BuzzerBlog

We teased it this morning on our Twitter page, but here it is now: ABC has announced the celebrities that will take part in the 10th anniversary edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  Each celebrity will answer one question at the end of the show, able to use only one of the available lifelines.  A right answer gives the celebrity $50,000 while a wrong answer is worth $25,000.  Not bad either way.  Here’s the list.  Who are you looking forward to?

Lauren Conrad (“The Hills), playing for the M. Powerment Fund
Rapper Snoop Dogg, playing for the Snoop Dogg Youth Football League
Patricia Heaton (ABC’s new comedy, “The Middle”) playing for the Westside Pregnancy Clinic and Lighthouse Medical Missions
Shawn Johnson, Olympic gold medalist and champion of “Dancing with the Stars” playing for Blank Children’s Hospital
NBA star Steve Nash playing for The Steve Nash Foundation
Chart-topper Katy Perry playing for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital
Rachael Ray, TV personality, author and cook, playing for Yum-O Organization and ASPCA
Sherri Shepherd, co-host of “The View,” playing for the March of Dimes
Vanessa Williams (“Ugly Betty”), playing for The Maria Torres Emerging Artist Project at the Amas Musical Theatre
Country star Wynonna playing for Backpack Mission Ministries

A special surprise guest is also going to be included.  Who is it?  You’ll have to watch to find out, but throw out your guesses for fun regardless.  We’ve got a quick interview with Regis Philbin we’ll post soon.

Do you live in the San Francisco area or are planning to visit there soon?  I’ve got some good news for you.  Family Feud, entering its eleventh season, is coming to your town and giving you and your family a chance to appear on the show.  Feud comes to the City by the Bay on Saturday, August 1st, giving you a chance to win up to $150,000 and a brand new car. “The best contestants are families who are outgoing and engaging,” says executive producer Gaby Johnston. “’Family Feud’ is all about working together as a family, having fun, and pooling your knowledge to win cash and prizes. Trust me, our contestants have the time of their lives.”

To audition, send an email to sanfrancisco@familytryouts.com or call the Family Feud contestant hotline at (323) 762-8467.  Auditions take place at The Westin San Francisco Market Street, 50 Third St., San Francisco, CA 94103 all day, from 10:00AM to 9:00PM.  To get an idea of what you’ll go through, take a glance at our behind-the-scenes look of the audition process.  The new season starts September 7th across the country (check your local listings) and they’re taping now, so get on it and tell them we sent you.

The Cleveland auditions held recently apparently got a huge turnout, which makes me very happy.  Let’s see how this one does.  We have a lot more Feud news to share with you, including an interview with John O’Hurley, once we’re settled.

The Science Channel, which is currently showing one of my favorite shows ever (Junkyard Wars) will be debuting a new quiz show soon Head Games.  The show is created and executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg and done through her production company Whoop Inc.  The show involves videos of the craziest science riddles and questions.  They’re currently looking for people to send in, “Wow-I-Can’t-Believe-I-Just-Shot-That video moments,” which seems to be the basis of the show.  If you’ve got any, click here to email the producers.

They are also looking for contestants.  They say that you don’t, “need to know Einstein’s Theories, or be a master at quantum physics. You only need to choose the right answer…..and have fun while you’re doing it.”  Not to mention that if you make it you’ll have to bet your bank trying to answer those crazy science questions so there’s some cash in this for you.  If you’ll be in the New York City area in late July for auditions and late August click here and tell the producers why you’d be a good contestant. You can also click here if you want to get updates about audience information.

Head Games is hosted by one of my favorite stand up and improv comics, Greg Proops, who is in my opinion one of the most clever and hysterical comics out there.  I can’t say enough good things about him.  Greg previously hosted the game show Vs. for Comedy Central, the dating show Rendez-View which I regretfully enjoyed for the sole purpose of Greg, and he’s one of the most well-known cast members of the long running improv comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway?.  We’ll keep you updated on this show.  Looks to be interesting and I like every single person involved in it.

All the excitement of the 10th anniversary edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire is getting close to the big payoff as Regis Philbin returns to the Hot Seat on August 9th at 8:00PM ET on ABC.  As press releases are saying, this was truly a great year for the format.  The movie Slumdog Millionaire, a movie essentially based around arguably the world’s most popular quiz show, won the Oscar for Best Picture and the daytime edition of the show, hosted by Meredith Vieira, will be entering its eight season soon after a large number of changes to the format last year.  The show’s still standing very strong around the world, and ABC plans to celebrate the anniversary with style.

