Weekly Game Show Picks Contestants from the E-Audience

The tech's new, but the idea is as old as “You Bet Your Life” or “Let's Make a Deal.” A Boston-area entrepreneur is streaming a weekly game show over the Web, choosing players from among the audience in his “studio” — i.e., the entire Internet.

Eric Friedberg is getting a strong enough response that he's been able to produce a couple of sponsors: sporting goods retailer Modell's and the Jolly Time popcorn brand.

Friedberg, a partner at Cohen-Friedberg Associates, runs the game show out of a Newton, MA, furniture warehouse, but his viewers know it on the Web site. They log in 20 minutes before the game goes live, and the first 5,000 people to show up make it into the Web audience.

One of them gets to take part in the 20-minute game “State Your Case,” which asks players to guess which state license plate is in one of 40 different suitcases on display, for prizes ranging from $50 to $1,000. The show has attracted a total audience of more than 8,000 since its October debut and draws 200 new viewers for each show.

For the eyes it's bringing to the ads placed on the Easy to Win Web site, apparently that price is right.