31Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number One
It's our top moment of 2009, and it really shouldn't come as a big shock. It's, of course, Ken Basin's memorable loss on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. When ABC brought back the show this summer to "celebrate the tenth anniversary", they essentially took the entire package of the syndicated version and added Fastest Finger. We saw a few issues, like Regis not handling the clock well at all and the fact that the daytime difficulty is a bit of a damper in primetime since no one can win barely anything anymore. It definitely got better as the series progressed, but Ken Basin saved the best for last. He made it to the $1,000,000 question which was the following:
Read MoreView Comments (22)31Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Two
I think I can speak for many by saying I never expected a game show to appear on daytime television again. I don't watch soap operas and I don't know that genre of television in the slightest, so I had no idea the industry was going down for them. One got canceled, and I figured its time slot would just go to another court or talk show. To my surprise and the delight of many (It's still our most popular thread ever), it was announced that a game show was a serious contender. The $1,000,000 Pyramid was thought to be it, but in the end the winner of the afternoon slot, and the first daytime game show in over 15 years, was Let's Make A Deal.
Read MoreView Comments (14)30Dec2009
Decade of Games: “Paranoia”
One of the shortest-lived of the million dollar game shows in the beginning of the decade was a Fox Family game Paranoia. The cable network did something no other network tried to up to that point. They tried to create a big money game show that anyone in America could play along, and everyone was against the main contestant. It was a really unique concept, but it got a bit screwed because it was on a crappy network and it was a bit too complicated for its own good. A bit too green-screened, too. But given how old it is I'm amazed they got as much technology as they had in there and made it work An abbreviated version of the rules is the contestant is given $10,000. The contestant gets a multiple choice question; a right answer doe
Read MoreView Comments (24)30Dec2009
Win the “Price is Right” PC and Wii Game in our Showcase Contest
UPDATE: Due to popular demand the contest will end Friday at midnight, and winners will be announced in the days following. This has been our most popular give-away yet. Thank you all for entering and all of your support. I say it as often as I can, but I am appreciative of the support and enthusiasm you all have held for this site more than you know. Fremantle and The Price is Right have been fantastic with us over the past few years, and during the holiday season we wanted to do something special for the readers. We're going to be giving away a copy of the great PC and Wii games of The Price is Right in our Showcase contest. Like the show, we'll give you a list of prizes and a description. In the entry form below all you have to
Read MoreView Comments (6)29Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Three, With Guest Blog from Gaby Johnston
We're winding down on the countdown for the year, and we move to number three. Family Feud hosted by John O'Hurley went through probably the biggest change it's had in decades, if not ever, the last year. A round called "Bullseye", allowing teams to play up to $30,000 instead of the old $20,000 top prize, was brought back into the show since it disappeared in 1992. Not only that any team winning five games in a row retires with a brand new car added, something never done before in the format. There were some fears, but at least in my eyes they implemented each of these features just about as well as they could have. This is mostly due to the incredible crew they have over there, including executive producer Gaby Johnston. Instead of m
Read MoreView Comments (25)28Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Four
Winding down on our countdown and we go over to England for not really a moment, but a show. We talk quite a bit about The Cube and, well, how much better and more inventive and more fun and more revolutionary it is compared to any other show that has come out probably since Deal or No Deal. The show has its roots dug deep into the history of game shows. If we want to get down to it the show is the classic game Beat the Clock. But the extra high tech surroundings they put around it didn't make the show into a traditional overblown primetime game show. It transformed it into something a bit revolutionary and redefines what a game show can do. The Cube bends the rules of game shows. Some people like the pure, more live-to-tape feel,
Read MoreView Comments (1)27Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Five
Number five on our countdown isn't a specific moment, but more a sweeping generalization of a show's change. Only two shows had anything of any major note going on throughout the season. The one we'll discuss is Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Throughout the year of 2009 it was the show that probably had the most adjustments and tweaks out of no where. Some of them were for the better and added something new and interesting to the show. Quite a few, though, were just confusing. The three major changes were the addition of a new money chain, the Tournament of Ten, and the removal of what really is a pop culture item: Phone A Friend. Beyond the Tournament, none of them were really massively preplanned additions. The old double-up mon
Read MoreView Comments (8)27Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Six
