It’s upfront week and not a lot of game show news has been going around. We’ve really been over-saturated in primetime and it’s time for a short break, which is good because if we keep getting shows like Set For Life, I give up. Anyway, FOX announced their schedule and all three of their game shows survive into the Fall 2008 schedule. They’ve really benefited from using safe formats with relatively interesting concepts that generates a lot of water cooler talk.
First off, if you’re used to watching Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Don’t Forget the Lyrics! on Thursdays, get ready to make a change. The night of punctuation moves to Fridays, with Fifth Grader? at 8:00PM ET and Lyrics! at 9:00PM ET. I still can’t stand Fifth Grader; I just don’t think it’s a good million dollar format. When the cheaper daytime version comes in 2009, then we’ll talk. However, I watched Lyrics! a few weeks ago and I have to admit it’s not really that bad. Sure the format is unoriginal and I really don’t like any of the music (I’m a 80s and early 90s alt/grunge person), but it’s a relatively enjoyable fun hour.
My personal favorite of the group, The Moment of Truth will be placed in the Thursday at 8:00PM ET slot. This show generates the most talk and has the biggest chance of combating any of the networks. Look at the Laura Cleri episode to just realize the amount of talk the show generates. The show consistently gets ratings and is a pretty fun way to spend an hour. It’s far from a classy show, but it does something that Amne$ia never did and why shows like ABC’s Opportunity Knocks will fail: even if you can’t really play along it makes you show real human emotion. You want the contestants to win money because they’ve done good things. You want them to fail because they are asses. It makes you voice speak up.
As far as NBC goes, it’s still just Deal or No Deal with 1 VS 100 not looking good to come back. CBS has no traditional game shows but will always have its cash cow Survivor. A CBS representative told us that they have six episodes of Do You Trust Me?, a retooling of Friend or Foe? from GSN, but aren’t placing it on any upcoming schedule. ABC just has the aforementioned Opportunity Knocks which I can just sense the failure slowly creeping off of. On the cable front, like we said we have MTV’s The Phone upcoming, and GSN has three shows. One is Catch-21, which we’ve described in excruciating detail. They also have two more revivals coming out soon.
We decided to make weekend videos a regular thing since I don’t have time to update on weekends (or apparently many weekdays anymore) and also since there’s, as the title says, no news on weekends. If you find any fun videos be sure to email them to us. I don’t get to watch TV shows much, but one of my favorite shows is The Soup. They had a really funny bit about The Moment of Truth on it a few weeks ago and figured why not put it up here. Enjoy.
So yeah, there’s really no news today. Why not put a video up. I asked around to people on my buddy list, and a vast majority said The Moment of Truth, so here you go. This was easily the biggest moment for the show and it cemented why I liked it; the show makes you feel emotion. You can either root for a contestant or cheer on someone losing a ton of money, like contestant Laura Cleri. If nothing else, the comment box is going to be fun to see your hatred towards this show. I will note that I really despise shows like Maury and Jerry Springer and things like that, but there’s something relatively addictive about this show to me. Probably only me around these parts, but there is.
There’s been a YouTube clip that’s become a sensation somehow, and it’s from a Japanese game show called Hole in the Wall. Basically, it’s human Tetris. People have to fit through tiny holes in walls in various shapes as they move towards them. If they miss, they are tossed back into a pool of water. It’s humorous enough, but one thing I was always happy with was my thought of “At least this show’s so one-sided that it can’t possibly be picked up as its own show in America.” And as usual FOX does the impossible and makes me hide in the corner and shiver with fear out of their decisions. Cynopsis announced that FOX has ordered a pilot of Hole in the Wall from Fremantle. Here’s a clip of it.
Honestly, not much to it. And it’s going to be painfully scary to think how they’re going to do this in America. I doubt it’ll get past pilot stage, but still. In Italy, their version of one of my favorite games of the past decade, Distraction, uses this as one of their mini games. Not an entire show. I mean how do you even get excited watching this. The entire show will be a viewer going “Haha, he fell into the pool. Haha, she did too! Look, that one did as well!” I know that shows like Deal or No Deal have the similar idea of doing one tiny, somewhat stupid, objective for excruciatingly long periods of time, but at least there’s some drama and emotion there. This is going to get old so quickly it’s scary.
We really don’t talk about FOX’s singing game show Don’t Forget the Lyrics! much because, quite frankly, there’s rarely anything ever to talk about with it. I’m a bit surprised when I get the show’s ratings as I keep forgetting it’s on. However, the show is pretty popular and with so many people wanting to try out, FOX is creating an online game where you can become a contestant and sing with host Wayne Brady.
Part of the Lyrics game allows players to upload videos of them singing various songs, which will then be browsed by FOX who can choose contestants from this database. “This is a natural extension for us as we continue to explore ways to maximize the value of our show brands,” said Max Benator, head of digital media for RDF USA. “Any production company that wants to survive in this changing media landscape should be creating for as many platforms as possible - and I’m glad we’re finding successes in doing that.” This is very similar to how Deal or No Deal’s new casting website will work; you obviously just won’t upload videos of you singing. Or you might, who knows; it may get you on the show.
I’m a bit stunned that Don’t Forget the Lyrics outlasted NBC’s The Singing Bee, but after thinking about it for a bit it makes sense. The viewers are flocking towards formats which they already know and feel safe with. The formats that have escalating prize money, lifelines, and big drama for big risks. Lyrics, just like its other Who Wants to be a Millionaire? clone friend Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? has this. I really don’t think NBC primetime was the best place for The Singing Bee anyway. It always seemed more like a syndicated game show. I’m never one that foams at the mouth by huge money, but a show for a top prize of $50,000 seems weak compared to everything else on the market.
