So I was reading the link from the last entry about Benza being booted from High Stakes Poker, and then I found the comments below from an apparent anonymous person at GSN. So it sounds like he's being replaced by Vanessa Rousso who I really don't care for at all, but man this anonymous comment is AMAZING! Calling everyone out:
Anonymous said...
I have to post this anonymously because under the Nazi-like environment that David Goldhill has created at GSN, I know they will try and identify and fire me. I've even gone so far as to have someone else post this and send from their computer so there's nothing that can identify me. He's even rewritten in his own language and spelling because he's a better writer than me and this way they can't recognize any style that's mine.
As long as you're naming names, from GSN's side of things, credit for the success of High Stakes Poker goes to one person: Kevin Belinkoff. He was a long time GSN executive who was forced out about a year ago, just after the production of the last season of High Stakes Poker. Belinkoff campaigned vigoursly on the show's behalf. The stories of his own compulsive gambling are legendary. He would work every angle he could to keep the show going. Other the AJ, he was the only one who would talk the press to promote the show. He'd work with GSN's ad sales department to woo advertisers. The giant billboard in Las Vegas was his idea. And it was Belinkoff's idea to cast AJ Benza as the host with Gabe Kaplan, seeing the need for a non-poker expert to balance out the show. Beyond that, Belinkoff stayed out of the way and let the show become the best poker show on television.
But when Goldhill arrived a little more than two years ago, there was no room for intelligent or creative thought at GSN. Countless longtime executives were forced out, including Belinkoff's boss, a harmless British guy named Jamie Roberts. He was replaced by Kelly Goode, a black woman with a chip on her shoulder and no idea about game shows, poker shows, reality shows, or anything other than the horrible crap she developed before she got chased out at Lifetime. She went to Harvard --she'll mention that any chance she gets--but this is not an intelligent woman. She has no people skills, no creative instincts, and it's well known throughout GSN and outside that she has no idea what she's doing. Belinkoff quickly left after her hiring, but it's unkown whether that was his choice or he was fired.
Goode is disliked by virtually everyone at GSN. She micromanages her department and makes everyone miserable. There are countless stories of television executives like that, but they are successful and know what they're doing. Goode is incompetent. The only people that like her are David Goldhill and his Nazi right hand Steve Brunell. Every decision made at the network, large and small, goes through those two guys. Goode is merely their puppet and with no real authority or job to do, she spends her time making everyone else miserable.
October 12, 2009 10:19 AM
Anonymous said...
Goode had it out for AJ from day one. No one is exactly sure why. It was likely that she wanted to make changes at her new job to assert her authority. That's not unusual, but it's better when they know what they're doing and have some track record of success. Belinkoff refused to replace AJ on the last season of the show. It doesn't require you knowing a whole lot about television to know that once the audience is comfortable with one host, you face a huge risk replacing him with another. It' good to take risks, but not when you have no clue what you're doing.
Without Belinkoff, production of the last season of High Stakes Poker was overseen by Mike Bevan. He's a nice guy and is best known for sitting in his office and playing solitaire on his computer for hours on end. The show wasn't as good, but it's the great poker play that people care about, and with the new players in the mix, the show still worked. But the ratings didn't show that. GSN stopped doing any kind of promotion or marketing for the show. After long time success on Monday nights, they moved it to Sunday and put on five consecutive hours of the show. Ratings suffered and it looked like Goldhill would get his wish and poker would disappear from GSN.
But everything Goldhill and Brunell have done at GSN has been an expensive failure. They spent a small fortune buying out contracts of top level executives. Expensive programming initiatives like the Game Show Awards and a live show on Saturday night have been colossol failures. Their own arrogance led to losing their most popular new show, Lingo, and most of the classic old shows. As sponsors have fled the network in the wake of their incompetence, the ad sales representives came to Goldhill and Brunell with a simple message: The only thing anyone cares about any more on this network is High Stakes Poker. When faced with the amount of money GSN would lose if they cancelled the show, they reluctantly ordered another season, more than one year after the previous one.
But now, the collection of non-poker playing incompetents took over. They cut the show's budget. So the new season will have fewer cameras and lower production value than ever before. David Schiff, who made the move to take over the show after firing Bevan, says a female host will bring in more female viewers. Read that again. The change to Vanessa Rousso isn't designed to bring in more men. Schiff thinks that she'll add more female viewers to the audience. At no point was a single person who knows anything about poker or the show consulted. Rousso was hired without an audition. Nugent was brought in as the head of talent, but he has little authority either. His greatest contribution is an upcoming reality show with Carny Wilson, and early reports on it is that her crass style won't sit well with viewers. So with one stupid decision after another, Goldhill and his crew of scared incompetents have ruined GSN and its best shows.
Someone at GSN will see this and there will be an investigation trying to figure out who I am. I hope that they don't identify the wrong person and fire them, but the environment at GSN is a horrible one and they do everything they can to silence any dissent. AJ, you know everything I say here is true. Thank you for having the balls to say something.
14 years ago
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