BuzzerBlog

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.  They also sent a screener copy.  And I swear this is not me selling out but it’s been my mentality from the start: Minute to Win It is not that bad, it’s just nothing great, original, or tense.  In other words put Beat the Clock on the Deal or No Deal set, and this is what you have.

I’ve gone over the game a lot.  Play ten different games, not stunts as covert commenters connected to the show have pointed out repeatedly, and complete each in 60 seconds to win $1,000,000.  Once you finish the $50,000 game you can’t leave with less than that.  You get three “Lives” to fall back on if you fail, and once you run out, you lose.  You cannot leave once you fail a game.  If you commit to playing, you’re in for the win or leaving whatever your fall-back point in.  We’ve pointed out every single part that is similar to the UK version, so no point in rehashing those format points.  There’s really nothing to give opinion on about this.  If you know Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s format and enjoy it, you’ll like this.  It’s the safest format in the world and the type that tends to do well, so no issues.  The bad thing is I did end up playing along with the show with what they gave me, so damn you, NBC.  You win this round.

The problem comes from everything else but the game.  It’s utterly bland and stereotypical.  The A.V. Club, as I said yesterday, brought this up better than I could have, so I’ll just go over it again.  There’s no telling this show apart from Deal or No Deal or Millionaire on face value.  It’s obvious that both this and The Cube take stuff directly from the classic game Beat the Clock.  The difference is Minute to Win It plays it so safe with the production that you don’t get wrapped up into it.  The Cube oozes with atmosphere, and the presentation and feel of it is the only thing that keeps it from turning up, well, like Minute to Win It.  Minute is just so bland and stereotypical.  It does nothing to stand apart from other game shows, and if you’ve noticed shows that fit in with the crowd disappear quickly.

The other issue comes from Guy Fieri.  He seems to do fine when he’s interacting with the contestant, helping them out, or explaining stuff.  He does fine with the general hosting.  When he talks to the viewer via the handi-cam during some games, I had to fast forward.  He got just a bit irritating.  I’ve never seen him before this, but I heard it from others and I didn’t know what to expect.  Now I do.  To bring it back to the stereotypical point, when he’s hosting you cannot tell him apart from your Howie Mandels or your Bob Sagets.  Finally, I want to mention the audience.  I can take the loud, involved audiences.  I adore the loud, involved audiences.  This one went a bit far, though if you pay people $10 to sit in one I’d jump like a maniac also.  They were giving people standing, jumping ovations for a $2,500 win or $5,000 win.  Come on, really?  People booed $100,000 on Deal or No Deal and now you expect me to believe people are naturally in tears over someone else winning $2,500?  Not a chance.

So in review, Minute to Win It is not a bad show and I do encourage you to watch it.  The game is fine.  Everything else isn’t so fine.  By sticking to the mold and not attempting to be remotely original, they’ve become another face in the crowd that’s going to go away quickly.  When you give people no memorable references, people forget you.  Millionaire was hugely different when it came out.  Deal or No Deal was really different.  The Cube is incredibly different.  Minute to Win It is too bland for its own good, and no decent game play can help that.

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 one person can be selected and that person takes home whatever is behind one of the three big doors.

Starting with the positives: Wayne Brady and co-host Johnathan Magnum did fantastic together.  They had a great chemistry together which is needed.  It didn’t seem like a typical game show because of this.  It seemed like a Las Vegas stage show which is pretty appropriate since that’s where it tapes and it fits with the feel.  The set was really great and kept a classic look while updating it to 2009.  The prizes were fine overall, contestants were fine, games were fine.

I do have to comment on something a ton of people complained about, though.  In the classic version, two Dealers got a chance at the Big Deal.  In this version, only one does.  Is there a reason people are complaining about it so much because I don’t see it.  I think it’s a bit hypocritical for some of the people who complain about the Price is Right fans freaking out about really dumb stuff to complain that they aren’t doing this exactly how the classic version did.  It’s extremely obvious they are doing this from a budgetary standpoint and it makes sense.  Otherwise odds are they’d be giving away a $20K+ Big Deal plus $8K-$10K to the other player.  That’s a lot for the budget.  Is there some actual reason a lot of people are complaining or is this another case of, “I want this revived specifically as it was in the 70s,” because if this is the biggest problem for a lot of you, they did a fantastic job with the show.