As we’ve previously discussed, the format will largely be from the syndicated edition, including the clock.  A celebrity will be featured at the end of each episode playing one question, only allowed to use one lifeline, for $50,000.  If they miss, they get $25,000.  The lifelines “Phone a Friend” and “Ask the Audience” return along with daytime Millionaire’s “Double Dip” and “Ask the Expert”.  Basically one of the only complaints I’ve had about “ATE” is that getting a decent expert on the show seems like a 50/50 chance.  You’ll be happy to know that they’ve lined up a fantastic group who should really be able to help greatly during those big money questions.  The Experts are…

* ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos
* ABC News’ Sam Donaldson
* ABC News’ Cokie Roberts
* NPR’s Mo Rocca
* Wolf Blitzer (CNN’s “The Situation Room”)
* Activist and radio host Rev. Al Sharpton
* Bestselling author Jodi Picoult
* Bill Nye, the Science Guy
* Journalist, newscaster and author Gwen Ifill
* Journalist Connie Chung
* Game show legend Ken Jennings

I can’t really pick a bad one out of the group.  That’s not all, though.  The show will be bringing back some memorable and famous contestants to join in the celebration from the audience…

Sunday, August 9
Note: Much of the studio audience is comprised of former contestants
Robert Essig, Ashtabula, OH – nicknamed Bob-O by his mother-in-law, won $1 million
Joe Trela, Gilroy, CA – third contestant to win $1 million
Ed Toutant, Austin, TX – won $1.86 million escalating jackpot

Monday, August 10
Robby Roseman, Las Vegas, NV – first person to lose on the first question, winning nothing

Tuesday, August 11
Kevin Olmstead, Ann Arbor, MI – the show’s biggest winner; won the escalating jackpot totaling $2.18 million

Wednesday, August 12
Jason Block, Brooklyn, NY – one of the show’s most memorable contestants; won $125,000

Thursday, August 13
No former contestants this night

Sunday, August 16
John Carpenter, Hamden, CT & dad – the series’ first-ever contestant to win $1 million; phoned his dad on the last question for his “Phone a Friend,” just to inform him he knew the answer and was about to win $1 million

Monday, August 17
Brian Fodera, Los Angeles, CA – second person to get the first question wrong, winning nothing

Tuesday, August 18
Doug Van Gundy, Elkins, WV – West Virginia fiddler won $250,000 in 1999 which, at that time, was the largest amount of money won in a single network game show appearance

Wednesday, August 19
Dan Doody, Seattle, WA – nicknamed “Doody” by Regis, he won $1,000

Thursday August 20
No former contestants this night

Sunday, August 23
Nancy Christy, Tulsa, OK – first woman to win $1 million on the show (happened on syndicated version)

While some of those are great, I’m looking forward to Doug Van Gundy the most.  He’s the contestant I remember more than anyone else from the show for the reaction to the $250,000 he had, and we haven’t heard much from him since.  It’s going to be an incredibly entertaining and exciting 11 episode series that you really shouldn’t miss.  The 10th anniversary edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire starts August 9th at 8:00PM ET.  Following that is another show to really check out, Shark Tank.

We will be on the set of the show August 3rd.  Are you going to be there any day?  Be sure to let us know.

Variety put out a nice little article about our friends at Embassy Row.  It looks like they’ve got a ton of projects lined up on all sides of the coast on a multitude of different networks.  Let’s start with the obvious one first.  As anyone who actually watches the show knows by now, GSN’s Newlywed Game has been renewed for a second season after some good ratings for the network.  65 episodes are being produced this season and the show will move from New York to Glendale, California, for what we’re being told from insiders is a wide variety of different reasons.

Variety also says that Embassy Row is still waiting on the word from CBS if The ($1,000,000) Pyramid has been picked up for a series in daytime, replacing Guiding Light.  The truth of the matter is that while they are sending out applications and that’s great, nothing is set in stone.  I’d place money on Pyramid being picked up but I’ve been really wrong before.  The show would have to go out at the end of September, when Guiding Light ends, and they just had to start the casting process in order to cover their bases.  So again, it’s a great development but don’t start clearing your afternoons to watch it.  Let’s Make A Deal is a major major contender for that slot as well.  Embassy Row also shot a pilot for The Dating Game for the afternoon but to be frank I’d be amazed if that makes it there.  I really don’t enjoy that style of show at all either so I’m really biased.

