Dallas Mavericks owner, chairman of HDNet, and billionaire Mark Cuban will come back for the show’s full 13 episodes.  He appeared sporadically last season but made enough of an impact that he will be staying full time.  Mark Cuban is just about as entertaining as they come so that’s something to look forward to.  The Sharks will get a special new guest as well.  The “Queen of QVC,” inventor Lori Greiner, will stop by for three episodes.  Given how many people come by with products you’d probably see on QVC or infomercials, she’ll have invaluable advice for the entrepreneurs.

The new season of Shark Tank debuts Friday, January 20th, on ABC.  Here’s a photo gallery of the new season.  I’m a big fan of the show and I’m glad to see something as smart and interesting as Shark Tank can survive.

Million Dollar Mind Game took the safe ground of the Millionaire format but added something we’ve never seen before.  We have a group of six people having to work together as a team without any backstabbing, voting off, or any other cliches.  Furthermore we have the tough brain teasers which has never been tried on American television before.  Add to that a great looking, completely original set and theming, the great hosting of Vernon Kay, likable contestants, and tense game play and there was never a question that it would be one to remember.

All of that is what made it pretty sad when ABC shoved Mind Game to weekend afternoons opposite NFL, which may be the worst time slot ever given to a series.  I don’t think anyone expected much given the slot but the show received nearly universal acclaim, a decent devoted following, and if nothing else the viewers stayed steady and really didn’t go down through six weeks…again opposite the powerhouse of NFL.  That’s something most other primetime game shows can’t say.  I think what amazed me was the Russian reception.  The show comes from a Russian format, and we did add some cash and elements that they don’t have.  I figured that there would be some big backlash, but it even got high marks from there.  The crew clearly did right.

Million Dollar Mind Game actually makes you hopeful for the genre.  We’ve been inundated with, frankly, games that are either pure luck or border on annoyingly easy for a long time.  We finally have a show which actually challenges viewers and makes you think.  It’s hard, but not impossible.  It’s only impossible if you brazenly chose to not bother.  It’s unashamedly intelligent and in the current genre world of Deal or No Deal it’s refreshing.  We haven’t had a game show this good in an extremely long time.  Frankly I can’t even name the last game that was this all-around good.  I really can’t pick out anything bad beyond the awkward jump from $600,000 to $1,000,000 for the final question.

Will it come back?  Who knows.  It performed to expectations, never lost viewers, and has a following.  The people behind Mind Game are trying and I, as well as many of you, are crossing our fingers for its return.  Alex Reznik, a producer from Million Dollar Mind Game, wanted to send all of you that overwhelmingly voted for the show a message.  Thanks to them for a great show, and we hope it can come back somewhere soon.

On behalf of everyone at Million Dollar Mind game, we’re extremely honored and grateful to “Buzzerblog” and of course our fans for this tremendous honor.
We are proud to be part of the Game Show community and hope to bring you more exciting new episode in 2012. Happy New Year from Million Dollar Mind Game.

You voted “Video Gamers Lose a Record $600,000 on Million Dollar Mind Game” as the biggest and most memorable moment in 2011.  For anyone that has seen the show the set up is simple, but we’ll get into what made the show so awesome later.  After any right answer your team of six can end the game and leave with the money but it must be a unanimous decision.  If even one person says to play on, everyone is forced to gamble.  The video gamers reached the second-to-last stage of $600,000.  Nearly all the contestants looked like they were about to have a nervous breakdown.  Everyone thought they were going to walk away.  There was only one road block: Frank.  Frank was the sole person who wanted to play on and forced the team to gamble $600,000.  The reaction from the audience and contestants is something we won’t be forgetting.  Remember the moment below.

It was memorable for a number of reasons.  The most obvious being the emotional response of everyone to the gamble of one sole person was unlike most things we’ve seen in a while.  The relatively small audience was screaming and groaning.  The players looked like they were about to pass out. I’ve been doing this for a while and I’ve seen it all.  Even I could not believe what happened.   It was also memorable because, sadly, out of two chances to win the $1,000,000 prize the team failed to answer either so they left with nothing.  $600,000 is the most amount of money lost by contestants in game show history.  The stunned silence and frustration during answer the question and the result was haunting.

