Why was Celebrity poker canceled?

[DeuceSeven]

It sucked.

[EasilyFound]

LOL. I can't believe there is a thread about this.

[Jetto]

lol...it wasn't the commenting it was the horrible plays

[Self Made]

I lost interest in it after Phil Gordon left. Hellmuth wouldn't criticize the celebs' play, and his commentary just wasn't as good.

[grdred944]

Phil H. was fine. Phil G. just likes to whine about anything that puts him in a bad light (like being dumped after making outrageous salary demands).

The show failed because it plain sucked. It was a novelty for a couple years and peaked. That's it. Nothing more.

[olivert]

Don't forget that NBC Universal chose to schedule Celebrity Poker Series 8 (Phil Hellmuth/New Orleans) directly against the WPT.

That attempt by NBCU to try to hurt the WPT failed miserably, as expected.

Celebrity Poker TV shows may be dead in the U.S., but I would expect to see this genre resurface as TV poker takes off in new markets.

The online/TV poker business in Germany in 2007 is like what the online/TV poker business was in the U.S. in 2004.

Spain and possibly Italy and Poland are on deck for 2008.

The "big one" that is still out there to be tapped by the TV/online poker business is of course mainland China. 2010 would be my guess.

[The_Taj]

More like "Why was Celebrity Poker ever aired in the first place?"

[RichGangi]

[ QUOTE ]
More like "Why was Celebrity Poker ever aired in the first place?"

[/ QUOTE ]
We have a winner. /thread.

[csquard]

It was a tired show at least the last season Gordon hosted and maybe the season before (I don't care enough to try and figure it out). Hellmuth's addition was an attempt to revive the corpse, and regardless what any of us think about having him there, it couldn't be saved. I do think it was helpful in the early stages of the explosion when the only poker on was WPT and Celebrity Poker Showdown. It showed the newbie more poker as well how to get started.

[Lord Bodak]

You have to look at the average audience here. Joe Six Pack isn't necessarily gonna sit down to watch the WPT, but they might have watched Celebrity Poker Showdown because they liked some of the celebrities on it.

Phil Gordon was perfect for the show because he had the ability to explain and critique the players' decisions in a way that someone who knows hardly anything about poker could understand.

I don't think Hellmuth was able to do that, and let's face it, if a real poker fan wants to watch poker, Celebrity Poker Showdown wasn't at the top of their list.

I think they lost the "average" viewer by bringing in the wrong commentator, and I doubt they ever had the poker enthusiast viewers in large numbers, so the show died out.