Elsewhere, Embassy Row is working with CMT on the National Bible Quiz, pitting teams of different faiths against each other in, you guessed it, a religion quiz.  Yeah, you can have fun with that one.  Michael Davies of Embassy Row is personally helping out on the new TV Land pilot Celebrity Mr. and Mrs. which we previously discussed.  They’ve also got stuff with ABC, Bravo, YouTube, and many other places.  Basically if you turn on TV and watch an unscripted show and it’s not from Mark Burnett, it’s from Embassy Row.

Starting next weekend NBC will be putting another game show onto its lineup.  This one’s a new poker style game show called Face the Ace, from the people who do NBC’s Poker After Dark.  The whole poker trend died down recently.  Really the only poker show that I know that still exists is GSN’s pretty good High Stakes Poker which just got boring to me.  We’ll see if poker in this new game show set-up can attract some eyes.

The rules are extremely simple.  Four poker pros stand behind four smoked-glass doors.  The contestant chooses one of the doors and plays a head-up (one on one) game of No Limit Texas Hold’em against that pro.  If you beat the pro on the first game, you won $40,000.  You then get to decide if you want to walk away with your money or play against another pro.  Winning multiplies your money by five to $200,000, while losing means you leave with $0.  If you win again, you have the chance to play against one final poker pro, and the win means you leave with the grand prize of $1,000,000.  Again, if at any time the contestant loses, he or she walks away with $0.  If the pro does win the pro will receive $10,000 for charity, so there’s no reason for the “Ace” to back down ever.

The show is hosted The Sopranos Steve Schirippa.  He said “Most people don’t get to compete against their favorite athletes in sports like football or basketball. This show gives contestants an incomparable opportunity to test their skills against some of the best poker players in the world. The same people they’ve read about or have watched on TV are the ones they have to defeat for chance at winning life-changing money.”

The schedule is really screwed up for the show, so you’ll have to be on your toes to watch.  The first episode airs August 1st at 9PM ET.  Episode two the next week on August 8th at 9:00PM ET.  The rest air on weekend afternoons a month apart.  Here’s the full schedule

· August 1, 2009 – 9:00pm ET
· August 8, 2009 – 9:00pm ET
· September 12, 2009 – 2:00pm ET
· October 31, 2009 – 3:30pm ET
· November 14, 2009 – 3:00pm ET
· December 12, 2009 – 3:00pm ET
· January 2, 2010 – 2:30pm ET

Yeah I’m not sure what’s up with that either, but there we go. Looks like an interesting show, so be sure to check it out.

For the millionth time, if you’re not listening to GSN Radio you’re really missing out.  Bob Goen and Marianne Curan are fantastic and make the entire program, running at GSN.com/radio from 1:00PM ET to 5:00PM ET every weekday, unbelievably fun.  It’s one of the top things they’ve ever done.  If you’re reading this you should be listening.  But if you can’t, you may be able to find it on one of your local radio affiliates.  Check out the list of all the affiliates given to us by the great crew.

WNYM-AM-970 / Sundays 12pm-2pm (EST) http://am970theapple.townhall.com/

WOIC-AM-1230- Columbia, SC-Saturdays. 6-8pm (EST)

http://www.woic.com/home.php

CKTP-AM-95.7- New Bruinswick-CN.- Sundays, 1-3pm

http://www.cktpradio.com/

KAND-AM-1340-Corsicana,TX- Sunday (time not available)

http://www.ontheradio.net/radiostations/kandam.aspx

WHIR-AM-1230-Danville, KY-Saturdays 7am- 9am

http://www.ontheradio.net/radiostations/whiram.aspx

WTGA-FM-101.1-Thomaston, GA-Saturdays 9a-11a

http://radiotime.com/station/s_23106/Fun101_FM_1011.aspx

KACT-AM 1360-Andrews, TX-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.kactradio.com/

KBJT-AM 1590-Fordyce, AR-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.kbjtkq.com/aboutkbjt.htm

KEUN-AM 1490-Eunice, LA-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.keunworldwide.com/amindex.htm

KFFF-AM 1260-Boone, IA-Sundays 10p-11p

http://www.faithandfreedomnetwork.com/

KFYO-AM 790-Lubbock, TX,-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.kfyo.com/main.php

KJMT-FM 97.1-Mountain Home, AR-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.mountaintalk97.com/

