Genre Reality television Original language(s) English No. of episodes 8 | Country of origin United States No. of seasons 1 | |
Starring Gardner Stone
Todd Stone
Darcy Stone
Travis Romano | ||
Family Trade is an American reality television series broadcast by Game Show Network. The show premiered on March 12, 2013, and continued to air new episodes until April 16, 2013. Filmed in Middlebury, Vermont, the series chronicles the daily activities of G. Stone Motors, a GMC and Ford car dealership that employs the barter system in selling its automobiles. The dealership is operated by its founder, Gardner Stone, his son and daughter, Todd and Darcy, and General Manager Travis Romano. The series features the shop's daily interaction with its customers, who bring in a variety of items that can be resold in order to receive a down payment on the vehicle they are leasing or purchasing. Commentary and narration are also often provided by the Stones during the episodes.
Contents
Format
The series features customers, usually two to three per episode, bringing in anything they believe is resalable within reason to the dealership to help cover the cost of a new or used vehicle (including pigs, maple syrup, and collectable dolls), rather than paying for it with cash. The customers then negotiate the value of their items, usually with Gardner, but occasionally also with other members of the shop's staff. The trade usually is not enough to cover the full value of the car or truck; because of this, the value of the trade provides the customers with a down payment on the vehicle. Once the trade is completed, Todd, Darcy, and Travis take the items the dealership has acquired, and attempt to resell them for a profit.
Production
Production for Family Trade began with the dealership receiving a phone call from Eli Frankel and Lionsgate proposing the idea of filming a reality show. The Stones eventually agreed to have Lionsgate film a fifteen-minute clip of various trades performed at the dealership. Lionsgate pitched the idea to a few networks, such as History, but GSN eventually picked the series up after ordering a pilot show.
In the network's 2012 upfronts, GSN announced plans to launch a new category of programming entitled "Real-Life Games", stating that series under that category, "take place in real-world settings and feature real-life risk and reward, winners and losers, joy and disappointment". Family Trade first appeared in the network's upfronts on March 21, 2012 under that same section. Despite this, the Stones insisted that there were little to no "game" aspects to the series, rather that everything seen in the show was related to business. GSN then proceeded to order eight episodes of the series on August 9, 2012. The series was originally expected to premiere on March 5, 2013; however, GSN later pushed the premiere date back a week to March 12. Although the network never made an official cancelation announcement, the show has not aired on GSN since the end of the first season. Combined with the show's absence in the network's most recent annual upfront presentation, it is presumed to be canceled.
Cast
Reception
Family Trade was considered to be a risk for GSN due to the network's history of exclusively airing game shows. Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times called the show a "game-changer", and a "key part in [GSN's] strategy to broaden its programming and brand". The day after the series premiere, Michael Tyminski of Manhattan Digest gave a negative review of the show, calling it "incredibly bland", and stating that it appeared to lack much of the family drama that had previously been advertised.
Ratings
Family Trade started off with decent ratings by GSN's standards, averaging 403,000 viewers for the two episodes shown on the night of the show's premiere, slightly above the network's primetime viewership average. However, the show quickly fell in the ratings, with all new episodes airing in March (including the premiere night's episodes) averaging 296,000 viewers, and only 40,000 viewers (with a 0.0 rating) among adults 18–49. In April, the series dropped even lower in terms of total viewers, with an average of 274,000, and only improved by a negligible amount among adults 18–49, with 46,000 viewers (again with a 0.0 rating).