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Archive for the '1 vs. 100' Category

May

Upfront Game Show Announcements

By Alex Davis 7 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100, ABC, CBS, Catch-21, Deal or No Deal, Do You Trust Me?, Don't Forget the Lyrics, FOX, Fifth Grader?, GSN, NBC, Returning Show and The Moment of Truth

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.

Apr

NBC Announces Fall 2008 Schedule: “1 VS 100″ Gone

By Alex Davis 17 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100, Deal or No Deal, NBC and Schedule Change

NBC announced their Fall 2008 primetime schedule far in advance, as well as their Winter 2009 and Summer 2009. They are getting rid of a vast majority of their game shows and sticking with scripted which I suppose is good. I’m a gigantic 30 Rock fan so I’m glad to see it’s sticking around for a third season. However, we do have a casualty which was definitely a fan favorite. 1 VS 100 appears no where on any schedule which makes it either a last minute addition out of desperation or it’s canceled. It’s looking like the latter for now.

Deal or No Deal, NBC’s only shining spot at this point, is going to air Wednesdays at Fridays at 9:00PM ET. You know, Deal has always done strongly on Mondays at 8:00PM ET. I understand they are trying to do more scripted, but why you don’t put, admittedly, your biggest show in the slot in which it does the best confuses me. We’ll have the syndicated version which I have high hopes for at least. No other game show appears anywhere, so there we go. It’s truly a shame about 1 VS 100. It went from being an OK show to a great show to “eh” very quickly. Four different scoring formats and dumbing down the show drastically really hurt. I’d love to see it in syndication, but I won’t hold my breath. However, I wouldn’t put it past GSN picking up the reruns for the show which would not be a bad acquisition at all.

Feb

Game Show Friday Night

By Alex Davis 27 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100, Amne$ia, CBS, NBC, Spoilers and The Price is Right

A lot of game shows were on the major networks Friday. I was out at a party so I didn’t get to check all of them out, but a few notes.

1: Wow, Drew Carey has to be the luckiest person in the universe. First Power of 10 and now Price is Right.

2: Amne$ia wasn’t as god awful as I expected, but it still seems off to me. It’s another one of those shows that does not fit in primetime despite the efforts of producers. I really unfairly compared this to Moment of Truth; it’s like comparing apples and oranges. I’m still more of a fan of Moment of Truth. I felt more emotion on that game than I did on Amne$ia, and Mark Walberg comes off as a much stronger host than Dennis Miller. But still, not a bad little show at all and one of the few times where my snap judgements were really wrong.

3: 1 VS 100 had its season finale, and who knows if it’s coming back. I truly feel Endemol dropped the ball big time. From changing the game so basically everyone who wins less than $100,000 is a dumbass to dumbing down the material, it was just a mess. Nothing against big winners like Jason Luna, but I’d like to see if he would have gotten as far with season one material. It would have been a severe challenge compared to before. The ratings haven’t exactly been fantastic, though they haven’t really gone down that much either. It’s definitely on the bubble again.

Feb

“1 VS 100″ Lost its Charm This Season

By Alex Davis 16 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100 and NBC

This might be just me (many stuff is), but I’ve found myself caring less and less about 1 VS 100 this season and basically because of all the changes they have made. The thing is that they aren’t necessarily horribly bad changes. It’s just a good deal of slightly crappy changes which have brought the show down.

The whole money chain thing definitely had gotten people to play on for a longer period of time, that’s for sure. I’m starting to think too much, though. The first few times someone got far into the game, near the $250,000 level, it was exciting. However it’s becoming a bit disappointing when you don’t win at least $250,000 now. Especially when you have a $250,000 and a $500,000 winner in a show, it’s telling me something’s a bit off. This season showed me how much better the rules from the end of season one are. Look at other countries and tweaks they’ve done to got people to play on, like Australia. What they did hurt the show immensely because it’s making a big win seem like nothing.

I initially thought the gameplay changes were to lower the money a bit. Admittedly, the money was a bit too much in early stages. However, it’s becoming painfully obvious that the new format is giving away far much more than the older format was. Sure, the money’s less in the early stages. The money is becoming far greater than ever before near the end of the game and it’s starting to devalue the idea of a big win. It takes something special to make a show like Deal or No Deal seem cheap, but a $250,000 win is becoming nothing.

The other huge gripe I have is the writing. The first season’s writing was incredibly fun and, most importantly, different than anything on television right now. The two-sided questions created some memorable player/audience reactions and made things more tricky. The straight forward questions definitely take away that special section of the show which separated it from Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. Couple that with the fact that they were begging for a millionaire on the first episode. The questions were far easier than on any other episode the show’s had thus far. Couple that with they purposely threw a quiz bowl master in there and there was basically no way he was walking away with anything less than a quarter million.

The show still has a lot of things going for it, don’t get me wrong. For the most part, the contestants are leaps and bounds better than any other show. The music and set are fantastic. Host Bob Saget is great. However, the format change really screwed them over this season and has basically made me stop caring. If they don’t get to $250,000; it looks like barely anything compared to most people on the show. The writing has made the show just average.

Feb

Online Games Update

By Nick Todor 3 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100, Games and Mini Buzz

First off, King.com updated their 1 vs. 100 game with the new money tree. Try it out here.

Also, there’s a somewhat interesting Evel Knievel Whammy jumps stuff game that you can play here.