I only saw two real issues with the actual show.  One of them was the money being tossed around.  I really can’t believe it’s 2009 and we’re tempting people with around $300-$1,000; which is basically the same amount they had in the 70’s.  I’m not asking to be trading $10,000 constantly but come on.  It made it seem like a joke.  Also the show stretched unbelievably long in that hour.  Half way through the show I was pretty bored and fast forwarding to anything that looked remotely interesting.  I get CBS’s logic with the 60 minute Let’s Make A Deal but it just didn’t work out that well.  But overall the mechanics of the show were as good as I could have hoped for.

Like I said, the mechanics were fine but something just felt really off with the show.  Let’s Make A Deal didn’t seem like a big deal or anything special.  The similarities to The Price is Right are bound to be drawn.  I know this came first but I couldn’t help but think Deal or No Deal constantly as well.  I kept thinking, “People are tossing away $30,000 like nothing on Deal or No Deal and they are trying to draw out tension in trading away $300 on Let’s Make a Deal?  No thanks.”  We’ve had the two elements of this shown driven into our skulls endlessly already.  Again I know LMAD came first but I just couldn’t help but think this was nothing that great.

It’s why I truly think CBS flat out chose the wrong game show for the daytime slot.  Watching this today made it unbelievably evident it should have been The $1,000,000 Pyramid instead.  This isn’t favoritism talking.  I mean Deal or No Deal is on so many times a day and The Price is Right is on right around the same time as this new show.  It felt like nothing that I need to be around to watch, and that is going to hurt the show in the long run.  There was nothing here that made me want to make sure I was around for the next show.  I’ll be watching when I can but it was just, “Eh,” for lack of a better grunt.  Pyramid is different enough from everything else on television right now to get a bit more attention and it becomes appointment television during the big money finals.  To repeat: I’m well aware that CBS chose this because it was the easiest to abuse at the hour time slot and the whole product placement, but it was just the wrong decision.

So there we have it.  I’ll keep watching if I’m around because I really want to see new daytime game shows but they did nothing to really impress me.  It felt like the same old, same old.  We’ve seen this before and we see it for hours on end each day already.  In the end it just felt like a really missed opportunity for CBS to really get some more attention.  I wish Let’s Make A Deal all the luck in the world and I want it to succeed very badly.  Like I said, it’s a good show and they did just about everything they could correct with a few minor exceptions.  But it just felt like nothing special and irrelevant at this time.  Am I alone in thinking this?  Pretty good show all-in-all but just left a neutral feeling on me.

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 Den enough of a chance (I’m leaning towards this option), but I actually enjoyed Shark Tank quite a bit.

The show is as easy as it gets.  An entrepreneur goes in front of five rich tycoons (the Sharks) and tries to convince them to invest in his or her idea or product.  There may be a bidding way, negotiation, or flat out rejection.  The Sharks aren’t here to help you realize your dream in some nice display of human affection.  They are here to first and foremost make money, so they will be dealing with the individual to get the most out of the product they can, or the deal is off.  You may get what you want or you may be laughed out of the room.  It’s all up to how you can handle the pressure of the situation.  Do you compromise to get the money you want, or do you hold to your convictions and leave the room with no money?  It’s all up to you.

First off, this show is an actual business pitch.  There’s no phony business here.  As someone who has pitched shows before, it’s remarkable how familiar the feeling was.  These entrepreneurs walk into the pitch meeting seeming confident and a bit cocky.  That goes out the window incredibly quick as soon as the Sharks get involved.  The show’s an interesting look into the mind of these business people.  As I said, the Sharks are there to make money and they will be reworking your offer to make it work for them.  It could mean giving them as much as half your business for hundreds of thousands of dollars, when they came in offering only 10%.  Do these people give up half of their company for the money or try to do it elsewhere?

