Merv Griffin's Crosswords/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



  • Fan Nickname: The show's title is commonly shortened to Crosswords, mainly since Merv had little to do with it.
  • Screwed By The Distributor: Following a renewal for Season 2 and getting a firm "go" in 75% of the country, production was halted by the syndicator, Program Partners, due to "high production costs". Considering the show's payouts (about $3,500 in earlier episodes, about $7,000-$13,000 later {the biggest winner being just over $17,000}) and overall No Budget feel, everyone was confused at how they were even able to come up with such an excuse! A few people at BuzzerBlog tried to make sense of it:

Devares: [Y]ou have two powerhouse production companies (Sony and NBC Universal), and they have budget problems? Come on! There's more to this than they tell you...
B-W: High production costs? This show? Who are they kidding?
HomerJay: Hiatus in this case means cancelled. No-one is going to run repeats of Crosswords in the Fall. It's done, over, finished.

    • The syndicator offered a repeat package and two Canadian shows [1] as options until Season 2 began, but Crosswords never got back up off the ground.
  • Working Title: The show was piloted under various titles, including Let's Do Crosswords and Let's Play Crosswords. Both of them ended up being used as Ty Treadway's signal to begin each game.
  1. (Inside the Box {a 20 Questions-esque quiz centered around television}, and Style By Jury {a fashion-based reality series})