Edit: I apparently forgot to set the time to publish. My mistake. Number six on our countdown of the year is relatively new and we've covered it so much I don't know how much discussion we can do. It's Jeff Kirby, the man who made national headlines by cheating Jeopardy!. It should come as no surprise to any of you that you can only be a contestant on Jeopardy! once. Jeff Kirby was originally on in 1999 and, well, he lost. Somewhere along the line he thought he could bend the rules a bit and try again. He made it on in October and lost yet again. But he got caught by some readers who emailed me. I hate parading myself around but we broke the story first, and it caught massive attention. Comcast put it on the front page news, var
Read MoreView Comments (4)25Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Seven
Before we hit number seven, I just want to wish you all a great holiday weekend. You all are so loyal and understanding of my neuroses and long crazy rants and I cannot pay you back enough. I owe you so much in the future. I appreciate it more than you know. But enough of this. Onto number seven. I swear we'll have a happy moment soon, but we just can't hit one yet. Remember GSN's 2009 Game Show Awards? Yeah sadly not a lot remember specific things about it. I don't know what happened. At first it sounded interesting. They made it seem like a cheesy 1970s game show style event. Something happened along the way and it became modernized and lost any sense of style. It was fun to be there and experience it, and I'm eternally gra
Read MoreView Comments (23)25Dec2009
UK’s “Heads or Tails”: Holy Crap; or….
"Heads or Tails? Firstly, the commissioners need to know their arses from their elbows." Thanks, Greg Scott! I hope everyone's having a great Christmas if that's your sort of thing. In a few hours I'm sure many of you will be just about done with the family happiness and will want something to level you out a bit. Boy are you lucky you checked us out today! We saved a very special treat for you: it's the new Channel Five show, coming from England, Heads or Tails. It's so bad it's funny. The game is as simple and dumb as you'd expect. Call heads or tails to a coin flip and get some random amount of money you chose in play. Call it again and you get the value in the end game. That's essentially the entire show. It's for that sp
Read MoreView Comments (55)24Dec2009
Complimenting Fox’s “Our Little Genius”
So as readers know I have a fun habit of, well, talking crap on shows that look awful to no end. And they usually end up being awful, but some don't. Unfortunately most of these shows tend to be on Fox which for some reason doesn't have the best out-reach program unlike every other network, so I wasn't exactly shocked to find out I wasn't invited to the Our Little Genius teleconference recently held. And in the holiday spirit I want to reach out and say, "Hey, you may not suck that bad," by listing some positive things I've noticed from the show. We've also got some set pictures which you can find throughout the article. 1: I do like the idea that the family member has control of the game, not the player. Now I know this was probabl
Read MoreView Comments (20)24Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Eight
Number eight on our countdown involves a specific person to me but it's a generalized topic. This was definitely a year of god awful celebrities on game shows. We saw it infest so many shows. Catch 21 and Newlywed Game got pounded by celebrities in a negative way. Jeopardy! is doing one show a month which isn't bad, but it's been really embarrassing for the CNN anchors constantly losing to comedians. Without a doubt, though, the most agonizing celebrity I've ever seen or experienced on a game show was Patricia Heaton on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. This summer on ABC's special series of Millionaire at the end of the show a celebrity was invited to come on and play one question for $50,000 using one lifeline only. I was physically
Read MoreView Comments (11)23Dec2009
“Price is Right” Gives Away Year’s Best Prizes on New Years Eve Show
We discussed it a bit ago, and we've got some concrete information on it now. The Price is Right will be celebrating New Year's Eve in a really fun way. They will be giving away what viewers deemed were the year's best prizes on the show, airing on CBS at 11:00AM ET. The viewers picked what they loved the best on the show's official website (if you're not reading it you really should be regardless; it's the best site for updates on the show out there), and they've mixed it up with the cast and crew's favorites so we'll see what goes on. CBS is saying that a 1969 Corvette Stingray, the prize was talked about and raved about how cool it was left and right, is being used in the show which is fantastic. It's the only prize on the show wh
Read MoreLeave a Comment23Dec2009
Top 09 of 2009: Number Nine
It's time for our fourth annual countdown of the most memorable moments of the year. This one is the top 9 moments of 2009. When we were making this list, we really realized that this wasn't that good of a year for game shows. Not a ton of good. Budget slashing, tons of shows going away, unnecessary changes, and so much more just plagued shows this year. It's essentially the Year of Crap. But a lot of interesting things did happen all across the globe. Number nine on our countdown goes to Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and one man in particular: Alan Carver. To say Alan Carver was the most hardcore Millionaire contestant ever is an understatement. For the entire first season when the show added the clock we wondered why no one e
Read MoreView Comments (10)23Dec2009
What Are Your Favorite Moments of the Decade?
