24Sep2007
Post-Season “Power of 10″ Opinions and Suggestions
Last night's exciting (and rather depressing) episode of CBS's Power of 10 marked the end of its summer series with its return date in the next few months. It's actually sad to see it go. In a market crowded of shows for the dumb who such as Deal or No Deal, which I've just grown completely sick of, Power of 10 was a high sign of relief for me. It's nice to see that the market isn't being over saturated with Deal clones. Sure, Power of 10 is derivative of a few older game shows, but Michael Davies and the rest of Embassy Row took the correct basic ideas and made a show that's more exciting than anything I've seen in a while. The contestant coordinators did a fantastic job of finding contestants that are likable and exciting, but in
Read MoreView Comments (28)22Sep2007
“That’s The Question” Review: One of the better originals
The new season of That's The Question was going to be interesting to say the least. If you saw the first twenty episodes you may know there were a few, uh, issues. The set was odd, music and sound effects were god awful, the writing was poor, too many factual errors, the show felt like it was missing something, and the show was horribly cheap. I was a fan of season one, but there was some fear for season two. Nothing against GSN, but recently they haven't exactly had the greatest track record for originals. A huge sigh of relief came when I found that they fixed 75% of the issues. We already saw pictures of the set, and it is extremely nice; one of the best ones GSN has put together. It's not a Millionaire clone like Chain Reaction
Read MoreView Comments (4)11Sep2007
“That’s The Question” Season Two Tonight!
Tonight GSN will begin a new season of their hit trivia show That's The Question at 9PM ET. We already went over the new set and logo and all that stuff. Also, don't forget there are actual decent writers this season, which makes it thrilling enough. Obviously this will be waiting until it airs, but what did you think of the show? I'll throw my opinions in here later, but I'd love to hear what you all think. Remember, the new season of That's The Question is tonight at 9PM ET on GSN. Visit the official website by clicking here.
Read MoreView Comments (7)08Sep2007
Ogas VS Jennings: Who Wins “Grand Slam”?
Edit: I'll have my final thoughts, some ideas for a new season, and, for lack of a better term, "good will messages", on Monday. We won't devote a separate article on the championship until then, as to not spoil people. If you'd like to be spoiled, feel free to go to the comments. GSN's popular summer series Grand Slam comes to a close with the championship game today, Saturday, September 8th at 7PM ET. The first contender: Jeopardy! super-champion with a 74-game winning streak and over $3,000,000 in total prize winnings to date. He was only one win away from being the most winning contestant in worldwide game show history. That man is Ken Jennings. The last finalist: the brain science graduate student who was almost the first $1,000,
Read MoreView Comments (27)05Sep2007
Temptation comment post
We forgot to post this earlier. Feel free to comment about Temptation here. Some people have chimed in. Here are my thoughts... If you go in expecting something besides a continuation from where Sale of the Century left off 18 1/2 years ago, you'll be pleasantly surprised. The mish-mosh of mini-games was decent. Rossi Morreale came across as a much better emcee than expected, but with room for improvement. The whole shopping at home gimmick doesn't do a thing for me. The pacing of the show left a lot to be desired i.e. it ended way too early. (Maybe this gets cleared up in non-celebrity shows.) By first impressions only, Temptation appears to be the most solid new syndicated game show in at least a decade, possibly since the sh
Read MoreView Comments (49)01Sep2007
“Grand Slam” Commentary for September 1st
Tonight's the big semifinal match. Whoever wins the two games tonight will move to the finals and be one step away from $100,000. We will see Ogi Ogas take on David Legler and Ken Jennings against Michelle Kitt. Interestingly we seem to have Ogi, Ken, and Michelle around here, so we might be able to get some fun commentary after the show. Keep checking in our comment boxes, as we have other contestants like Phyllis Harris around as well. Now for my crazy predictions. The first game will see Ogi Ogas against David Legler. David's been a lot stronger than I expected. Twenty-One wasn't exactly that hard of a show to win an assload of money in and the material wasn't nearly up to Millionaire's standards. However, he's just blown me a
Read MoreView Comments (28)25Aug2007
“Grand Slam” Commentary for August 25th
Is it just me, or is it getting very difficult to call the Grand Slam games recently? It seems most of my calls have been on such petty items that it seems more like a guess than anything else. Anyway, on today's Grand Slam on GSN at 7PM ET, we see Ken Jennings face off against Phyllis Harris and Michelle Kitt versus John Carpenter. Let's take a look at Jennings/Harris. This one is tricky because of how they both stand. Jennings is obviously a trivia giant and used to the speed of a game because of Jeopardy!. Phyllis Harris has been on roughly two million game shows and has experience across the board; on shows that require and don't require speed. I'm going to actually go with Phyllis Harris to win. As I saw in Ken Jenning's init
Read MoreView Comments (83)19Aug2007
“Grand Slam” Commentary for August 19th
I'm very sorry, everyone. I went to a roller derby game and went to see Clockwork Orange tonight so I completely spaced out about Grand Slam today saw games Brad Rutter VS Ogi Ogas and Leszek Pawlowicz VS David Legler. This is where I'm stumped. I can call that Pawlowicz beats Legler, but I have no idea with Rutter VS Ogas. Both are very smart. The only advantage I could call on Rutter is that he has the speed thing down, but apparently Ogas does as well. I don't know why, but I have a slight hunch Mr. Ogi Ogas wins it. What did you think of the episode?
