08 Sep
Updated from a previous story: ABC has officially picked up a French format called “Duel”. According to sources from Bother’s Bar, the show sees contestants going head-to-head answering Who Wants to be a Millionaire?-like trivia questions. A wrong answer eliminates you but a right answer doubles your money. If you win the “Duel”, you have the choice to stop with your money or play more contestants. A contestant who wins five “Duels” wins the jackpot. It’s a “Big Money” show, so it’s going to be either $1,000,000 or maybe Power of 10 has started a prize war. ABC announced it today, according to B&C. Ten episodes have been ordered.
I’m going to go 50/50 on my rant with how braindead ABC is here. First off, thankfully they picked up a seemingly fun format. It’s not massive dumb luck. Actually it’s a relief to see some brainy shows are still around. However, this is essentially two player Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. Why not just revive the sh….oh, never mind. It’s useless. Look for more news regarding Duel soon.
12 Responses
lobster
1September 9th, 2007 at 5:15 am
too bad the name is such a common word.. searching for a clip of it online is near impossible :D
LOobs
David Howell
2September 9th, 2007 at 6:35 am
It might not even be a format that’s aired in France yet, merely one devised by a French devisor/producer. See also: Set For Life and Show Me The Money, at least one of which was devised by Dick de Rijk (the Dutch inventor of DoND) but didn’t air in the Netherlands until it had already aired abroad.
Two-player Millionaire? Could work.
Brian Schwartz
3September 9th, 2007 at 8:34 am
All this really is, is a 21st century version of $64,000 Challenge. I might check out the premiere but am skeptical about it.
Wheelloon
4September 9th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
While the idea of 2-player VS. Millionaire sounds intriguing (and after the show premiered, I did wonder how the idea would work), I am questioning the true motivations by having such a show being picked up in the US. It seems only too appropriate ABC would pick up a format like this, especially after losing the rights to Millionaire last year (if my facts are correct). Super Millionaire kicked the crap out of the original version, IMHO, and should’ve been renewed.
If ABC styles Duel more after Millionaire, and not like ABC’s most recent game show delves “Show me the Sh*t” and “S**t for Life” this has great potential for the network. With not much other basis to go on, the logo itself, at least, looks cool, but familiar for some odd reason… :-/
Alex Davis
5September 9th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Oh you know me by now, Mark, lol. Feel free to say shit or any other horrible obscenity that you’d like. We’re all free here.
Intelligentfan777
6September 9th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Oh, SHIT!
I hope this thread doesn’t turn into a South Park episode! =p
In any event, just yesterday I heard news of the UK picking up Duel on ITV over there. When I heard the description of the show, I thought to myself, “Hmmmmm, This would make a good game here in the states. Hope US execs pick up on this!”
BAM! One day later, ABC will hopefully atone for their latest round of game show product. (Although, at least NBN has a play-at-home online redeeming quality.) Hey, it’s a new season and who really wants to talk about those two debacles anymore. Duel is a smart show that requires smarts to win. And who knows, we might some “Grand Slammers” out of this show as well. I’ll definitely give it a shot.
Neville
7September 9th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
@Brian Schwartz: I thought the same thing about similarities with $64,000 Question, with a hint of Twenty-One. What I think would be neat idea would be to sort of bring back the $64,000 Question, except keep doubling the money until the contestant misses or quits - that could work well in the Battle of Top Prizes (Of course, it didn’t go too well for The Rich List…) It appears that Duel is trying to take a page out of Power of 10’s book, though, by making it a competition show, something that’s been out of primetime for a while… perhaps since NBC’s Twenty-One :) I’ll tune in, but ABC’s gonna have to step it up if they want it to be a hit. If you’re reading this, ABC, please don’t dumb down the questions to just Pop Culture and Elementary School stuff, and give it a nice pace! Please! People will watch it!
Also, SHIT! (3 Uncensored)
David Howell
8September 9th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
ITV have it? Well that version will offer a million. Nothing’s ever offered more in this country, and I’d hope this wouldn’t offer less. (Bear in mind £1m is almost $2m, and our prizes are tax-free… a £1m win is straight into the Jennings/Rutter league, in other words.)
Hope this one works, ITV haven’t come up with anything nearly as good as Millionaire in the decade since, and that includes Millionaire itself after last month’s revamp.
lobster
9September 10th, 2007 at 2:06 am
neville — heh.. doubling each one?? after 10 questions you’d already be in the 32,000,000 range.. any further and they’d own the network.. literally.. maybe a static amt of money or a limit per show (like jennings’ run) would be more realistic :D
LObs
Neville
10September 10th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Lobster, you’ve got an excellent point there, but if you start out with the first question being worth only $1,000, 10 questions should only be up into the 1/2 million area. Of course, I’m sure that the networks wouldn’t like this idea, even though it has a nice risk/reward thing gong on, because of those high possible values. It’s just my thought for a big money show that rewards knowledge and might play out big enough for primetime. Just a thought! :)
lobster
11September 10th, 2007 at 11:10 am
isn’t that almost exactly what millionaire already does? :D .. once you get to the $1000 question, every question thereafter doubles (except the one level where they readjusted the doubling after the $64k question to $125k to accommodate for an eventual even million — and in syndie where they readjust doubling after the $16k question to $25k)..
lest we forget supermillionaire, which did exactly what we’re talking about at least to the $10m level.. anything past that though would be pretty insane .. can you even imagine one multiple choice question being valued at 20,000,000 freaking dollars?? It’d have to be RIDICULOUSLY obscure… it’s getting obscene, these shows :D .. how many years before we see a $100,000,000 prize..
Greg
12September 21st, 2007 at 11:59 am
Duel? Sounds like a certain spiky-haired pharaoh would like this show.
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