This show’s clearly not going to be for everyone, and to be quite frank I’m stunned ABC is airing it in the Fall.  It’s not a high-energy exciting show.  It’s a very quiet, contemplative,  low key show.  The show is dripping in atmosphere and it is pretty tense, but I’m not really sure if the general public is going to latch on.  They may, though, because it really shows a big portion of the American dream that we hear so much about these days.  These people come in here pouring every ounce of their energy into the product and there’s a very good chance it’s going to get turned down.  That’s another thing to remember.  I know some people around here really do not like any mean-ness in shows like this and don’t like people laughing at others, but it does happen here.  It’s not mean spirited, though.  It’s brutal honesty.  The show’s all about brutal honesty.  If your product sucks, the Sharks will tell you flat out to your face.

It’s an interesting show and if you’re interested in what pitches look like I’d recommend watching it.  It starts airing August 9th at 9:00PM ET, after Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and it’s really a fantastic following show.  Again, it’s definitely not for everyone, and I’m really interested to see how it does in the Fall schedule.  However, it’s far better than most of the unscripted crap we’ve seen in the past few years and worth checking out.

I don’t think you have to be a regular reader to know that I wasn’t a fan of the original 20Q pilot shot for syndication.  When I heard GSN picked it up, I had low expectations.  Before the tapings began the network tried to make me excited for it.  They said how much they improved it and all that stuff, but I still wasn’t sold.  I know there may be some people, especially at the network, who think I’m negative about a lot of stuff they do (which isn’t true since I’ve only been really negative about Big Saturday Night so far, but I digress).  I have to make a u-turn on my original thoughts and feelings of 20Q, airing Saturdays at 8:00PM ET on GSN.  I went in not expecting anything much and came up pretty happy.  A lot more happy than I expected, actually.  GSN did a terrific job with 20Q.  As I’ll repeat below, it’s one of the many cases of me being really wrong and GSN being really right.

The game’s really simple.  Contestants try to guess a person, place, or thing based on questions and clues given to them.  This is done in numerous ways.  The grand champion plays the game against the computer, Mr. Q..  If the player solves it before the computer, the player wins $20,000.  Really simple show, but it works in its favor.  You know the basic idea of it, and if they kept to one method of doing the format it would tire quickly.  They throw some variations in often to mix it up, and it panned out nicely.  I couldn’t help but feel that parts of the show felt like the former Canadian game show (and current US syndicated show if it’s in your area) Inside the Box, but that’s a good thing.  The play-along value for this show is immense.  You can’t help but interact.

I’ve been a vocal fan of Cat Deeley since she did a guest-hosting stint on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and when I heard she was replacing the original 20Q host Joey Lawrence, I was overjoyed.  I’m glad I wasn’t let down.  She just had fun and acted like herself here.  It was great.  She’s one of the better hosts the network has.  I had a few problems with Mr. Q., though.  I felt like it was a waste paying the money for Hal Sparks as either you know it’s him and find the entire production of the giant 20Q ball corny, or you don’t know it’s him and it throws the entire man against computer vibe off.  I appreciate what they tried to do, but if the show comes back I’d honestly rather see them use a computerized voice type of system.  Or process Hal Sparks’s voice a bit.

The only actual major issue I had with the show is that it seemed pretty slow and drawn out.  This can be the result of a few things.  For starters, the show was originally a half hour long and they stretched it to an hour for the primetime block.  Again, they tried to mix it up but I can’t help but think it would have worked better in half hour form.  The drawn-out nature really comes from the entire Big Saturday Night aspect as well.  I like that GSN tried something new, but I was fearful of the shows when they said they were stretching the BSN shows to 90 minutes each to fit in more filler.  Looking at the clock they only got about 9-10 minutes of 20Q down in the first half hour.  I’ll be watching the show on the Sunday afternoon replays this week to see how it goes.  The other issue I had, and it’s minor, is that selecting a row of contestants from the audience (the first round) at random and letting one of that group of 7 or so play the game seems really needless.  I don’t think it would have worked any worse to just have around 20 players, to keep with the theme, all play and the first to buzz in and answer correctly goes on stage.  The show is really luck-less except for that one part.  It’s not a giant issue, but it’s just something to think about.

