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Sam Murray or Jehan Shamsid-Deen. Who wins the “Millionaire” Tournament of Ten?

Note: After the show airs in your area feel free to put spoilers in the comment section for discussion.  Read at your own risk.

Today’s the day we’ve been waiting all sea…well ten weeks for.  Today is the final day of Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s Tournament of Ten.  Sam Murray, seed eight of ten, has held onto the million dollar check for two weeks.  The only person stopping Sam is number one seed Jehan Shamsid-Deen, a non-profit program officer from Concord, North Carolina.  In her extremely tense and exciting first game she won $250,000 (the only person to do so this season thus far).  It’s earned her the top spot in the…

“Millionaire” Tournament of Ten Day Eight: Jeff Birt

I think I’m starting to see a fascinating problem with Millionaire’s Tournament of Ten: no one wants to risk their money to go for the million.  The million dollar questions are so hard now (as they should be) that you’re not going to find someone to randomly gamble on it.  It happened once in this tournament essentially, to Sam Murray, and he really lucked out and is looking like the winner of the tournament and $1,000,000.  But it’s been amazing that practically everyone, during the hypothetical guesses from walking away, would have been right. I’m still enjoying the tournament and it’s really been exciting,…

Pat Kiernan Starts Online Pop Culture Quiz

If you’re a game show fan, you may know who Pat Kiernan is.  If you’re a New Yorkers, you probably know who he is also.  Pat was the host of The WB game Studio 7 as well as, for two seasons, VH1’s incredibly fun World Series of Pop Culture which I would love to see appear some time soon.  Pat is starting a new daily trivia quiz every day on his blog Pat’s Papers, which you should definitely check out.

Each day at 11:30AM ET Pat will post a pop culture trivia question which you obviously then have to answer correctly.  For the first week he will randomly pick one of the first ten to do so, and they will get an Amazon gift card.  For example, a sam…

Ken Ober: 1957-2009

Very sad and shocking news this morning.  Ken Ober, the host of the popular and influential MTV game show Remote Control as well as the incredibly fun short lived word game Smush (in addition to many others) died at the age of 52.  As of this scheduled publication at midnight his death is unknown.  Ken’s manager Lee Kernis said he was found dead on Sunday after complaining of a headache and flu-like symptoms the previous day.

As we said Ken hosted the incredibly popular MTV game show Remote Control which ran for five seasons.  I don’t fully remember the show beyond a few clips but it’s clear he was incredibly good at hosting.  His other sh…

“Millionaire” Tournament of Ten Day Seven: Matt Schultz

Only four days left until Who Wants to be a Millionaire crowns its first $1,000,000 winner in an unbelievably long time.  Sitting in the Hot Seat yesterday was Tim Janus, a competitive eater from New York City.  In his previous appearance he won $100,000 and had to risk going down to $25,000 by answering his million dollar question:

Who once wrote, “‘Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations’ is an admirable work,” a quotation now listed in “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations”?
A: Truman Capote, B: John Lennon, C: Winston Churchill, D: Mark Twain.

Tim didn’t know and didn’t want to risk $75,000 guessing so he walked away.  If he ha…

BuzzerVision: “Head Games”

Have you been watching the new Science Channel game show Head Games hosted by the incredibly entertaining Greg Proops?  If not, you’re missing out.  It’s a lot of fun.  We’re doing an interview with Greg on Tuesday so be ready for that.  You probably won’t have me more excited to do an interview ever.  However, to hold you over, Science Channel sent us some clips from Head Games to show you all and hopefully win you over.

Have you watched it yet?  What do you think?  It’s definitely won me over.

…

New Game Show “House of Fun” Now Casting

You know you really have to wonder what some of these development/pitch meetings are like.  I just imagine people saying, “We liked Show X, how can we copy it as much as possible without getting sued?”  That’s where this new show from Reville, the production company from the guy who essentially destroyed NBC Ben Silverman, comes in.  It’s called House of Fun.  Ironically if and when it makes it to air, if you turn ti on I really doubt your house will have much fun at all.  It’s basically the same thing we’ve seen over and over, just with like three different concepts we’ve seen over and over again shoved into on…

“Millionaire” Tournament of Ten Day Six: Tim Janus

This is a really exciting week for fans of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. For the first time since 2004, the show will give away $1,000,000 in this Tournament of Ten which worked out so much better than I anticipated. It’s been really exciting and at least the players still have to answer a $1,000,000 question with no real help. It still takes guts to do it. It’s going to take even more guts this week.

