despite this government induced recession we are in. However, if they keep trying to force these half thought out ideas from the likes of Full Tilt and the other poker sites on to television, they could very well kill any chance of future (well thought out) poker shows.
Following the huge success of “Face the Ace”, FOX has teamed up with PokerStars to bring you PokerStarsMillion Dollar Challenge, where contestants get to plays heads-up against Daniel Negreanu.
http://www.pokerstars.net/poker/promotions/millions/