What to Expect From “Minute to Win It”
We’ve got three more videos of Minute to Win It to show off before we take off the training wheels and let you see the debut this Sunday, March 14, at 7:00PM ET on NBC. The first we’ll show you is a small news package NBC put together for us that shows a lot of what to expect from the show, at least in their terms. What to really expect, for the casual fan?
Here’s what it comes down to. If you’ve never seen The Cube or you couldn’t care less about the fact that it’s a huge copy, then you’ll probably enjoy the first few minutes. It’s the same exact show so you’d be a bit strange not to like it. Minute to Win It just replaced the plexiglass cube with a fake audience video wall. It’s Millionaire meets Beat the Clock. If you look at the game play alone and with nothing else in mind you’ll enjoy some of it. It goes down hill quickly, though. You’ll probably soon be turned off by the annoying cut-away shots mid-game that they apparently force host Guy Fieri into doing. You’ll also probably be a bit irritated by how obnoxiously loud it is. If general audiences were complaining about the psychotic noise levels on Deal or No Deal you have no idea what you’re in for Sunday. You may also be amazed at how un-tense the show is, after being billed as so tension filled. Or you may be shocked at how seriously it seems to take itself when the first 30-45 seconds of the show makes it seem tongue-in-cheek. Something just happened with Minute and it lost its focus early on. It got too big, production wise, for its own good.
Minute to Win It won’t change the way people play games and create a whole new trend, like they are trying to shove down people’s throats. The game is OK, and to get maximum enjoyment I’d just turn off the volume for everything but the games. I’ve not really read more than the odd good review of this show (beyond one a co-creator did for a website). Basically everyone is in agreement with this general idea. But to look at the positives it could be so much worse. Would I rather have the garbage like Set For Life and National Bingo Night back, or would I rather have a slightly obnoxious copycat show that started somehow taking itself too seriously within the first 30 seconds? I’ll take Minute to Win It every day.
Ratings Report: “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel” Increase
Time for some more ratings. Nothing that big so I’ll keep it brief for a change. Check out all the results by clicking here for the full listings. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! are the only shows to increase ratings for the week ending February 28th. It’s the final week of sweeps also. It’s very important for each show to bring in those advertising dollars around now. Wheel went up 3% to a 7.4. Overall during sweeps, which got a little screwed up because of the Olympics, the show was down just 2%. Jeopardy! was also up 3% and saw a 6.4 rating. Jeopardy! actually broke even during sweeps period and appears to be the only show that rea…
ABC Orders “Trust” Pilot from Mark Burnett
Mark Burnett, the executive producer of the now-infamous Our Little Genius, is back at it with a new pilot just ordered by ABC. ABC Entertainment News, from the Hollywood Reporter, says that the network has ordered a pilot for the game show Trust Me, I’m a Game Show Host from Burnett. The slight twist is there are two hosts for the show, each talking about the same subject. One will be saying truthful things and the other will be lying. It’s up to the contestants, selected from the audience, to pick out which is true and which is false. Burnett also did the great Shark Tank for ABC, which is awaiting renewal.
If I had to place money on it, I woul…
Apply for BuzzerBlog’s Podcast Game Show “Double Cross”!
I’m always looking to do a podcast since I love this new technology stuff. However I just get really bored with the generic “talk about game shows” sort of thing. Our friends at the sister-site Game Show NewsNet do it far better than I ever can with We Love To Interrupt. I’ve been looking to do something new, and I think we have it. We come to you with Double Cross: Presented by QuizQuizQuiz, the first game show ever done in podcast format.
If you’re over 18 and from any English speaking country, you can play. It’s a different kind of quiz show. It doesn’t just involve your knowledge. If you can convince p…
“Price is Right” Ups the Ante for April Fools 2010
The Price is Right has been finally embracing holidays. The one I look forward to more than any for the show is April Fools Day, where they let the show go crazy. Every year it gets progressively weirder. The first year wasn’t much because they still had the old people there. When they were gone, Drew and the crew finally started having some fun in 2009 with set malfunctions, strange prizes, and Drew’s nemesis from his sitcom, Mimi Bobeck (played by Kathy Kinney), as one of the models. One of the complaints last year was as great as it was to have Mimi back (Drew’s sitcom is one of my favorites), and the crowd apparently loved it, she di…
GSN’s “Baggage” Greenlit; 40 Episodes Taping
This is about as official of a confirmation as you need. Casting websites like RealityWanted are hunting people for GSN’s new dating game show Baggage. Last post I saw said they were looking for at least 200 people, and each gets $500. The latest one, on RealityWanted, is saying the show is taping 40 episodes and I’ve heard rumors about this one for a while, so this is just about as firm of a go as you can ask for before putting out a press release.
Baggage appears to be a pseudo-dating game where contestants are called upon by different levels of “baggage” they have, like living at home, having lots of cats, etc. I made fun of the s…
Monty Hall Returns to “Let’s Make A Deal” March 22nd
All classic fans of Let’s Make A Deal be alert. We previously said that Monty Hall was returning to the show. CBS gave us a date. The original host, Monty Hall, will be returning to Let’s Make A Deal for a full week starting March 22nd. Monty was the original host and creator in 1963 and hosted through 1986. He again hosted in 1990 and made a guest appearance on the ill-fated 2003 NBC remake. This makes the sixth decade for Monty hosting the show. He will host one game each show along with current host Wayne Brady.