The moment elicited a big reaction among the show’s fans on social networking.  No one could believe what happened.  At the start of the game Frank said he was going to be going for the million, but when you have all the money sitting in front of you your opinion can change quickly.  Frank stuck by it, forced the team to gamble $600,000, and it didn’t work out.  It was exciting, terrifying, frustrating, depressing, and interesting.  It embodies the reasons we love the genre.  It’s something we won’t be forgetting for a long, long time.

The sixth most memorable moment of 2011, as voted by you, is the “Pub Quiz Team Wins $600,000 on Million Dollar Mind Game.”  From day one of the announcement that ABC piloted and then picked up the Russian format, we knew winning would be a challenge.  There has never been a game show that has tested your ability to think and reason as a group.  It’s generally just trivia.  A few got far but no one won as much as the pub quiz team, which featured Jeopardy! mega-champion Brad Rutter.  They breezed through several rounds but you could definitely see the tension and pressure mounting as the money kept growing to the $600,000 they ultimately won.  Take a look and remember the moment.

For a show that ABC shoved to the side it gave us more memories that are going to be hard to forget than many shows in the past few years.  I think it’s why we remember the show so fondly and hope that we can see something like it, if not this exact show, back soon.  It’s different and that’s good.  For some reason, over the past few years, intelligent games have vanished.  To have something challenge you like this, both in studio and at home where it was a blast to play along with a group of others, is a welcome change from the more luck based shows we’re used to.  This required you to know more than what the mascot of Frosted Flakes is, and it got contestants who are up to the challenge.  We’ll have more on the show soon.

Fear Factor began its second week on the air and suffered from a poor lead-in.  It came to 6.37 million viewers but a pretty strong 2.5/6 demo rating.  It was 2nd place overall but 1st place in the key demographic.  You Deserve It is still on the air and it somehow lost more viewers in its fifth week.  ABC’s quiz show sank to a 2.1/4 rating, down 0.2 from last week.  Its key demographic rating stuck at 0.9/2.  It doesn’t stand much of a shot for renewal.

Syndication had a mixed week ending December 4th.  Wheel of Fortune shrunk to 7.5, but that’s only down 1% so no problem.  Jeopardy! managed to grow 2% to a 6.3.  Family Feud was flat at 3.1.  Who Wants to be a Millionaire trailed the pack at 2.6, which is a 4% increase.

It’s not all good for game shows, though.  ABC’s charity based quiz show You Deserve It inexplicably drop again.  It sank 10% to a new low of 0.9/2 in the key demographic and a 2.3/4 overall.  It’s definitely a goner.  Viewers just aren’t connecting.  Given that this is bombing horribly and ITV’s Holding Out For a Hero did the same, can we put a nail in the coffin of charity-based quiz shows?  They aren’t working no matter if the game works or not.

Syndication perked up for nearly all for the week ending December 4th.  The stand-out as always is Family Feud which grew 19% to a 3.1.  Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! increased to 7.6 and 6.2, respectively.  Millionaire stayed steady at 2.5.  Not bad for anyone in that group.

The rest of the syndicated shows are having a good year as well.  Wheel of Fortune grew 3% year-to-date to a 7.4 rating.  Jeopardy! saw a 7% increase to 6.2.  Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which just ended its viewer incentive program “Club Millionaire” very abruptly, was up 14% from last November to a 2.5.  Good news for all of them this November, so congratulations to all.

Really the only bad news is for ABC’s You Deserve It, which is just not having a good run.  The show clocked in a fourth place 2.5/4 rating overall and barely fourth place 1.0/2 rating in the 18-49 demographic.  It only beat The CW by two tenths of a point.  Total viewers were 3.56 million.  If you’re in that 3.56 million and enjoy watching the show, I’d be saving all the episodes as you can because it won’t be around much longer.  No show will last like this.  I repeat again: good game wrapped in a bad package.

BBC One

Winter Wipeout hits our screens for the first time in the UK. The obstacle course in Argentina has been changed to reflect the time of the year. 20 Brits will attempt the new course to become the Winter Wipeout champion and receive £10,000. The new winter course will be loosely based on the original version of Winter Wipeout on ABC in the US. This will include the snow covered Qualifier, The Ski Lift and Winter Blunderland. Richard Hammond returns with his dry wit commentary and hosting duties along with Amanda Bryam reporting from course-side. The series will begin on Saturday 17th December and will be shown on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.