KOSS-AM 1380-Palmdale, Ca-Sundays 5p-6p

http://www.newstalk1380.com/dyn_page.php?id=3

KQTY-AM 1490-Borger, TX-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.kqtyradio.com/

KQYX-AM 1450-Joplin, MO-Sundays 9p-10p

http://www.1450kqyx.com/

KRMR-FM 105.7-Hayes, KS-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.haysusa.com/html/media_info.html

KSRM-AM 920-Kenai, AK

http://www.ksrm.com/ksrm/index.asp

KTFS-AM 940-Texarkana, TX-Sundays 7p-8p

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&call=KTFS

KXIT FM 87.7 Amarillo, TX-Sundays 7p-8p

http://radiotime.com/region/c_100193/Amarillo.aspx

KXYL-FM 96.9 -Brownwood, TX-Sundays 7p-8p

KZXR-AM 1310-Yakima, WA-Sundays 5p-6p

WAMY-AM1580-Amory, MS-Sundays 7p-8p

WATT-AM1240-Cadillac, MI-Sundays 8p-9p

WBCF-AM 1240-Florence, AL-Sundays 7p-8p

WBCH-AM 1220-Hastings, MI-Sundays 8p-9p

WCAZ-AM 990 -Carthage, IL-Sundays 7p-8p

WDXY-AM 1240-Sumter, SC-Sundays 8p-9p

WEBJ-AM 1240-Brewton, AL-Sundays 7p-8p

WEBY-AM 1330-Milton, FL-Sundays 7p-8p

WGEA-AM 1150-Geneva, AL-Sundays 7p-8p

WHFB-AM 1060-Benton Harbor, MI-Sundays 8p-9p

WHFS-AM 1580-Lanham, MD-Sundays 8p-9p

WHOW-AM 1520-Clinton, IL-Sundays 7p-8p

WJBM-AM 1480-Jerseyville, IL-Sundays 7p-8p

WJTK-FM 96.5 Lake City, FL-Sundays 8p-9p

WKMQ-AM 1060-Tupelo, MS-Sundays 7p-8p

WKOZ-AM 1340-Kosciusko, MS-Sundays 7p-8p

WKYH AM 600 Paintsville, KY-Sundays 8p-9p

WLMA AM 1350 Greenwood, SC-Sundays 9p-10p

WMKT AM 1270 Petoskey, MI-Sundays 8p-9p

WMOX AM 1010 Meridian, MS-Sundays 7p-8p

WNOG AM 1270 Fort Myers, FL-Sundays 8p-9p

WNSH AM 1570 South Hamilton, MA-Sundays 8p-9p

WNWS FM 101.5 Jackson, TN-Sundays 7p-8p

WTNI AM 1640 Gulfport, MS- Sundays 7p-8p

WTRC AM 1340 Elkhart, IN-Sundays 8p-9p

WVBG AM 1490 Vicksburg, MS-Sundays 7p-8p

KZLI AM 1570 Catoosa, OK-Sundays 7p-8p

We’ll update the PDFs later this afternoon but yet again GSN is changing the Big Saturday Night schedule and reworking the show.  I can’t even fully remember how many times this has been.  This has to have been the fourth or fifth change to the program.  They are essentially waving the white flag.  20Q will air at 8:00PM ET yet again, in its original hour-long state.  Now Deal or No Deal will be pushed into the 9:00PM ET slot.  Poor poor Money List takes up the 10:00PM ET hour.  No BSN segments will air here apparently.  BSN actually starts as a half-hour program at 11:00PM ET.  It’s followed by The Newlywed Game, which will very likely get better ratings, at 11:30PM ET.

So, as the title said, why did it go so horribly wrong?  I think it can be pinpointed to whoever was in charge of this simply did not listen to the audience or care much about their thoughts regarding this.  The amount of people which enjoyed BSN was so tiny it was embarrassing, and more of that tolerance was just for the fact that they were bribing people to watch by throwing assloads of cash at people for doing nothing at home.  Some of the hosts just didn’t work.  Stretching the shows didn’t work.  The studio segments weren’t that good.  The comedy segments fell flat.  As we’ve said repeatedly, they have done the live show format so well repeatedly the failure of this is mystifying.  GSN Radio is outstanding.  GSN Live is good.  Playmania, GSN’s old live show, was great.  I mean seriously, what happened here?  I’m trying to understand how this ended up so rough and I can’t figure it out.  There’s no reason we shouldn’t have seen new episodes of a proven hit like Lingo (more on that show below) at the very least, but apparently what do we know.