So are we excited to see this? He’s still a pro. I talked to him a bit at the Game Show Awards, which was a giant thrill. I…
When Things Sucked Less: “Lingo”
Recently we’ve seen a giant string of originals by the former Game Show Network which, well, haven’t been that good. Basically everything but Catch 21 and Newlywed Game, both brought to the network and nurtured by people who were soon let go shortly after, has crashed and burned miserably. So really if we want to get to it this recent crew hasn’t really done much of anything new that has stuck around. They do a great job picking up popular shows and maintaining costs. There’s no denying that. It’s just, for some reason, they cannot develop a good show if their life depended on it. One of the suggestions you can read in…
Convicted Serial Killer Wins “Dating Game” in 1978
Interesting and bizarre story coming out today, and I think CNN has the best first sentence: “Before he was a convicted serial killer, Rodney Alcala was a winning bachelor on “The Dating Game.”" That is correct. A contestant appearing on The Dating Game, Rodney Alcala, was convicted in February of murdering four women and a child. More quotes from CNN:
“Oh yeah, I remember it quite clearly,” said Jed Mills, the game-show contestant who sat next to Alcala in 1978. “He was creepy. Definitely creepy.”
Hearing and reading some of the descriptions of the guy, he’s definitely pretty creepy once you…
News Flashes: Price, Pointless, and Poor Ratings
Yet another day of no real big news, so here are some small news flashes for today.
*First bit of Price is Right news. ABC passed out some Price ratings in just the key demographics. This isn’t part of the poor ratings part, in advance. In the key daytime demographic of women 18-49, Price ranks fourth with a 1.2 rating. These are from ABC, so take that as you will. This really shouldn’t shock remotely anyone since game shows skew unbelievably old, so let’s stop the crazy train before it leaves the station.
*Rest of the Price news: Someone from SFGate recently did an article about their experience trying to become a contestant on The P…
Weekend Replay: “Push the Button”
I took the weekend off so I can, you know, relax for a change. Thanks for indulging me, but time to get back to it. This is a remotely delayed Weekend Replay because of the hectic week it was. Probably more than anything around here, I love showcasing new UK game shows to American crowds who may not know it. A new one just debuted on ITV, which seems to roll them out semi-often like an assembly line. It’s called Push the Button, hosted by the Ant and Dec, also the hosts of ABC’s short-lived Wanna Bet? series.
Push the Button is yet another stunt show that can best be summed up as Beat the Clock on crack. After The World’s Longest Introducti…
News Flashes: “Instant Recall” Debuts, “Minute to Win It” Videos, and More
Slow news day, so here’s a few news flashes for you today.
*GSN’s newest hidden camera show, since the last one did so well, Instant Recall finally debuts tonight at 8:30PM ET. It’s hosted by Wink Martindale and they’ve definitely been promoting him in this thing far more than the actual show which is probably for the best. No idea what anything in this show will involve since apparently screener copies of shows are things of the past, but it looks to be decent and Wink is always a delight. Then again Hidden Agenda looked decent also, and it tanked hard. Our schedule (and everyone else’s schedule) says that Hidden Agen…
Ratings Report: “Millionaire” Holds Steady
It’s time for a ratings report for the week ending February 21st. It’s still sweeps period at this time, so all the shows are needing a boost. The Olympics definitely hurt most, though. By the way, as always, be sure to visit our often updated ratings page. We’ve got all the syndicated shows in there with ratings backed up, as well as percentages they gained or lost. We’ll add more game shows once results get in. But for now, in terms of syndicated game shows, Who Wants to be a Millionaire was, comparatively, the king this report.
Millionaire was the only show to not lose any viewers at all, which is nice. It stuck at a 2.7 ratin…
“Minute to Win It” Review: Not Bad, But Too Bland For Its Own Good
So if you read the site which I assume you do since you’re reading this, you’ve read what I’ve had to say about NBC’s new game show Minute to Win It. I want to clear something up. I’ve criticized the direction the show has taken. Other news organizations know how identical it is to The Cube. The host, Guy Fieri, even mentioned it today in a conference call. But I didn’t know how the show would end up. NBC amazingly wanted to send me a press kit for it. First off for all the bad stuff I’ve said about how it’s royally ripped off ITV, I expected it to be spiders in the box or something. It’s actually a…
News Flashes: “Sing-Off”, “Last Comic Standing” Renewed
Here are some quick updates for our world of unscripted television this morning.
*Last winter’s shocking it, The Sing-Off, will be coming back for a second season. The Nick Lachey hosted a cappella singing competition did surprisingly well for NBC in December. No return date is set just yet, but I wouldn’t doubt they’d try to place it at the same time. It was easy, light-hearted fare for the Christmas season. They played it perfectly. I may have not been the biggest fan but at least this show, unlike many others, tested people with actual unbelievable singing skills. No negativity in this at all, just pure singing, and that att…
Polish “Millionaire” Gives Away First Grand Prize Ever
It’s been a really long time since someone’s won the $1,000,000 prize on our version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire without, you know, skipping around three or four questions. A few other countries can feel our pain. Poland is one of them. Their version of the show, Milionerzy, has been on the air for around six of the past eleven years in two different versions and hasn’t had one until now. It was announced that their version has finally taped its first 1,000,000 zł winner. In a very crudely translated article from Poland…
We waited for over 10 years! – Said the program host, Hubert Urbanski. – Before th
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