Read MoreView Comments (31)13Aug2007
“Grand Slam” Commentary for 8/12
<>We had major computer errors, but we're back up and we'll post what was supposed to be posted before this evening's episode of Grand Slam on GSN. In the first game, we see David Legler of Twenty-One versus mega-Jeopardy! champion Frank Spangenberg. My prediction for this game is Mr. Spangenberg. I don't mean to downplay Mr. Legler's huge win on Twenty-One or his relatively impressive winning streak, but the speed is horribly important in Grand Slam. Frank Spangenberg faced tougher material, tougher competition, and tougher clock scrutiny on Jeopardy!. David Legler may have won seven+ games of Twenty-One, but it doesn't come close to the huge accomplishments that Frank Spangenberg had on Jeopardy!. We come to the final pre
Read MoreView Comments (17)11Aug2007
“Grand Slam” Commentary for 8/11
Going on right now is yet another edition of GSN and Embassy Row's Grand Slam. Today's matches should be very interesting. We have Twenty-One champ Rahim Oberholtzer against someone who has played more game shows than you can dream of (and won a lot as well), Phyllis Harris. My pick: Phyllis Harris. Mr. Oberholtzer may have won over a million on Twenty-One but that is nothing overly difficult to do. It just took winning four games. Phyllis has been a champion of many many game shows, has more of an experience, because of this, with different material, and may be more used to the pressure of the experience. In another game, we see the first champion of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, John Carpenter, against Tic Tac Dough master Thom
Read MoreView Comments (12)05Aug2007
“Grand Slam”: Readers Live Blog Tonight! (August 5th)
I just feel like clearing this up: In the last post, I never said I didn't like Grand Slam. I think it could get boring if there's a very uneven match. But beyond that, this is GSN's best show in a while. To save from people not wanting to know results, please post all commentary for the August 5th episode of Grand Slam here. Tonight's matches include Brad Rutter VS Amy Kelly (Lucky Super Lingo winner) and Ed Toutant VS Leszek Pawlowicz. I think we all know that Brad Rutter is going to kick Amy Kelly's ass so hard that it'll take her a few days to find it (No offense, Amy). However, Toutant VS Pawlowicz is going to be very interesting. I see we have Mr. Pawlowicz commenting recently, and we'd love to hear his thoughts about this ep
Read MoreView Comments (32)02Jun2007
“The Big Donor Show Hoax”
We might as well publish this, and it would be a great opportunity to hear what you think about this situation because I have quite a few feelings. If you didn't know, a Dutch television channel planned a show called De Grote Donor Show (AKA The Big Donor Show). In the show, three people needing a kidney competed for the kidney of one pre-selected person that can be called the "Donor". As you can imagine, there was a large amount of outrage about this show, as they were potentially playing god. On Friday, it was announced that this show was a hoax; the show was basically a PSA showing the desperate need of kidneys and other organs. The "Donor" was actually an actress while the three competitors really did need a kidney. Viewers were
Read MoreView Comments (2)16May2007
Reminder: “Price is Right” in Primetime Tonight
Tonight is the beginning of the end, I suppose. On CBS tonight at 8PM ET will be Bob Barker's final primetime The Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular. Watch as someone will hopefully get to spin for $1,000,000 on the Big Wheel. Also, be on the lookout for some very very popular games played for very very big prizes. Not only that, tomorrow at 8PM ET on CBS will also be celebrating Bob Barker as the longtime host reminisces about his 50 years in television. Bob Barker's final daytime Price is Right will be taping within the next few weeks. I don't know if we've ever discussed this here before, but I'm curious. How do you all feel about Bob Barker? Also, do you think Price is Right can last without him? If you don't mind, let's
Read MoreView Comments (29)08May2007
An Early Look at “National Bingo Night”
ABC recently supplied me with a rough cut of the first segment of their new game show National Bingo Night, debuting May 18th at 9PM ET. We only received the first game, but we figured you'd like to know. First off, I will say that the set and all extra things aren't that impressive, especially the giant Bingo hopper. The Mob panel is more impressive on 1 VS 100. However, we care about the gameplay. Be happy, it's not regular Bingo, but to be honest, it's not much better. In the segment we got, the game is called "The Bingo 500". The player has to guess whether the next ball drawn is higher or lower than the previous. If they are right, the number on the ball is added to a point total. The audience marks that number off their Bi
Read MoreView Comments (25)27Apr2007
“Identity” Finale Tonight
If you're a fan of the NBC game show Identity I would be sure to watch it tonight at 8PM ET. It's the finale, but whether it's the season or series finale is yet to be seen. For some reason, I'm guessing it's the series finale. The show hasn't been lighting up the ratings. Hell, it has barely made a blip, and with the amount of huge winners they have it's hardly as cheap as Deal or No Deal or 1 VS 100 now. Last week's ratings sunk to a rather small total of 3.3/6. If I was Reveille, I'd reformat the show, lower the prize, and pitch it to someone as a daily show. They have a decent show hiding somewhere in here. It's just hidden by the feeling that this show is Deal or No Deal with people. Any thoughts about anything regarding this
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