As a yearly tradition. Celebrity Mastermind is back. Numerous well known and not so well know celebrities sit in the famous black chair to be questioned by John Humphreys for a chance of winning the Mastermind trophy. The celebrities include, The X Factor finalist and I’m a Celebrity winner, Stacey Solomon. The Fast Show’s Simon Day. National Lottery draw presenter, OJ Borg.  Travel writer, Simon Calder and food critic, Jay Rayner, The specialist subjects include. Only Fools and Horses, the history of Concorde, the Star Wars trilogy, Highgate Cemetery and the TV show the Sopranos. The first show will be shown on Tuesday 27th December and set to run for eight shows over Christmas and New Year.

Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars) returns with their Christmas special to be aired on Christmas Day. As with the 2010 special, it will feature five new celebrities to take onto the dance floor. Eastenders actress, Charlie Brooks. Hi-De-Hi star, Su Pollard. Comedienne and actress, Debra Stephenson. Pop group, Blue member, Simon Webbe and former boxing champion, Barry McGuigan will be paired with a professional dancer where they try to woo the judges and the audience to become Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Champion.

Also airing; Have I Got News For You Christmas Special (23rd Dec)

BBC Two

For the first time ever, the ultra hard quiz, University Challenge will be shown over the Christmas period. University Challenge: The Generations is mini tournament featuring distinguished graduates from ten universities, The series will take place across nine shows to determine the ultimate champion. The universities taking part will feature many well known names. Including QI creator, John Lloyd and politician, Lord Steel. Four teams will battle out over two shows in the first round. The two winners from the first round will join the six teams in the quarter finals who will battle out to reach the semi final and battle again to reach the grand final. Two shows will be shown on Monday 19th December. Followed by a show a day on Tuesday 20th through to Thursday 22nd December and from Christmas Eve through to Tuesday 27th December. Yes, you did read that right. University Challenge will be shown on Christmas Day.

Celebrity Eggheads return for another ten show series. Ten teams of five celebrities try to outsmart the Eggheads to win money for their charities. If they fail to beat the Eggheads, the money will roll over to the next show. Any money that hasn’t been won after the tenth show will be donated to this year’s Children in Need appeal. Many names from UK game show history will appear on the celebrity series. Treasure Hunt’s Wincey Willis, Going for Gold’s Henry Kelly, Fun House’s Pat Sharp and TV Scrabble’s Toby Anstis will be taking part. With Pat Shart and Toby Anstis appearing on the same team. Celebrity Eggheads will be shown every weeknight from Monday 12th December.

Also airing; The Making of QI (20th Dec), QI Christmas Special (29th Dec).

ITV

The Cube will have a Coronation Street special on Christmas Eve. Ryan Thomas and Julie Hesmondhalgh take on the currently undefeated Cube to win cash for their charity. As with previous celebrity specials, if they complete the first game, they will guarantee £1,000 for their charity if they get defeated later on. It has been observed throughout the regular series the show has become harder. We shall see if the same will apply for the celebrities.

Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? will return for a extra long 90 minute special to be shown live on Monday 19th December. Chris Tarrant will return with three pairs of celebrities who will face the Big Bad Clock and pocket money for their charity. As the show will be live. One lucky viewer at home will win half the total prize fund won by the celebrities. As with previous years, the Christmas specials have produced some entertaining episodes and we will be featuring a classic moment soon. Many will remember last year where Chris Evans and James Martin crashed out with £1,000 (£500 for their charities). It is unknown whether Chris Evans will appear for a third time.

The summer panel show, Odd One In makes a surprising appearance at Christmas with their Christmas special. As mentioned on this site, the show sees two teams of celebrities trying to work out the odd one in from a line up. It’s simply To Tell the Truth for the 21st Century. Taking on the show regulars, Jason Manford and Peter Andre will be Carol Vorderman and Mark Watson. The Christmas special will be shown on Sunday 18th December.

