Merv Griffin's Crosswords/Trivia

"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...
 * 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:

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 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.