Just one final issue, and I think it may be due to Big Saturday Night and hopefully with a second season of 20Q it can change.  I can’t help but think that the $20,000 grand prize is cheap since you have shows like Bingo America and Catch 21 giving you the chance at far more than that daily.  I can’t speak for everyone here but I’d think that a vast majority would rather see the top prize of 20Q increase from less than the daily shows instead of giving away $10,000 a pop in tiny 30 second games during BSN.  It’s really strange seeing random people plucked from the audience spelling three letter words for around $10,000 or $15,000.  Meanwhile you have people in a giant hour-long fight for $20,000, not much more, on the actual show.

However, beyond that, I actually enjoyed the show.  This is one of those cases where I’m really wrong and GSN is really right.  It’s vastly improved from the pilot but the pacing just suffers a bit because of dragging the show out for an extra half hour due to Big Saturday Night.  They really hit the two game shows for the BSN block (20Q and The Money List) out of the park; more so than they have in a while.  I know I make fun of Endemol a lot also because of their track record, but this is one of their better game show efforts in a long time.  I’d really like to see GSN have a little more faith in this show if it has a second season, increase the prize a bit, and iron out a few rough edges.  I think they can really start a fantastic primetime game show tradition anchored by this show and The Money List if so.  I be lying if I said 20Q is better than The Money List, but with a few major tweaks from pilot to broadcast, it ended up being a nice little show.

Back in August a British audience casting website listed information for new episodes of a game show called Who Dares Wins, which in America is better known as the quickly canceled FOX quizzer The Rich List. Luckily we have fantastic readers from England who went to the taping and found out it was a GSN revival called The Money List taping on the British set. Ten months later, the show is set to debut. On June 13th at 9:30PM ET, after nearly a year of waiting, The Money List, hosted by Fred Roggin, is part of GSN’s Big Saturday Night promotion, following 20Q. I’m a fan of some of GSN’s new programming like Catch 21 and Newlywed Game but nothing has really been appointment viewing on the network since Grand Slam. I’m glad there’s finally a show I can get fully behind again.

If you know the FOX version, your opinion will most likely generate from your liking or hatred of the one episode that network aired. The GSN version is the same, just using the British money chain. Two teams, comprised of strangers, bet how many items in a list they can name. Lists can be anywhere from “Mariah Carey Hits” to “Female Grand Slam Tennis Champions” to “European Capitals”. A challenged team must fulfill the bet they placed to claim the list, and if they don’t the other team gets it. The first team to claim two lists plays “The Money List”, where they have to name up to fifteen items in a category. They can stop after every three and take the money they earned, but getting all fifteen earns the team $50,000. Any money won on a Money List is theirs to keep no matter what and best of all, they get to return the next game and keep winning. There’s no limit to the amount that can be won.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to see a big money quiz show on GSN again that’s not some special event. It’s been so long. It really has been since Russian Roulette or WinTuition around 2002-2003, hasn’t it? There hasn’t been a show which actually demands anything of higher than basic intelligence since Grand Slam a few years back so it was such a relief to see a mix of basic pop culture as well as actual academic trivia. $50,000 for winning the end game is fine. I’m overjoyed that GSN kept the returning champions rule. It’s something they do unbelievably rarely and it really adds a lot to this show. There’s a good chance you’ll be seeing some six figure winning teams here. It’s so refreshing to see GSN throw money at a format. It doesn’t happen that often and it makes a world of difference.