I'm not a huge fan of those lists that are sweeping generalizations with little insight other than, "Look how many YouTube hits it has! It has to be the best!" Having said that I will probably start making some just in case some are needed. But the main thing is everyone lists are different and you are sure to piss off dozens of people saying, "These are the best lists and if you don't like it, tough." It's why I'm really interested in what you have to say. The decade of game shows is over. Just about everything is in reruns until 2010 now basically and nothing else major is going to happen. So what are your favorite moments of the decade? There's a YouTube feature in comments so if you find a video feel free to post it. I'm going to post mine obviously because you can't shut me up, but I'm more curious about what your favorite moments or events of the decade were. Mine's a personal list and I can't wait to see what your personal lists are. I'm just going with five: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MOMENTS OR EVENTS OF THE DECADE OF GAME SHOWS? *The Daytime Game Show Revitalization: I really never thought we would see a shakeup or a giant debacle in the terms of daytime game shows. First comes Bob Barker retiring from The Price is Right, which I never thought would happen as well. Drew Carey comes in and made the show his own fantastically. It had a small rough patch but I still get a giant smile on my face when I see Drew walk through the doors. He and Rich Fields and the new crew have really turned that show around to be something special again, and they cannot be thanked enough. But the biggest shock came from the inclusion of Let's Make A Deal which has been fantastic. Then comes the news that it's doing well, another soap opera is on its way out, and there's a chance we may be getting a third game in daytime. It's all been really sudden and very welcomed. This decade really showed that game shows are important to networks and not these time fillers. They are popular, economically sound, and enjoyable for everyone. It's been the biggest genre thrill for me. *Maria Lay wins $100,000 on GSN's Russian Roulette: The old GSN original Russian Roulette is the show that made me want to work in the genre. Before then all shows were pretty similar and you stood behind a podium and answered questions. That wasn't great inspiration for me. Then, suddenly, a show comes along where people can drop through a hole in the floor. I was sold right there. The show had all the tension, nerves, luck, quiz elements, and excitement in a show that I want to see in my shows. The epitome of this was Maria Lay's top prize win from season two. I think this show had more of an effect on the genre than it's given credit for. *Raul loses $263,000 on 1 VS 100: Sadly NBC's 1 VS 100 was shortlived but I firmly believed it proved that hard quiz shows could still work. That was followed by NBC deciding to pansy up the game in season two. We wouldn't have seen a lot of the quizzes on TV now without it. Without a doubt the most exciting moment from the show was Raul's $263,000 gamble. The reaction of the audience to the question is something I won't forget. [stream flv=x:/www.flashgameshows.com/wordpress/videos/1vs100loser.flv width=630 height=343 img=x:/blog.pricegrabber.co.uk/buttonsmasher/files/2009/07/1vs100logo.jpg bandwidth=med /] (more...)
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