17Nov2009
“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 had to take a wild guess, he would have went with C, which was correct. He looked a little angry but easily did the righ
Read MoreView Comments (19)16Nov2009
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. [stream flv=x:/flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/HeadGamesMashup.flv width=630 height=343 bandwidth=med /] Have you watched it yet? What do you think? It's definitely won me over.
Read MoreView Comments (19)16Nov2009
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 one package. One depressing looking package. The casting notice asks if kids, specifically boys, ever wondered what their house w
Read MoreView Comments (4)16Nov2009
Mike Sexton Named Host of “Shuffle Up and Deal”
According to the new show Shuffle Up and Deal which may or may not be coming to TV once everything is figured out, and frankly according to the always fantastic Carrie from About: Game Shows since I forgot about it, Mike Sexton has been named the host of Shuffle Up and Deal. The show sees amateur poker players trying to get the best Texas Hold'Em hand possible by picking cards from a large poker card wall. The winner of the show gets a chance to win $1,000,000 in one hand.
Read MoreView Comments (24)16Nov2009
“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 $100,000 have their chance. They'll have to risk $75,000 if they want it, but
Read MoreView Comments (6)15Nov2009
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, though, and that's always exciting. Here's a clip of a contestant going for the quarter of a million dollar prize
Read MoreView Comments (2)13Nov2009
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 give you guys a chance to send in some emails that we can read live on the air tomorrow with ma
Read MoreView Comments (20)13Nov2009
“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 frontrunner to win $1,000,000 on November 20th's finale of the Tournament of Ten. On Wednesday Sam a
Read MoreView Comments (1)12Nov2009
“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 to glitz the show up to make it more like a primetime event. I repeat my original statements: how the hell do you glitz up a comedy pane
Read MoreView Comments (25)12Nov2009
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 canceled, but sources are saying that the show is looking for other states to tape in. Are they trying to make Deal or
Read MoreView Comments (11)12Nov2009
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: 50 billion, B: 100 billion, C: 1 trillion, D: 5 trillion Sam was the first person to g
Read MoreView Comments (11)12Nov2009
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 Millionaire format, do we? Not a ton is known right now but the basic idea is there will be kids
Read MoreView Comments (16)11Nov2009
What the F Week: Bizarro
We'll continue "What the F?" week with another show in the pipeline from GSN. It's a cartoon game show called Bizarro that accidentally slipped out from Variety a bit ago. Really there's not much information out there about this since it's apparently in early preproduction. All that's known as it's apparently a tiny bit costly as it stands right now but that can probably change. If Adult Swim can create relatively cheap popular cartoons then others can. But of course this is GSN, or as they've been bringing back a lot lately the Game Show Network. I can't wait to see what level of participation we'll get from a cartoon unless they pull what I like to call a "Throut and Neck." What's Throut and Neck you ask? Despite if the current
Read MoreView Comments (9)11Nov2009
“Millionaire”‘s Tournament of Ten Day Three: Sam Murray
Day three of Who Wants to be a Millionaire's Tournament of Ten completed today and we've still yet to have anyone qualify to win the million dollars. Tony Westmoreland, the number nine seed, came into the Hot Seat today with $50,000. He was asked the following $1,000,000 question: What great thinker's death is attributed to a chill he caught while stuffing a chicken with snow for an experiment on refrigeration? A: Pythagoras, B: Archimedes, C: Isaac Newton, D: Francis Bacon Tony was unable to gamble $25,000 of his cash (a wrong answer dropped him to the $25,000 milestone) so he walked with his original $50,000 winning. The correct answer was D, which he thought it was. He was close, but just couldn't pull the trigger. Maybe toda
Read MoreView Comments (6)10Nov2009
“1 VS 100″ Returns to XBox Live For a Second Season on November 19th
I'm guessing many of you XBox owners who had the option to got the 1 VS 100 game for XBox Live. It seems to have been wildly successful and popular. Good news for you all. The game will be returning for a second season on November 19th at 8:00PM ET/5:00PM PT. They'll have differently themed "Extended Play" games each night so look out for those. You can win some nice prizes, too. Actual prizes; not those fake virtual ones. No reason not to play. Click here for all the details. The game plays pretty much like the show. The "One" has to answer multiple choice questions correctly to stay in the game, and each of the 100 people in the mob that gets it wrong is out. The contestant earns Microsoft points the more he or she eliminates
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