The main issue I had with the FOX version was how drawn out it was. It’s why I’m glad to see the show have two full games, including two Money Lists, each show. In the screener copy I was sent, the pause between answers really didn’t seem like it took more than ten or fifteen seconds. The show still is drawn out in a few awkward places, like in the middle of a list when it’s clear a team is going to win, but I’ll take that if it means I don’t have to sit through a minute of agonizing thought for something that’s not brutally hard.  The only issue I really have with the show is the dragging-out, though.  It’s blatantly clear they could fit a lot of games in if they cut out a lot of the stalling.  They really could fit another game in there most likely.  However, this is such a part of modern game shows that I’ve given up fighting it.  As long as it’s not painfully drawn out I’m fine.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve already gone over The Newlywed Game which made the really interesting change from fantastic live show to “eh” televised edition.  Now on to what is my favorite show GSN’s done in quite some time, and looking at some figures apparently a lot of you agree with me.  Catch 21, which has its second season debut on Monday, April 6th, at 6:30PM ET has a long, interesting record at GSN.  It was a pilot called Casino eons ago.  GSN passed on it originally but around five or so years later decided to come back to it.  Season one had its issues, most of which has to do with the presentation and production of the show.  I was so relieved to find out most of those changes are fixed for season two.

The look of the show has been redone to be a more modern looking show, and it’s a nice look.  Essentially combine the season one front game and end game set and remove most of the bulkiness and that’s what you get here.  Everything’s smoother, sleeker, and much better looking.  Even the hosts got a wardrobe change.  The biggest complaint for season one, from all of the emails and comments, seemed to be the really dumb set change from the front game to the end game.  Everything’s all in one package this season which is a relief.  Plus there’s a much larger audience meaning you’ll have a lot of interaction and cheering which was sorely missed from season one.  You can’t get the excitement out of a 20 person audience that you can from a 200 person one.

Game play wise, everything stayed basically the same.  The only change(s) come in the end game.  An additional power chip is given for winning the game, so you get up to four.  It should help contestants win a bit more.  Some more changes are coming later in the season as well.  I’m not really supposed to say what they are.  I hinted at it before a few posts back.  I didn’t scratch the surface of what they will do.  Also I heard that the first 21 of the game will receive a bonus prize.  I wasn’t told if it would be for the entire season or just later in the season due to a few circumstances, but it’s coming.

I’ve got to talk about the hosts for a moment.  I’ve always thought Alfonso Ribiero did a nice job on the show.  I constantly hear things about his volume, and I just don’t see it.  I really don’t think half of the complainers do either.  There seems to be a thing in really any community, like the game show community, where if one person who has some authority says something others will take that person’s opinion to be liked and avoid arguments.  I just don’t see the volume issue.  He got excited.  I never heard shouting.  If that was your definition of shouting, then you may be a bit sheltered.  He’s not the best thing on earth or some hidden treasure, but he does well in the format.

The real star for me, especially after I talked to her on Friday, is co-host Mikki Padilla.  Never in my years of doing this have I talked to someone so enthusiastic and excited about hosting, and it shows.  It showed in season one and it shows even more this season.  I’ve never talked to a host who can remember specific contestant’s names and their specific cards from specific episode numbers even in season one.  I really hope more people use her.  Mikki has such enthusiasm and love for this show and you rarely get that.

There are still a few issues which haven’t been ironed out, but it doesn’t begin to distract.  The scoring system is a little goofy but it’s not like it creates unfair advantages or damages the game.  The only change I wish they really would have added is letting the champion place all of their cards.  Placing the first three cards automatically is a bit cheap.  However, again, it doesn’t really distract.  It just makes me say, “Huh?  Whatever.”  Catch 21 is very entertaining and it’s incredibly improved in this new season.  Be sure to check out the season debut of Catch 21 Monday, April 6th, at 6:30PM ET and 10:30PM ET on GSN.  And do not miss the show later in the season.  A lot of twists, turns, and surprises will be coming up.