Everyone who won $50,000 has now had their chance for the million. Only one, Sam Murray, went for it and got the question right. Sam Murray has to dodge five more bullets as the final five take to the Hot Seat. The next four shows see contestants who won $10…

Weekend Replay: “Millionaire Hot Seat”

I may have not been the biggest fan of the Australian version of Millionaire called Hot Seat, but it’s grown on me a bit.  Plus it’s really hard to argue that it doesn’t work.  It’s regularly right beside if not beating Deal or No Deal down under each night so apparently it’s enjoyable.  But the fact still remains that the show makes it so the first 14 questions of the game matter to nothing.  All that matters is that final 15th question worth whatever prize money is left.  Yeah, it can lead to some rather crappy endings for little money.  On occasion it can lead to someone playing for a monster prize of $250,000 or $1,000,000,…

GSN Radio Closes Shop Today, November 13th

Bad news today.  GSN Radio is unfortunately saying goodbye tomorrow.  The rumor has been out for a while but apparently executives at the network thought giving people a 12 hour warning was appropriate, so there we go.   Well in respect they were hard working on their Muppet-hosted game.  Today is your last chance to play along with hosts Bob Goen and Marianne Curan and win some cash by listening to internet radio and dialing them.  Be sure to listen, it should be a fun show.  It’s always entertaining.  Such a shame to see it go.  Here’s the announcement we were given:

As most of you know by now our last show is tomorrow November 13. I wanted to giv…

“Millionaire” Tournament of Ten Day Five: Ralph Cambeis

The fourth day of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire Tournament of Ten has passed.  Seed seven, Robin Schwartz, coming into the Hot Seat with $50,000, saw her one million dollar question:

Who delivered the less famous two-hour speech that preceded Abraham Lincoln’s two-minute Gettysburg Address?
A: Wendell Phillips, B: Daniel Webster, C: Robert G. Ingersoll, D: Edward Everett

She wasn’t sure and after a long and pretty intense thinking session she decided to not risk her money and potentially drop to $25,000.  She decided to walk.  The correct answer was D, Edward Everett.  This means the number seven seed, Sam Murray, is still in the fro…

“Have I Got News For You” Tapes Pilot in New York City

This has “suck” written all over it.  According to our sister site at Game Show NewsNet, the US import of the UK hit Have I Got News For You is on its way.  It’ll be taping a pilot in New York City on November 20th, so click here if you want tickets.  It’s hosted by “comedian” and Air America “personality” Sam Sedar.  The two team captains are Greg Giraldo and Michael Ian Black.  Why do I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing basically a crappier version of the old Comedy Central debate show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn coming?

If we also remember back eons ago when this was first announced NBC wants t…

Ratings Report: Eh

This has the potential of being a rather short ratings report this week because, frankly, not a lot went on.  The show we’ll focus on this week, though, is Deal or No Deal which is currently in its second season.  Ratings haven’t been that hot in a while.  The show is still stuck at a 1.2.  It’s been there for a while.  I’ve already blathered on and on about how I really doubt this syndicated edition, which is so much better than the primetime edition, will see another season with its current level.  Now comes a small report from our friends at Hollywood Junket saying production has halted.  They aren’t saying the show is canc…

Sam Murray Qualifies for “Millionaire” Top Prize; Tournament of Ten Day Four Features Robin Schwartz

I have to be honest: some of the comments about Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s Tournament of Ten have made me laugh a bit.  When the show and I say that there is going to be a $1,000,000 and the confetti will fall and that someone answers the question correct, we’re not kidding.  The naysayers can be relieved that on Wednesday, we finally got our first person to qualify to win the $1,000,000 top prize in the Tournament.  Sam Murray from Philadelphia, PA, returned to the Hot Seat in the eighth seed with $50,000.  His question was:

According to the Population Reference Bureau, what is the approximate number of people who have ever lived on earth?
A…

Fox to Launch New Kids-Themed Game in First Quarter 2010

Usually when a show like Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader is successful you see other networks trying to capitalize on its success and essentially duplicate the format, not the network it airs on.  That’s a bit like what is happening with Fox in the first quarter of 2010, according to the always entertaining TV MoJoe on The Wrap.  In the very cushy post-American Idol time slot will be the new kid genius themed quiz Our Little Genius.  It’s almost the inverse theme of Fifth Grader while keeping the same basic format.  Instead of dumb adults we get really smart kids trying to answer questions for increasing cash prizes.  We never tire of the Mi…