21Nov2011
Review: No Amount of Charity Can Save “You Deserve It”
ABC's been on a roll with game shows recently. We've had 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show, Take The Money and Run, and Million Dollar Mind Game which have all ranged from not bad to incredibly good (in that order). They can't all be winners. ABC is debuting their new charity based game show You Deserve It tonight at 9:00PM. The thought behind the show is OK. The actual game should be good. Even the host Chris Harrison is good. However, it just comes off as another lazy quiz show straight from the recent Deal or No Deal playbook. Click here to read more.
Read MoreView Comments (33)02Aug2011
ABC’s “Take the Money and Run” Debuts Tonight at 9:00PM ET
ABC is debuting its new competition game show Take the Money and Run tonight at 9:00PM ET. The show sees two contestants hiding a briefcase of $100,000 anywhere they can. Police officials will track it down through intense interrogation and hunting. It's one of the more inventive and best themed shows we've seen in a while so I hope you give it a shot. Let us know what you think. Hopefully you like it. Click here to give us your review.
Read MoreView Comments (15)20Jul2011
“It’s Worth What?” Has Decent Sampling in Debut
Last night saw the debut of NBC's newest game show endeavor It's Worth What?. The show asks contestants to try to assess the value of antiques or rare collectacbles to win up to $1,000,000. We'll have more of a review of the full episode soon, but first let's get to the ratings. Depending on if people liked the show and will stick around next week, the debut of the Cedric the Entertainer-hosted game show wasn't bad. The show opened with 6.71 million viewers. Click here for the full ratings information and a review.
Read MoreView Comments (13)15Jul2011
Review: “Take the Money and Run” is Good Combination of “Law and Order” and “The Amazing Race”
I love when networks take risks with shows. They don't do it very often. With reality or game shows, nine times out of ten we see either a Millionaire clone or an Amazing Race clone. The risk takers are remembered. No one outside of the genre-focused people remembers a show like Set For Life. People remember shows that didn't last that long, like The Mole, for being different and unique. ABC's taking a chance on a new spy thriller-styled game/reality show Take The Money and Run (Tuesday, August 2nd at 9:00PM ET), and I'm glad they did. The Wild Rover-created competition is very intense, very different than anything on American television, very fun, and hopefully very successful. Click here to read the full review.
Read MoreView Comments (12)14Jun2011
Review: ABC’s “101 Ways to Leave a Game Show” is Good Brainless Summer Fun
Next Tuesday is the debut of ABC's new summer game show 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show. The British version aired last year on BBC to little fanfare. Practically nothing of the BBC version survives here, and for the most part that's a very, very good thing. For the past few years ABC has been pairing shows with their hit stunt show Wipeout trying to find a good companion. I think they've got as good a candidate as any here. ABC's version makes the British version look like Candyland. It's by far the most extreme game show on television. Click here to learn more about ABC's new game show.
Read MoreView Comments (21)16May2011
GSN’s Updated “Lingo” is ROUGH, R-O-U-G-H
It's incredibly hard to screw up GSN's upcoming version of Lingo, debuting June 6th at 8:00PM ET. It's just people guessing five lettered words and playing Bingo. You'd figure it would be next to impossible to find ways to botch the job. The network sent out screeners of an upcoming episode. The Bill Engvall hosted updated version is far from bad. They just made a lot of decisions which make no sense, and the show pales in comparison to the former version. Click here for the full review.
Read MoreView Comments (18)28Mar2011
“Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza” the Perfect Successor to “Whose Line is it Anyway?”
In just two weeks, on April 11th, GSN will debut their new improv comedy show Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, weeknights at 8:00PM ET. They are billing it as essentially the next phase of the popular two-decade-long-running improvisational comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway?. Expectations of Improv-A-Ganza are high after hearing who is involved and what the show is. The good news is that, after seeing one of the first episodes, the show is a welcome edition into the improv comedy world and the perfect successor to Whose Line. Click here to read all the information about Improv-A-Ganza.
Read MoreView Comments (14)17Dec2010
“Million Dollar Money Drop” is a Thrill Ride of a Game Show
Fox debuts its adaptation of the hit British quiz show The Million Pound Drop, now called Million Dollar Money Drop, this coming Monday, December 20th, at 8:00PM ET on Fox. If you've read around here whatever then you've seen the British version or at least know of it. There were some initial fears of how the show would be adapted for American audiences. Fox provided us a screener of the first episode. I'm happy to report that beyond a few visual changes, Million Dollar Money Drop is virtually the same as its international counterparts and is every bit as tense and dramatic. Click here to read more about the show.
