Games Show Network (GSN) has let its option for exclusive broadcast of the World Poker Tour’s Season VII expire.

This decision was taken after GSN broadcast WPT for only Season VI. The first five seasons of WPT were broadcast on Travel Channel.

Despite not committing for Season VII before the expiry date, David Goldhill, the CEO of GSN, said that the show was doing well on GSN and that GSN will work with WPT to broadcast parts of Season VII. On its side WPT has announced that it is discussing and negotiating with several major networks for the broadcast of Season VII onwards. WPT is also exploring the possibility of not giving exclusive rights to any one network, but broadcasting the event on multiple channels. Incidentally Season VII starts on July 11 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and hence time is running out for WPT. Season VII will continue till April 2009. Steve Lipscomb, the Founder, President and CEO of WPT assured viewers that the show would go on. He also confirmed that the show was a success on GSN and some arrangement with GSN may still be reached.

GSN took up Season VI of WPT because it complemented another poker show already running on GSN, High Stakes Poker. GSN aired both the shows on Monday nights, positioning Monday nights as TV poker nights. For exclusive rights GSN agreed to pay WPT $300,000 per episode and to commit $3 million to marketing the show. A new hostess, Layla Kayleigh, was signed up with much fanfare to join Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten on the set. WPT Season VI went on air in March 2008 and will continue till August 2008 as scheduled. GSN has the rights to broadcast encore episodes of Season VI for four years. Encore episodes of Season II to Season V are being aired on Travel Channel.

This news comes hot on the heels of GSN’s other poker show, High Stakes Poker, also being given the cold shoulder. GSN’s decision to abandon both poker shows comes as a surprise because these were two of the highest grossing poker ever. WPT in particular has been labeled by the industry as a major contributor to the poker boom. Two possible reasons are being cited for the decision of GSN to let these shows go. One is the possible saturation of the TV poker market. With many TV shows on poker, perhaps WPT and High Stakes Poker no longer bring in the advertising revenue they once used to. The second reason is that GSN wanted to change the format of the shows and there was some disagreement over that. In this context it is important to bear in mind that WSOP changed its traditional format to suit the TV network even at the cost of antagonizing the poker fraternity.