ABC Schedules “Million Dollar Mind Game” For Sunday Afternoons Starting October 23rd
This is incredibly bizarre, but enjoy it while you can. ABC is effectively burning off the long-delayed Million Dollar Mind Game on Sunday afternoons starting October 23rd. Yes, you read that correctly: Sunday afternoons. According to Sitcoms Online it airs at 4:00PM ET/2:00PM PT. Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that a commenter connected to the show leaked this to us yesterday. I pulled the comment until I could get verification. It’s apparently true. No idea what they are expecting to do at 4:00PM ET, but it’s a treat for us game show fans.
The show invites a team of six to play a game of brain teasers. Each puzzle correctly solved gives the team more money, and beating the game wins the team $1,000,000. They only have 60 seconds to think and the captain then must give the right answer, though. It’s based on a Russian format. The show was taped over a year ago and never materialized.
Personally, I was looking forward to it for the interesting brain teaser questions. Test audiences weren’t too into the show, according to our sources, but I think that was expected. It’s radically different twist on standard Q&A shows and that’s worth it enough for quiz show fans to check it out. We should hold no illusions that the show will last or end up anywhere. This is clearly a burn-off, so enjoy the six episodes while you can. Having said that, it’s still
Source : Sitcoms Online
I am happy to see that ABC is finally airing this show. If all goes well, I smell a second season coming on. All in all, we need more intelligent show like this on television and not more reality, talk and court shows.
Maybe with this trend, there’s hope for a US version of Only Connect…
I ho hardly agree with that!!!! It would be a perfect line up.
Leave it to ABC to air a brand new game show on a Sunday afternoon, when most people are either watching sports or are away from their homes enjoying what left the weekend has to offer.
Will ABC even promote the show in advance in their commercials, or will it just be a total surprise to anyone checking out their TV Guides on their cable or satellite receivers that Sunday afternoon? Right now, it’s not even listed as a show on ABC’s website.
It’s nice to see ABC giving it some air time, but without giving it a primetime slot or some advance promotion, I think ABC has just given up on it entirely and they’re not bothering to chance that it will gain a following. Who knows though? ABC put a lot of time and effort into promoting Downfall and Crash Course, and look what happened to those 2 game shows. It may be better that ABC doesn’t promote Million Dollar Mind Game. Then, if it gains a huge following, they’ll be surprised at the results, rather than disappointed at the lack of results.
Interesting idea–and a curious way to get rid of something that the Alphabet web clearly does not think will ever be ready for Prime Time.
It will be interesting to see what kind of clearances ABC gets from their affiliates for this show in this slot. ABC does not have football, and they are not especially dependent on any other sporting events for Sunday afternoon ratings. (This means that they won’t really be worried if there is no NBA season this season–which is distinct possibility!)
Back in the 1950′s and 1960′s, ABC ran a few game shows in Sunday afternoon slots. The one that comes to mind is “Championship Bridge with Charles Goren”, which was about as visual as watching paint dry.
From what I’ve read of this program–and, as I do not speak Russian, I’ve not chosen to watch any of the available clips–I cannot see this as having the most remote and/or arcane appeal to the American viewer.
4:00PM ET is 1:00PM PT. In the blog post, is that an error or is it really for 2pm PT here?
Also remember that if an ABC affilliate DOES clear it (probably a small market who doesn’t do informercials), it could wind up at 2:00 alright….2 in the morning.
What ABC figures is that someone created a great game but forgot that the average American’s TV IQ is roughly that of Tiger Woods Sunday score when he’s on track.
I know they’ve done this with shows like Shark Tank and Wipeout, but usually they have a second airing in prime time. Perhaps they’re waiting for a show to get canceled…?
Will this really work out for ABC?
I almost forgot. This will probably be another short-lived ABC game show, how many of those did ABC have anyway?
Pretty sure the 2 PM PDT time is correct, just like Price is Right has a different “time” than on the East Coast.
This Sunday Afternoon Time Slot has been used by ABC and its owned and operated stations to air network programming, usually a rerun of something that aired earlier, such as Wipeout, but they have also aired other shows on a first run basis (usually leftover shows from a failed series).
So you will need to check your local listings, as there are many things that affect the time slot. One is Sports programming, it can push the show to a later start time (especially on the West Coast), also only a few stations are Owned and Operated by ABC, so most ABC Stations can move the show around, you might even find it during the late night hours.
My recommendation if you have a DVR, search for the show on October 23rd, and then set it as a series to record, that way, if it gets moved around, you won’t miss the show.
Ok, just checked this Sunday’s schedule in Los Angeles.
Sunday at 2 PM PDT, the local ABC Owned and Operated station, Channel 7 is showing a rerun of the one hour Dancing with the Stars highlight show from the third round. (Originally shown at 8 PM Tuesday).
So if you see your local station showing the Dancing with the Stars replay, that is where you should find Million Dollar Mind Game later this month.
As both TDS and Mr. Parten have noted, ABC has pretty much ceded weekend sports programming to their ESPN brethren. Outside of the NBA, college football and the occasional “carrot” (IRL, WNBA, etc.), you’re not going to see much sports on the Alphabet. The last few years have seen ABC air reruns of selected network shows on weekend afternoons (Shark Tank, Wipeout, Shaq Vs., Downfall), but this is the first time I remember the network airing a first-run program in these slots.
I doubt ABC is going to promote this, and I also doubt the ratings will show a pulse (outside of BuzzerBlog, I haven’t seen anyone else reporting on this). Still, I’m going to DVR at least the first episode.
We don’t know what to expect from this show. I have my doubts about Vernon Kay’s hosting, and the style of the show will be quite different from what we’ve been used to seeing over the last 12 years, but I’m going to give it a chance. Just because it will be gone after six episodes doesn’t mean I’ll ignore it.