Jan

NBC Schedules “Amne$ia” and Increases “Deal or No Deal”

By Alex Davis 18 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100, Amne$ia, Deal or No Deal, NBC and Schedule Change

I’m often amazed at how Deal or No Deal, through NBC’s extreme over exposure, can remain extremely strong and popular. However, do you think it’ll keep it up for a two hour weekly episode? This is part of NBC’s midseason of midseason shake-up. First off, once 1 VS 100’s season finale is over on Friday, February 22nd, NBC’s new game show, Amne$ia, sees its debut at 9:00PM ET. If you note, the show has seven letters, with the “e” in the middle. There’s place to zoom through the “e” in the logo, so I think we’re safe. You can calm down, everyone.

Amne$ia can basically be described as a light-hearted Moment of Truth with a worse host, Dennis Miller. I like him, but he just doesn’t hold a candle to Mark L. Walberg of FOX’s lie detector show. Amne$ia just sees contestants recalling past events from their life for money. This is going to probably make me sound like a horrible person, but I can’t see this working especially since FOX’s version is on the air and really popular so far. It might just seem too tame and boring now, especially with the novelty off the lie detector already somewhere. I can just see something like The Chair/The Chamber fight occurring, though with The Moment of Truth lasting a while because of the post-American Idol slot.

A little 1 VS 100 note: for some reason only seven of the eight episodes are going to air. They are skipping the fourth taped episode and going straight to 205. Might have had an issue with it, or might have had the stereotypical Endemol “Your game sucked so we aren’t going to air it but pay you off.” situation. There will be a pop culture episode the week before the season finale. Also with interesting scheduling moves, Deal or No Deal will be staying on Mondays, but moving to 9:00PM ET on March 31st to make room for what will surely be a “fun(?)” “show(?)” (My Dad is Better Than Your Dad) at 8:00PM ET. Deal will have two hour episodes every Wednesday at 8:00PM ET starting on March 26th.

Jan

“1 VS 100″ is Bananas!

By Alex Davis 15 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100 and NBC

I really dislike Gwen Stefani’s music, but the title just fit perfectly with what this post is about. No big news yet, so let’s have some humorous things thrown in. You’ll be getting a new addition to the Mob on 1 VS 100 on episode 206 (the sixth episode of season 2): a monkey! Endemol loves animals in shows. First we get a pony as a Deal or No Deal offer, that of which I’ll never forget, and now we get to have a monkey randomly press buttons. It brings a whole new meaning to the Mob going ape sh*t I suppose, doesn’t it?

Jan

BuzzerVision: Jason Luna Wins $1M “1 VS 100″

By Alex Davis 49 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100, NBC and Reader Input

“You don’t have to be the smartest person in the world; just the smartest person in the room.”

Jason Luna proved he was the smartest (and gutsiest) in the room by being the first player in US 1 VS 100 history to defeat the Mob and win the $1,000,000 top prize. Above is the video of his big win. Enjoy! Congratulations to Jason. Fantastic start to a fantastic season.

1 VS 100’s new prize system, while I still think it’s not as good as last season, really isn’t that bad. It’ll get people to play on for a longer period of time making for more exciting wins like this. I still think letting contestants only stop once in each money level would work a better and make it flow quicker, but the producer in me says what they have now is just fine. Now let’s just hope the ratings match the excitement for the show’s return.

The crowd favorite, NBC’s 1 VS 100, returns with its long-awaited second season tonight at 8PM ET. We’ve gone over the prize ladder (which I’m slowly warming up to), but remember tonight is a Battle of the Sexes episode. One man versus 100 women and then one woman versus 100 men. Be sure to watch as well, something special is going to happen tonight. What did you all think of the new prize ladder and season?

Dec

Small “1 VS 100″ Photo Gallery

By Alex Davis 3 Comments

Categories: 1 vs. 100, NBC and Pictures

NBC updated their press archive with a few pictures of the upcoming season of 1 VS 100. The only major change is that the monitor displaying different items is in the center of the Mob area instead of to the side. At least to me it really throws off the entire foreboding vibe that the Mob carries. However, they have to get their camera angles any way they can. I’ll try to get some zoomed-out shots later, including pictures of gameplay.

And there is one thing I wanted to discuss. We’ve all made it blatantly clear that a vast majority of us do not like the new rules at all. However, please don’t let it stop you from watching and enjoying the show. This is the only rather-hard trivia show to come out in quite some time and the fact that the rules are a bit screwy doesn’t change the fact that it should be a challenging and entertaining hour long quiz show. If you want to see more Deal or No Deal clones, then just stop watching because of the rule changes. However, it sure isn’t making me turn away and hope it doesn’t for you either.

Dec

“1 VS 100″ Home Game Exclusive Deal

By Alex Davis Closed

Categories: 1 vs. 100, Games, Review and Shameless Promotion

Just a quick reminder that the special deal for the 1 VS 100 electronic games ends on December 22nd, so get yours while you can! For just $19.99 you can buy the tabletop electronic game. You can also buy the Mega Pack for $24.99 which includes both the tabletop AND the electronic handheld game. Both of these are also shipping and handling free, meaning you aren’t going to get these games this cheap in stores. I got these games long before we started this deal and I was honestly amazed by them, and we’re honored to have them partnering with us. Click one of the banners around the site to take a closer look at the deal which is available in the US and Canada, or click here to as well. Read on for a larger review of the game.

“I’m horrendously cheap and picky, but this game blew me away. If you’re a fan, there’s no excuse not to own this. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it’s worth the money.” (From a June 7th post)

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