TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

GSN's new original casino themed series, POKER ROYALE: THE WPPA CHAMPIONSHIP debuted last night with a solid ratings performance of 0.6. This outperforms GSN's previous premieres of WORLD SERIES OF BLACKJACK on March 15, 2004 which brought in a 0.5, CELEBRITY BLACKJACK July 5, 2004 with a 0.5, and CELEBRITY BLACKJACK II on October 12, 2004 which brought in a 0.4. Additionally there was a nice build for the show quarter-hour to quarter-hour, ending in a 0.7 for the last 15 minutes. Moreover, poker.gsn.com received over 4200 entries into the $10 million Texas Holdem poker sweepstakes during the evening.

Hosted by comedian Kevin Nealon (Saturday Night Live), POKER ROYALE features the country's top amateur and tournament poker players in a game of No Limit Texas Holdem, rewarding the final winner with a grand prize of $125,000 and a GSN bracelet. Additionally, POKER ROYALE: THE WPPA CHAMPIONSHIP features a unique twist with an online sweepstakes allowing one GSN viewer the chance to split $10 million with the tournament champion live, on the final episode on January 11.