Disney has purged ABC affiliates intentionally to shaft them. Prior to 2010, the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff (Chase) was on ABC with all 10 races on network television, and affiliates were selling 30 second ads at decent rates. With the Chase moving to ESPN except for the Saturday night race, affiliates have lost a major revenue source and all ABC is giving them is reruns of primetime shows and fully ordered primetime series that never made the cut. Bad move all the way around except for the bean counters, who love extra per-subscriber rates.
Why is this show different? It’s all about the LOGIC BASED questions.
It’s not what you know but how you think and think as a group of six players.
The questions are derived from everyday life and differ in style.
There is a straight forward verbal question, what is this object question, take a look at a video question, music, and the famous what’s in THE BLACK BOX question.
Here is a fun straight forward verbal question from the Russian show,
I am sitting in an airplane, in front of me is a horse and behind me an elephant. Where am I?
I’ll take a guess…the Smithsonian?
Good start Tony but now as team of 6 we would break it down and see if smithsonian aplies in 60 seconds. I am not sure they alow peopel to sit in an airplane at the museum let a lone have an elephant and a horse next to it. It’s not a bad answear but we still have time and the captain would ask the other team members if they have other options. Somehow simthsonian doesnt add up.
I’ll give you a clue, sometimes it’s not a horse in front of me but a tiger.
A merry-go-round!
Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!
Blaq put at team together and come audition.
Is Vernon Kay a good host for this show?
He can do no worse than from his stint from Skating With the Stars ’bout a year back…
Was he that bad?
I’m sorry if I mentioned it but it’s just that I’ll know what to expect.
Maybe you should watch some YT videos of him Family Fortunes (UK’s Family Feud) before you answer that question…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-aoTdubhg
Sounds like ABC must have no hope for this show. This would compete against NFL football.
Competing against the NFL is never a good strategy…
What Disney has done to punish affiliates and make ESPN more powerful is to make the ABC affiliates ls push primetime reruns to Sunday, which has angered affiliates. To make Sunday afternoons a place to hold reruns of primetime programming and “busted programming” and increase ESPN’s per-subscriber fee by bumping the Chase to pay-tv has been a bust. ABC affiliates would rather be carrying the Chase instead of TV reruns.
When CBS tried in the mid-90′s after losing major network status and becoming a minor network after losing the NFL was to air women’s movies, some affiliates jumped to UPN for weekends. CBS decided to add a NASCAR Busch Grand National (now Nationwide) Series package of key races, extra PGA TOUR, started the President’s Cup matches (US vs Australia/Asia/Africa), and changed the USTA National Championship format to both matches on Sunday. They also expanded college basketball’s early non-conference season with huge matchup, and signed the Big East (1995-2001) and SEC (1995-present) college football packages, which led to the SEC’s curent status as the only guaranteed national television game.
So, I had the time to see it just now and I answered my own Question. Vernon Kay is annoying and I don’t know why ABC let him host a game show.
It sounds to me like the same situation as with CBS’s The Cube. They tried it. Little was won. They gave up on it.
Major difference is that CBS’s pilot of “The Cube” never aired. Nobody outside of those who made it has ever seen it. It’s locked up in a vault somewhere, along with scads of other busted pilots that did not make series.
I’d rather like to see it myself, and compare Neil Patrick Harris work on it with that of Phillip Schofield. It may never come to pass, but it would be curious nonetheless.
I always figured that the main reason that CBS did not pick up on “The Cube” was that “Minute To Win It” beat “The Cube” to air, and CBS did not want to be accused of sincere flattery, even though we all know the facts of the case. Another possibility is that somebody did not like the idea of NPH being both host and producer of the show. There are those in Hollywood who detest “one-man bands”.
I was lucky enough to in the CBS Cube pilot audience – Neil Patrick Harris was a competent host although I didn’t think too much of him. He was very professional though and had quite a bit of character.
The main problem CBS had with The Cube pilot was that by 11pm, only one contestant out of five had won anything. The others were either unlucky or gambled it away. I thought this was curious as most people in the UK will win something, whereas practically no-one won in the pilot. The winner who did win only got to the third level of the ladder too before walking. I think this really hurt its chances.
Really? You’d think CBS would be happy in that case. The less money the contestants win, the less money CBS has to shell out of their gigantic pockets.
Personally, I believe CBS is hating upon primetime game shows. ABC and NBC seem to be the only stations willing to give primetime game shows a chance. FOX keeps cancelling new series and CBS hasn’t bothered hosting a primetime game show since Million Dollar Password, and that was 3 years ago.
It looks to me that CBS is satisfied with their run of “reality” shows (which are related to game shows only by sufferance). As long as “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” keep holding onto the audiences that watches “60 Minutes”, then CBS is happy.
Otherwise, it’s the usual run of sitcoms and police procedurals. The former attract the audiences that make advertisers go gaga, while the latter tend to “skew” a little older. But CBS has always had the reputation of “skewing older” anyway. (Not that that is a bad thing, mind you. But for the past forty years, advertisers have always sought the 18-49 year-old demographic, and rather prefer the 18-34 audience. Once you’re over fifty, the advertisers think your purchasing choices are limited to denture paste, adult “undergarments”, and health insurance plans!
Neil Patrick Harris produced The Cube?
My theory is that NPH doesn’t want The Cube to air, much less, get popular. He’s a pretty smart and talented guy, and is probably already thinking about his next move whenever How I Met Your Mother ends. And he (inaccurately) believes any association with a game show might be a career limiting move.
As for NPH, he did not produce the Cube. CBS wanted someone very connected to the network who can host. And NPH can. I don’t think he would have accepted the gig if he thought it would hurt his career.