This show doesn’t make sense in a financial standpoint either.  This show costs a ton to do when you count the hosts, the massive amounts of money it gives away, the advertising it got, and so much more.  Let’s compare this show to Lingo which if anyone would look at the big picture should be on the air with new episodes right now.  BSN costs a ton of money to do and can only be run once with no repeats.  Lingo costs a fraction of what BSN does, it’s incredibly popular, and the episodes can be rerun far into the future as we’re seeing now.  Lingo is still bringing money into the network while BSN is a one-and-done for them.  And this one-and-done has been just a disaster any way you look at it.

I feel really bad for 20Q and The Money List being stuck into the middle of this.  As we previously said, there was a proven scheduling method in the middle of the decade, with 10:00PM ET to midnight being rotating shows, and it worked.  Both the shows in this block were very good, and they got swallowed up because they couldn’t figure out how to work BSN.  And now this means once BSN is over shortly there will be no new originals until whenever Newlywed Game starts its new season, and that’s a bit depressing.  The shows that have worked, like Catch 21 and Newlywed Game and Lingo, are simple ideas which can be rerun over and over, far into the future, earning revenue constantly.  The shows which have failed, like Game Show Awards and Big Saturday Night, were half baked ideas where the concept got too large to manage and swallowed up so much good programming in the process.  Beyond the poker shows, this network is essentially only watched by the game show fans.  There’s room for expansion, but when the game show crowd flat out says something sucks, the ratings generally suck for the show on GSN.  Like I said, it’s time to get back to the roots of good, solid shows which can be repeated over and over for a profit.  There’s nothing wrong in saying, “We screwed up, we’re going back to what worked.”  You’ll get more fans that way than just ignoring them and forging forward at the risk of losing more people.

It’s official: GSN’s revival of The Newlywed Game is coming back.  The show’s moving to Los Angeles for season two, and they’re currently looking for contestants.  Here’s the notice.  Good luck!

The Newlywed Game: Casting Season 2 in CA Now!

SEASON 2 OF THE NEWLYWED IS NOW CASTING IN CALIFORNIA!!!

CASTING PRODUCERS ARE LOOKING FOR COUPLES WHO ARE MARRIED LESS THAN 2 YEARS.

TO APPLY, EMAIL US AT THENEWLYWEDGAME@EMBASSYROW.COM

INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

YOUR NAME
YOUR SPOUSES NAME
AGES
WHERE YOU ARE FROM
PHONE
EMAIL
**BE SURE TO INCLUDE A RECENT PICTURE OF YOU AND YOUR SPOUSE (MAKE SURE WE CAN SEE YOUR FACES, DO NOT SEND PHOTOS WEARING HATS OR SUNGLASSES) **

UPDATE: Craigslist now has the casting notice.  Click here for the casting notice on Craigslist, or just read it below.

CASTING PRODUCERS ARE LOOKING FOR OUTGOING MEN AND WOMEN 18+ IN THE TRI-STATE AREA FOR THE GAME SHOW PYRAMID!!!

TO APPLY, EMAIL US AT:
PYRAMID@EMBASSYROW.COM

INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

NAME
AGE
WHERE YOU ARE FROM
PHONE
EMAIL
**BE SURE TO INCLUDE A RECENT PICTURE OF YOURSELF (Please DO NOT send photos wearing hats and/or sunglasses) **

THANKS AND GOOD LUCK!

I think you all may have your answer as to what is the future of daytime game shows with CBS.  We’re hearing that people are being sent applications for The $1,000,000 Pyramid right now and its asking that the form is return as soon as possible, for reasons I assume involving wanting to tape unbelievably quick.

Obviously we can’t confirm it because CBS will want to actually break the news with someone a bit bigger than us, but from everything I’ve heard and now this, it looks like Pyramid will be the first daytime game show in a really long time.  It’s extremely exciting news that we’ll keep you posted on constantly.  This is one of the shows CBS was looking at replacing the now-canceled soap opera Guiding Light with.  Other shows in the running are Let’s Make A Deal and The Dating Game.

As we have reported before, Family Feud is bringing back the Bullseye round for its record-breaking 11th season.  But now, we finally get to see this round in action with O’Hurley.  The car, the other new addition this season, gets plenty of camera time, too.