I would pay a huge sum of money to see how uncomfortable this situation would turn out. Former Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, who is in the middle of the entire steroid situation for the Mitchell Report though he firmly denies he took any, has been given an invitation to appear on the hit (thanks to coming after American Idol) FOX game show The Moment of Truth. The show sent a letter to Clemens’s management to appear on the show and answer a few questions, clear his name for the whole steroid situation if he is really truthful, and pick up $500,000 for charity.
Howard Schultz, the creator and executive producer, wrote to Clemens, “People have stood in awe at your incredible accomplishments in baseball. This show could let the world know that you are an incredibly courageous person, as well as to clear your name in front of a nationwide audience, all in the name of charity.”
No response was made as of now, but I think it would be rather interesting to do this. I mean, you know he’s not going to, but if he’s truly innocent it would be perfectly fine being strapped to a lie detector (which I know is not always truthful) and win money for charity. Hell, this is a format basically made for celebrity contestants. Get a few more with some shady pasts and make them admit. I wish I was kidding, but I could only think it would bump up the ratings. Would the show be too exploitative at that point? Definitely. Would it be more entertaining if the ratings start to slip? As a person who relatively enjoys the new FOX show, definitely again.
Before we get to the video, let’s get a few points out of the way.
*They zoom through the U.
*I enjoy the show, but I like shows like this. I can see a lot of you not liking it, but at least give it a try.
*Mark Walberg is as good at this show as he is at everything.
*The show, while being provocative, has quite a few touching moments as well, like one you will see on the video.
And with that, here’s a preview of The Moment of Truth which debuts tonight at 9PM ET on FOX.
Do you remember the dark ages when we didn’t zoom through letters in logos? How did we get by? I’ve thought for years that they should have zoomed into the Jeopardy! set through Alex Trebek’s mustache.
This may have been overlooked during the holiday, so I figured let’s post the Mark L. Walberg interview again when people are around actually.
We still have a fun interview for you all today. One of my favorites (and a recent favorite of many around here as far as I can tell), Mark L. Walberg. Walberg is hosting the new FOX game show The Moment of Truth which is, truthfully, on my eager list. I don’t know why, but I’m relatively excited to see it. If it’s anything like Walberg says it is, it should be great. He also discusses his Price is Right audition, a bit about Russian Roulette, and more. There are two minor audio issues which I tried to fix, but something happened with my audio program. I swear one day I will figure out how to run it!
MARK WALBERG INTERVIEW
FOX’s new game show, The Moment of Truth, is quickly being put to air thanks to the WGA strike. Not long after taping, the Mark Walberg hosted lie-detector game will debut on January 23rd, a Wednesday, at 9PM ET. This means it follows American Idol also meaning that save for some catastrophic and ungodly event we’ll be seeing a full season. It moves to 8PM ET started March 12th.
On The Moment of Truth, contestants have to essentially just answer private questions about themselves truthfully to win money. The further they go, however, the more embarrassing they get along with the more money they are worth. If they can answer all the questions the contestant wins $500,000. However, one wrong answer means they lose everything. No lifelines yet either. If the UK version is anything to go by, be expecting some great questions like “Are you an easy lay?” or “Do you own a dildo?”.
Why can Mark Walberg never get an actual decent show? He’s such a great host and with the exception of, at most, two shows he’s been left with crap. I’d also note that we’re the only country not to use the title Nothing But the Truth. Probably to shed that whole Columbian murder plot thing, right?
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It’s upfront week and not a lot of game show news has been going around. We’ve really been over-saturated in primetime and it’s time for a short break, which is good because if we keep getting shows like Set For Life, I give up. Anyway, FOX announced their schedule and all three of their game shows survive into the Fall 2008 schedule. They’ve really benefited from using safe formats with relatively interesting concepts that generates a lot of water cooler talk.
There’s been a YouTube clip that’s become a sensation somehow, and it’s from a Japanese game show called Hole in the Wall. Basically, it’s human Tetris. People have to fit through tiny holes in walls in various shapes as they move towards them. If they miss, they are tossed back into a pool of water. It’s humorous enough, but one thing I was always happy with was my thought of “At least this show’s so one-sided that it can’t possibly be picked up as its own show in America.” And as usual FOX does the impossible and makes me hide in the corner and shiver with fear out of their decisions. Cynopsis announced that FOX has ordered a pilot of Hole in the Wall from Fremantle. Here’s a clip of it.
We really don’t talk about FOX’s singing game show Don’t Forget the Lyrics! much because, quite frankly, there’s rarely anything ever to talk about with it. I’m a bit surprised when I get the show’s ratings as I keep forgetting it’s on. However, the show is pretty popular and with so many people wanting to try out, FOX is creating an online game where you can become a contestant and sing with host Wayne Brady.
I would pay a huge sum of money to see how uncomfortable this situation would turn out. Former Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, who is in the middle of the entire steroid situation for the Mitchell Report though he firmly denies he took any, has been given an invitation to appear on the hit (thanks to coming after American Idol) FOX game show The Moment of Truth. The show sent a letter to Clemens’s management to appear on the show and answer a few questions, clear his name for the whole steroid situation if he is really truthful, and pick up $500,000 for charity.
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