Svengoolie: horror host show will be 30 minutes longer in 2023

Svengoolie, a.k.a. Rich Koz, has been working as a horror host since 1979, and over the decades his show has grown from airing in select areas – Chicago, Milwaukee, and South Bend, for example – to being broadcast nationwide on the MeTV network. And in 2023, Svengoolie’s show is going to be growing in a different way. It’s going to be 30 minutes longer!

Fangoria broke the news that, staring in January, Svengoolie will now air from 8pm to 10:30 pm (Eastern) on Saturday nights. The show’s timeslot had previously been from 8 to 10. Here are the first batch of movies that will benefit from the show’s extended running time:

The Raven: Saturday, January 7 – 8pm-10:30pm ET
Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson (1963) – Horror
Inspired by the famous Edgar Allan Poe poem, a magician, who has been turned into a raven, turns to a former sorcerer for help.

The Invisible Man: Saturday, January 14 – 8pm-10:30pm ET
Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan (1933) – Horror, Sci Fi
A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane.

Kiss of the Vampire: Saturday, January 21 – 8pm-10:30pm ET
Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza, Noel Willman (1933) – Horror
When car trouble strands a honeymooning couple in a small Southern European village, an aristocratic family in the area reaches out to help them with sinister consequences.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters: Saturday, January 28 – 8pm-10:30pm ET
Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kochi (1956) – Not Rated
A 400-foot dinosaur-like beast, awoken from undersea hibernation off the Japanese coast by atomic bomb testing, attacks Tokyo.

Svengoolie running an extra 30 minutes will allow “longer titles and returning favorites to air with less editing needed” and will also allow the show’s host to include “more original content, more corny jokes, more mail, more on-location interviews, more visits from guests, and vintage bits audiences haven’t seen recently.” Plus, Svengoolie will be holding auditions that will give a fan the chance to portray the Spawn of Svengoolie. “Fans can download the new Svengoolie mobile app and submit auditions there for the chance to enter the Svengoolie dungeon and join his universe.”

Episodes of the expanded Svengoolie will be immediately followed by a new season of the companion series Sventoonie. There are also two Svengoolie comic books in development at Frank Miller Presents.

Koz had this to say about the show getting an extra 30 minutes: “I’m looking forward to the reaction we will get from our legion of Sven fans to getting more of what we do across multiple mediums! Very honestly, the fan appreciation and goodwill towards us have brought us to such heights. Also, giving back in this way keeps me from having to write a million thank you cards.“

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