I’ve been reading some of the comments and I’m a bit stunned.  Are we that set in our ways that if a round doesn’t use a “ding” sound effect and instead uses a “whoosh” people go apeshit?  It’s no offense to the commenters that feel this way, but you’ll be the only ones who notice.  Feud goes to millions of people each day.  If they make a few people mad by not using a bell sound effect, sobeit.  The absolutely only thing that matters is that it plays well and it doesn’t drag the show down.  It goes fast, creates excitement for the rest of the game, and gets rid of the illusion that it’s possible to win the game under the former Single/Single/Double/Triple point format, which it isn’t.

We have a ton of Feud exclusives coming up, including an interview with John O’Hurley.  But I’d just like to add that while Bullseye is a genius round for this version for so many reasons, the car is the single greatest addition to the show in ages.  It actually makes people want to watch returning champions and makes the tension palpable in games four and five, instead of a feeling of, “Eh, whatever,” when a team got that far.  Mark my words, this is the best season of Family Feud in decades.

ABC has ordered the new series Shaq Vs. from Dick Clark Productions and Media Rights Capital.  The show sees basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal playing against a different sports figure in their native game.  It ranges from playing football against Ben Roethlisberger to tennis against Serena Williams.  The show debuts August 18th at 9:00PM ET.  ABC’s been getting some really entertaining unscripted programming recently.  This looks like another fun one.

We’ve been talking a lot about Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s return on August 9th, but there’s another show airing after that which deserves to be discussed.  It’s a Japanese/British import called Shark Tank.  If you get BBC America you may have seen it on there before as Dragon’s Den.  I really don’t know what to describe this show.  It’s not really a complete game show, it’s not really a complete reality show, it’s not really a complete drama.  It’s definitely unscripted.  It’s just a mix of all of them.  I wasn’t a fan of Dragon’s Den for some reason.  I don’t think it was converting it to American so I can relate more or maybe it’s because I didn’t give Dragon’s Den enough of a chance (I’m leaning towards this option), but I actually enjoyed Shark Tank quite a bit.

The show is as easy as it gets.  An entrepreneur goes in front of five rich tycoons (the Sharks) and tries to convince them to invest in his or her idea or product.  There may be a bidding way, negotiation, or flat out rejection.  The Sharks aren’t here to help you realize your dream in some nice display of human affection.  They are here to first and foremost make money, so they will be dealing with the individual to get the most out of the product they can, or the deal is off.  You may get what you want or you may be laughed out of the room.  It’s all up to how you can handle the pressure of the situation.  Do you compromise to get the money you want, or do you hold to your convictions and leave the room with no money?  It’s all up to you.

First off, this show is an actual business pitch.  There’s no phony business here.  As someone who has pitched shows before, it’s remarkable how familiar the feeling was.  These entrepreneurs walk into the pitch meeting seeming confident and a bit cocky.  That goes out the window incredibly quick as soon as the Sharks get involved.  The show’s an interesting look into the mind of these business people.  As I said, the Sharks are there to make money and they will be reworking your offer to make it work for them.  It could mean giving them as much as half your business for hundreds of thousands of dollars, when they came in offering only 10%.  Do these people give up half of their company for the money or try to do it elsewhere?

This show’s clearly not going to be for everyone, and to be quite frank I’m stunned ABC is airing it in the Fall.  It’s not a high-energy exciting show.  It’s a very quiet, contemplative,  low key show.  The show is dripping in atmosphere and it is pretty tense, but I’m not really sure if the general public is going to latch on.  They may, though, because it really shows a big portion of the American dream that we hear so much about these days.  These people come in here pouring every ounce of their energy into the product and there’s a very good chance it’s going to get turned down.  That’s another thing to remember.  I know some people around here really do not like any mean-ness in shows like this and don’t like people laughing at others, but it does happen here.  It’s not mean spirited, though.  It’s brutal honesty.  The show’s all about brutal honesty.  If your product sucks, the Sharks will tell you flat out to your face.

It’s an interesting show and if you’re interested in what pitches look like I’d recommend watching it.  It starts airing August 9th at 9:00PM ET, after Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and it’s really a fantastic following show.  Again, it’s definitely not for everyone, and I’m really interested to see how it does in the Fall schedule.  However, it’s far better than most of the unscripted crap we’ve seen in the past few years and worth checking out.

The final part of The Fuse, answering any six questions within 70 seconds.

Finally, something different. Let’s start eliminating contestants, sort of like how Grand Slam did it!