GSN Lowers the Boom on 'High Stakes Poker' TV Show

Is GSN taking poker TV show High Stakes Poker off the air? (Image courtesy of gsn.com)

The folks over at Pokerati are reporting that the Game Show Network (GSN) has not begun filming a new season of the popular poker TV show High Stakes Poker and have no plans to do so. They got their hands on a strongly-worded quote from one of the show's hosts, AJ Benza, about the lack of communication over whether or not there will be a new season of the show:

"Far as Gabe and I know”¦.the show isnt coming back. Apparently”¦the network is going to go in a different direction and that aint good news for our show, especially since we skew a higher-aged audiuence. Never mind that we’re the network’s No. 1 show. Still and all, no one calls us from the network to say squat. Only Kevin Bellincoff checks in periodically, but it just don’t seem like good news. If you ask me”¦they’re treating us like shit. All we ever did was make them a bunch of money.

The High Stakes Poker section of the GSN website is still up and there has been no "official" announcement of any kind to this news, so everything remains fairly unofficial. However, you've got to assume that if the hosts haven't been contacted about, you know, hosting the new season, then something a little fishy is going on.

If the World Poker Tour actually had a host (they just lost Layla Kayleigh), we'd call her and see if GSN has contacted her about hosting the next season of the WPT because the deadline for GSN to renew that contract is coming up on June 1, 2008. Could the WPT be next to go? How would we find out? Let's just assume that Kimberly Lansing is getting the job as the new WPT host, can someone get us her number so we can call her? You know, just to see if she's heard anything. What? Seriously, just for informational purposes. *We love you Kimberly*

Charles Simmons regularly writes poker news for the Bodog Beat.