i turned on OMNI 2 today during my lunch break. You can usually expect a wild and woolly assortment of programming from the OMNI family of stations. Today, after enjoying a swing-style steel drum rendition of Amazing Grace, i stuck around for Merv Griffin’s Crosswords.

My first though, of course, was “Merv Griffin? Isn’t he dead?” i expected either a re-run of an old gameshow, which would work well with OMNI’s style, or some macabre presentation with old Merv propped up in the corner a la Weekend at Bernie’s.

(okay - i actually only expected the re-run. )

What i got was a syndicated game show with a generic front-man who studied from Guy Smiley’s School for Game Show Hosts. He was very definitely not Merv.

The show is the typical fare for bored work-from-home moms and dads who aren’t interested in watching Guiding Light. So imagine my amazement when THIS happened:

Brought to you by WHO?? i nearly did a spit-take.

All this talk of Microsoft trying to expand the audience for their console is evident. Their latest bids to put grandma onto the video game machine include last week’s Word Puzzle, Viva Pinata: Party Animals, the upcoming family-friendly Scene It, and now a Merv Griffin’s Crosswords game if Wikipedia can be believed:

“Advertisements during recent shows have announced that a new Crosswords game will be available on Xbox Live in the near future.”

Still, this small dabbling in audience expansion is nothing compared to Nintendo’s aggressive marketing juggernaut, which seeks to replace granddad’s daily medication with a Wiimote. If Microsoft hopes to compete, they have to find ways to match the value of the Wii. Uncle Rumply is not going to be swayed by the system’s graphics capabilities. He wants to know how many crosswords it has, and whether buying a system will convince his grandchildren to love him.