Also airing; All Star Family Fortunes (Benidorm Vs The Only Way is Essex) (Christmas Day), All Star Family Fortunes 2008 Christmas Special (Hollyoaks Vs Emmerdale) (18th Dec), All Star Family Fortunes 2010 Christmas Special (28th Dec), The Big Quiz: Corrie Vs Emmerdale (16th Dec), Paddy’s 2011 Show and Telly (29th Dec).

Channel 4

Noel and The Banker continue to work throughout Christmas on Deal or No Deal. The 2011 theme is the Deal Panto. The 22 contestants will be dressed up as characters from well known pantomimes with Noel as the Genie from Aladdin. As we know, all pantos have a villian and that is The Banker, who will try to make the contestants a miserable Christmas. As with all themed shows, expect many twists. If a contestant reaches the stage with five boxes remaining. He or she could try their luck to win a holiday and open one box at a time to receive an offer. However, if they’re unlucky then The Banker will look into their box. Producing a total mind game between him and the contestant. Even worse they could walk away with The Banker’s underpants. A prize he was dying to give away in 2006. The twelve shows will run every day from Monday 19th through to Friday 30th December.

Coach Trip makes a welcome return at Christmas for a special series. Aided by international tour guide, Brendan Sherrin. Six couples with a connection (friends, married, siblings etc…) travel throughout northern Europe on a coach while visiting sights and trying out new activities every day. At the end of each day, the couples decide who should be voted off the coach. If a couple receive the most votes on two days, they are eliminated and replaced by a new couple. Unlike the regular series, the Christmas series will run for 15 shows. Christmas Coach Trip will air every weekday from Monday 12th December until Friday 29th December.

Home for the Holidays is a live event for Christmas. A soon to be married couple bring along their two extended families and stay within a festive country manor. However, not everything is what it seems where they will be tested via yuletide games and certain twists. Aided by certain surprises and celebrities guests. Both families try to live together within the manor and win up to £500,000. The festive event will be shown every day from 18th December through to Christmas Eve. It will be hosted by Million Dollar Mind Game’s Vernon Kay, who will be returning to Channel 4 after many years of presenting the teen show T4.

Also airing; 8 Out of 10 Cats Christmas Special (23rd Dec) Chris Moyles Christmas Quiz Night  (26th Dec), Celebrity Christmas Come Dine With Me (26th Dec-30th Dec), The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2011 (27th Dec).

*ABC’s You Deserve It, for all intents and purposes, is dead most likely.  The second episode of ABC’s charity based quiz show scored a 2.8/4 rating and 4.36 million viewers.  It lost half its audience from the previous week.  I know it didn’t have the lead-in of Dancing With the Stars this time and its lead-in this week, Shrek the Halls, wasn’t as strong at 7.66 million viewers, but it still managed to lose 43% of that audience.  It’s likely it’s dead.

So can producers finally get it that people want to see a good game in an equally good package?  People watch game shows for the game.  If you shove it to the side then what’s the point?  It’s why this is failing.  It’s why stuff like Millionaire and Deal or No Deal succeeded.  It’s why stuff like Million Dollar Mind Game manages to retain its audience week in and week out and, at this point, has a better shot of showing up somewhere else with new episodes.  A decent game destroyed by a not-so-good show.

*Bother’s Bar has a set report from The Exit List, ITV’s newest quiz show.  We’ve covered it a bit ago, and what we reported basically sticks.  A team goes into a series of rooms and answers questions for cash.  Each right answer is added to the list of answers you have to rattle off to leave with what you’ve won.  You can click here to read it.  It doesn’t sound bad, but it sounds like it should be a lot more exciting and fun than it is, which is what we figured.  Looking forward to seeing how it turns out on television, though.  We were skeptical of The Cube based on audience reports and it ended up being great.

*We’ve got some release dates for returning favorites.  Wipeout comes back for another winter series starting Thursday, December 8th, at 8:00PM ET, on ABC. New co-host Vanessa Lachey makes her debut.  Then, in February, ABC brings back Shark Tank for a third season.  The new season debuts Friday, February 3, at 8:00PM ET.

Did we miss something?  Let us know.

