This might be just me (many stuff is), but I’ve found myself caring less and less about 1 VS 100 this season and basically because of all the changes they have made. The thing is that they aren’t necessarily horribly bad changes. It’s just a good deal of slightly crappy changes which have brought the show down.

The whole money chain thing definitely had gotten people to play on for a longer period of time, that’s for sure. I’m starting to think too much, though. The first few times someone got far into the game, near the $250,000 level, it was exciting. However it’s becoming a bit disappointing when you don’t win at least $250,000 now. Especially when you have a $250,000 and a $500,000 winner in a show, it’s telling me something’s a bit off. This season showed me how much better the rules from the end of season one are. Look at other countries and tweaks they’ve done to got people to play on, like Australia. What they did hurt the show immensely because it’s making a big win seem like nothing.

I initially thought the gameplay changes were to lower the money a bit. Admittedly, the money was a bit too much in early stages. However, it’s becoming painfully obvious that the new format is giving away far much more than the older format was. Sure, the money’s less in the early stages. The money is becoming far greater than ever before near the end of the game and it’s starting to devalue the idea of a big win. It takes something special to make a show like Deal or No Deal seem cheap, but a $250,000 win is becoming nothing.

The other huge gripe I have is the writing. The first season’s writing was incredibly fun and, most importantly, different than anything on television right now. The two-sided questions created some memorable player/audience reactions and made things more tricky. The straight forward questions definitely take away that special section of the show which separated it from Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. Couple that with the fact that they were begging for a millionaire on the first episode. The questions were far easier than on any other episode the show’s had thus far. Couple that with they purposely threw a quiz bowl master in there and there was basically no way he was walking away with anything less than a quarter million.

The show still has a lot of things going for it, don’t get me wrong. For the most part, the contestants are leaps and bounds better than any other show. The music and set are fantastic. Host Bob Saget is great. However, the format change really screwed them over this season and has basically made me stop caring. If they don’t get to $250,000; it looks like barely anything compared to most people on the show. The writing has made the show just average.