By Eric Stock
HOLLYWOOD – A native of Normal who is producing game shows in Hollywood has a new show which debuts tonight.
‘Divided’ airs at 8 p.m. on the GSN (Game Show Network). Matt Laesch told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the show tests is a psychological struggle for contestants.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Laesch on WJBC.
“One person has to accept a little bit of money and the other person has to take a middle amount of money and the other person will say ‘No, I’m walking out of here with the highest amount of money,” Laesch said. “Guess what? If they don’t agree on who’s leaving with what, they will walk away with zero.”
Laesch is a University High grad. He said the show, similar to ‘Deal or No Deal’ is borrowed from overseas. It ran in the United Kingdom for a year.
“Our jaws just dropped in the studio while we were making it with these contestants,” Laesch said. “I keep relating it to ‘Deal or No Deal’ because it had that sort of energy where you will hear people in the audience say ‘Take the deal! Take the deal!’ ”
The prize amount keeps dropping until the contestants agree.
Laesch is also working on a game show called ‘My Partner Knows Best’ that will air on Lifetime later this year, plus one called ‘Planet of the Apps’ that Apple is producing.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
