30Aug2009
BuzzerVision: Pointless (Part 3)
Who will take home the Pointless Trophy?
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I like this. It's a brain-bender to be sure, and has a lot of "yell at the TV" factor – especially if it's in a category you know a lot about. I'd call this one "the thinking person's Family Feud," or maybe an inverse Rich-slash-Money List where you have to name the most obscure items. My only complaint: £1,750 doesn't seem like nearly enough to win on a show as difficult as this one, but then again that's the BBC for you. You can only do so much for prizes without raising the license fee, after all. At least the jackpot accrues and carries over, which will help immensely.
I'm not exactly sanguine about this show's hypothetical chances Stateside, if only because I don't think American audiences are quite wired to believe that getting the lowest score can be a good thing. At least, not unless a small white ball and a bag full of clubs are somehow involved. It's a shame, because if you could get past that notional hurdle this could be a great addition to any syndie sked or even GSN.
Oh, and one more thing. It's always nice to see the British tradition of chintzy game-show trophies is alive and well in the Aught-Nine. The Pointless trophy is truly pointless, and a worthy successor to Bullseye's "Bendy Bully" or the globally-infamous Blankety Blank chequebook and pen.
I can't imagine they don't have at LEAST 500 pounds lying around to give the winners of each week. Geez. And I'm not as pessimistic about the US being able to grasp the least-points-wins concept. Especially if the host reminds the audience as much as this one did. This is a great gsn or sydication show just waiting to happen.
I should mention that in the five episodes that have aired so far, no one has won the jackpot, and it will start at £8,000 on Monday.
Well to me, the game is like THE MONEY LIST meets Family Feud………it would be interesting to see if a US audience would like it, it is an interesting concept.
For a 30 minute US syndicated show, I would say you'd need to:
* Start with 4 pairs, I don't know that you'd get in all those rounds in 23 minutes.
* Would need to be a much more rapid pace. The "countdown meter" could stand to be sped up at least 2-3x, especially during the early rounds. That would speed things up, as well as getting rid of some of the "thinking time". They could have time to come up with answers, but, that could be cut from the show itself.
* I think the "Pointless" final round is a bit too tough. Maybe instead of having to come up with a "Pointless" answer, you have to give 3 answers that total under 20 points combined, or something like that.
* I like the "jackpot" concept and how it is handled. Maybe here start it at $5,000, and add $1,000 for every "Pointless answer" during the regular rounds.
Another Idea that keeps the same base concept, but adds some different elements, one almost a "21" type of element (minus the cheating ;>):
* Two pairs of teams play each other every time. First team to go over 200 points loses. Rounds consist of a question, and each person on each team having to give an answer (so, 4 answers per question).
* The winning team wins in their first game win $100 for every point under 200 they were. ie, 50 points wins 150×100=$15,000
* The winning team can then choose to come back and play another game.
** If they win…. the "points multiplier" for every additional won game goes up by $100.
** If they lose…. they lose 75% of their TOTAL winnings from the show.
I can see some teams coming back to play more games, and then once you get to $500 a point, where you could possibly win as much as $100,000 in one match (500×200) or more in each additional round, they might be willing to risk even $50-100,000 for the chance for possibly doubling it.