While that’s not bad by itself remember that it came out of Dancing With the Stars which had 19.6 million viewers and a 3.5/9 demo rating.  That’s a lost of 57% in total viewers and 51% in the demographic.  The show lost about 13% of viewers between the 9:00PM and 9:30PM time slots.  Again, by itself that’s not bad.  When you’re following something like Dancing, that’s not good.  The now-departed Skating With the Stars opened better.  It does make us sit and wonder, realistically, if the shoved-to-the-corner Million Dollar Mind Game, which has gotten nearly unanimous good reviews unlike You Deserve It, could have possibly done any worse.  There’s no Dancing next week so we’ll see how You Deserve It does.

In good news, though, Family Feud continues its meteoric rise to the top.  For the week ending November 13th the Steve Harvey hosted game show scored a 3.2 rating.  Has anyone heard of anything like this ever happening before?  I cannot remember a single time, in a game show, where a change in host and tone made the ratings sky rocket so much.   I don’t remember it happening on any show.  Most of the other syndicated game shows did well, too.  Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! scored season highs of 7.6 and 6.3.  Millionaire was the only odd one in the group, losing 4% to a 2.5.

“Many of the most popular shows on television today—including DANCING WITH THE STARS—are essentially game shows at their core,” says Amy Introcaso-Davis, Executive Vice President of Programming for GSN. “GSN is all about the potent combination of games, competition, entertainment and fun, and we know that DANCING WITH THE STARS is a show our female audience already loves.”  This is Amy’s first major acquisition since joining GSN recently.

I’d say it’s a smart move by GSN but you never know.  GSN tried off-network reality with The Amazing Race previously but it didn’t work out.  However, this is different.  I don’t like the show at all and you may not like it either, but it’s hard to deny it’s incredibly popular.  Not to mention that its basic audience is, admittedly, middle aged ladies and that’s the group GSN is going after.  Regardless of what you or I think, it makes sense for them to do this.  We’ll see if it pays off.

The contestants play for someone else they know who deserves the cash.  They play five puzzles for increasing amounts of cash.  They are given a category such as “Who is” or “What is” or so on, and spotted one incredibly vague and obscure clue for free.  The amount of cash the round will be played for is split into nine unequal mounts; from small to large.  The contestant will choose a number 1-9 and the amount of cash behind the number is taken away from the round’s bank.  Then the next clue is revealed.  No matter what amount of money is selected clues go obscure at first to obvious at last.  Either you know it and buzz in to answer or you pick another number.  If you’re right you bank the amount the round is worth, but if you’re wrong you get no money for that round.  After five rounds whatever you have in your bank is what the person you’re playing for takes home.

However, let’s be honest.  ABC couldn’t care less about the game in this show.  They solely care about the emotional reveal and constantly-crying-contestants.  I’ll be repeating this often, but this show is not made for us.  It’s a game show made for people that don’t like game shows.  The charity element is shoved in your face so much that it loses any sort of emotion it may carry and becomes very, very annoying after a little bit.  I know it sounds heartless, but that’s just how it’s going to be.  I’m a competition person.  I don’t watch hockey because I care about the player’s lives.  I watch hockey because I love the sport.  I don’t watch game shows because I care about the wretched lives of the people involved.  I watch because I want to see a good game.  You Deserve It shoves it to the side.  But, again, this show is not made for us.

And even if they didn’t shove it down your throat, the typical Deal or No Deal production doesn’t help.  We’ve got the companion seat with people doing nothing more than hugging and crying.  We’ve got a game of pure luck masked around a quiz show.  Having clues revealed from obscure to obvious regardless of what amount of money is taken away or regardless of what number you selected is flat out lazy.  The contestants are oblivious to even the most obvious clue which makes you switch from, “I hope you do well, you’re doing a good thing,” to, “How could someone be this stupid?” at lightning speed.  That’s not good for a show like this.

None of that matters, though, because, again, no one cares about the quiz show in You Deserve It.  Only we do.  They’re clearly going for the post-Dancing With the Stars crowd who really doesn’t want to watch a quiz show and just wants to cry.  It’s for the Oprah crowd.  The bad thing is it has a lot of elements which should be good but they make so many small poor decisions that it piles up and becomes rough.  The game should be fine but it’s getting saddled with laziness.  Chris Harrison is a fine host.  The show just feels off.  But, again, this show is not made for you and I.  We can stick to Sundays at 4:00PM ET/2:00PM PT.