Nellie Andreeva

UPDATED: Game Show Network has acquired the exclusive off-network rights to ABC’s hit reality series Dancing With The Stars from Disney-ABC Domestic Television. GSN has picked up seasons 4 through the current 13, which wraps tonight on ABC, and will begin airing them in January 2012. (For those who wonder why the first 3 seasons of the show are not part of the agreement, they were not available over rights issues.) The deal, one of the first major moves for GSN’s newly appointed EVP programming Amy Introcaso-Davis, also includes the upcoming 14th season. “Many of the most popular shows on television today—including Dancing With The Stars—are essentially game shows at their core,” said Introcaso-Davis, who started at GSN 3.5 weeks ago. “GSN is all about the potent combination of games, competition, entertainment and fun, and we know that Dancing With The Stars is a show our female audience already loves.” This is the second off-network acquisition for GSN in the past month following the pickup of the entire Fox run of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? That doesn’t signal a trend as GSN’s slate will continue to be a combination of originals and acquired series, according to Introcaso-Davis. Part of her mandate is “defining what the word game is,” she said, “looking at (any) shows that have gaming elements, elements of risk and reward.”

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