Read MoreView Comments (34)24Jun2010
Review: Wheel of Fortune Platinum for iOS
Wheel of Fortune has seen about 450,000 different iterations of at-home play. From the Nintendo Entertainment System to desktop models to the PS3 and your local casino, people love playing Hangman for money. The iOS version of America's Game for the iPhone and iPod Touch was released not too long ago, and it is one the better iterations of a game show on the App Store, far surpassing the lazy hack job of the first Wheel of Fortune iPhone game. (more...)
Read MoreView Comments (10)22Jun2010
“Downfall” is Pretty Good, But Should Have Learned from “Russian Roulette”
Downfall: 7 out of 10. Downfall debuted tonight on ABC. I liked the show, but what did you think? The game is pretty simple. The game works very well. It's fun to play along with and very tense and dramatic. The idea of speeding up the belt for each pass is nice, too. The game's simple but works and that's the best kind of game. The show looks nice. Chris Jericho is actually a pretty good host. I mean, really, there are very few complaints I have with the actual game or anything like that. There are a few tonal issues, though, which hurt the show a bit. Incidentally each of these issues could have been seen by watching the other drop show Russian Roulette. There are some cardinal rules that would have been wise to look over when comparing them. Most of these rules come from the fact that they really just could not seem to figure out how to play the show...as a comedy or a tense, scary show.
Read MoreView Comments (29)12Jun2010
UK Weekend Replay: “Take It or Leave It”
The word of NBC's newest pilot Who's Bluffing Who had me remembering a slightly popular UK game show Take It or Leave It. I say slightly because it was on Challenge which is the UK equivalent of GSN so imagine popularity in those terms. Actually GSN was developing this but it didn't get too far, but more on that later. The part of Who's Bluffing Who that had me remembering Take It the most is the entire money box situation. In this NBC show the money boxes, or safes, have absolutely no bearing on the show whatsoever. They are just there to give people extra money and do not have a hint of influence on the income or a win-or-lose situation which seems a bit strange to me.
Read MoreLeave a Comment07Jun2010
“Late Night Liars” Brings Old School Panel Shows to the 21st Century
GSN's Late Night Liars is coming soon. It's an old style panel comedy game show, but instead of celebrity panelists they go for puppets from Jim Henson Company instead and with Larry Miller hosting. It debuts June 10th at 11:00PM ET. This is going to be the most selfish review I've ever done, just to warn you.
Read MoreView Comments (13)02Mar2010
“Minute to Win It” Review: Not Bad, But Too Bland For Its Own Good
So if you read the site which I assume you do since you're reading this, you've read what I've had to say about NBC's new game show Minute to Win It. I want to clear something up. I've criticized the direction the show has taken. Other news organizations know how identical it is to The Cube. The host, Guy Fieri, even mentioned it today in a conference call. But I didn't know how the show would end up. NBC amazingly wanted to send me a press kit for it. First off for all the bad stuff I've said about how it's royally ripped off ITV, I expected it to be spiders in the box or something. It's actually a "home game", with a bunch of food, drink, and other objects to play with. Good touch, and I'll explain why soon.
Read MoreView Comments (64)06Oct2009
Review: “Let’s Make A Deal” Pretty Good, But CBS Picked the Wrong Game Show
By now I'm guessing a good deal of you have seen CBS's revival of the classic game show Let's Make A Deal starring Wayne Brady. I finally saw it online a bit ago and it left me with mix feelings. If you know of the classic version at all then you know this. It's the same exact show, where people trade supposedly useless or hidden items for what may be behind a door, curtain, or box. Prizes can range from cash, cars, camels, and more. At the end of the show host Wayne Brady goes through the day's biggest dealers and asks if they want to trade away what they've won during the show for a chance at the Big Deal which is in excess of $20,000 generally it seems. Only o
Read MoreView Comments (73)20Jul2009
A Look at ABC’s “Shark Tank”
We've been talking a lot about Who Wants to be a Millionaire's return on August 9th, but there's another show airing after that which deserves to be discussed. It's a Japanese/British import called Shark Tank. If you get BBC America you may have seen it on there before as Dragon's Den. I really don't know what to describe this show. It's not really a complete game show, it's not really a complete reality show, it's not really a complete drama. It's definitely unscripted. It's just a mix of all of them. I wasn't a fan of Dragon's Den for some reason. I don't think it was converting it to American so I can relate more or maybe it's because I didn't give Dragon's
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