For the next two days we’ll focus on GSN’s big upcoming day: Monday, April 6th.  GSN has two launches coming out.  The one I’m more excited for, Catch 21, we’ll cover tomorrow.  But today we’ll stick with The Newlywed Game which debuts Monday, April 6th, at 6:00PM ET on GSN.  I almost feel a bit bad.  I really hyped it up during the set visits, and I stick by that.  On set it was a very entertaining, funny, interesting show.  Carnie Wilson, the new host, was very quick and amusing, which is all you can ask for from a host for this.  It seemed to go great.  But then we got the DVD screeners.  It’s the first show I’ve ever experienced that’s so much better in person than on television.  The show was directed beautifully, produced great; everything was great in person.  It carries the general Embassy Row stamp of excellence.  But something happened when it got to the editing room.

First, the positives, and there are a lot to talk about.  The show plays exactly like The Newlywed Game.  No unnecessary changes were made.  Yeah the set’s a bit small but if you saw the size of the studio in New York City, where studio space is hard to come by, they really did the absolute best they could.  I wish they’d show the turntable spinning more, but what can you do.  Basically anything that you loved about the old version is here.  It feels like The Newlywed Game and it plays like The Newlywed Game.  It’s impossible to create the magic of the original version of any show.  I’m not a fan of the general Newlywed Game format in any version, but I left the show entertained which is all I can ask for.  Nothing was tasteless and it was in general really funny.  There are some hysterical answers; I can’t wait until you guys hear them.  It’s the first time I’ve ever had to walk out of a TV studio I was laughing so hard.  Just wait for, “Australia.”  I will never forget it as long as I live.  I watch The Newlywed Game to laugh.  Very few watch The Newlywed Game for the gameplay.  The show makes me laugh.  It should make you laugh.  There’s not a lot more you can ask for from the entire package of The Newlywed Game.

The show’s fine up until the final five minutes, where they decide to throw in a completely needless and boring end game that doesn’t work at all.  It takes up five minutes of the front game which could be used for joking around and just generally having more fun.  Instead what they end up with is an extremely rushed front game which is missing so much of what made the live show enjoyable.  They also really screwed over Carnie Wilson with the end game.  In the edited television version, because they have to basically cut everything they can to fit in the end game, she seems pretty stale and repetitive and rushed.  It seems like she never engages the players at all and does nothing more then read the question, ask for the answer, and move on.  In person did seriously did fine.  I don’t know what they did with the editing to fit in the end game, but they really cut out a lot of her charm and humor.  She interacted with the contestants, she joked around, she was just generally fun.  But they edit her to nothing more than question reader and that alone.

So that’s what to expect from the show.  The first 25 minutes are pretty fun, funny, and enjoyable.  The last five minutes drags it to a halt and again, it’s really in the best interest of the show to remove that so quickly next season.  It didn’t help anything.  I’m glad they are embracing the past of the show.  Find another way to do it.  It didn’t work here.  I was told by an extremely influential game show producer in a pitch that not every show needs an end game, and he wishes more shows which really don’t require one wouldn’t tack one on.  The exact opposite is happening here.  Everything else is pretty fine.  But by trying to fit in that final five minutes, they edit out what makes Carnie Wilson great and they edit a lot out of The Newlywed Game’s trademark humor.  If the show comes back for a second season and you are in New York City, I can’t urge you enough to go see the show.  On television it just doesn’t carry the same punch.  Don’t get me wrong, I did think the show was still fun and definitely worth a watch.  But it was just a bit sad to see such a fun show in person edited to breakneck speed to fit in really unnecessary items.

I give it a three out of five.

Back after the very very long break, which was needed.  As always, thanks for hanging in.  But we start with something I’m not overly happy with.  Did you remember that CBS was burning off, I mean airing Game Show in My Head, starting this past Saturday?  I totally forgot.  Did anyone find it just completely void of any fun or comedy?  I did.  It’s become a common trend in today’s game shows.  Nothing was overtly and horrible wrong.  But nothing was really good either.  And it makes for a blah half hour.

Joe Rogan seemed uncomfortable and I’m sure he was overjoyed that he was the 2nd choice of a host since he had to replace Chris Kattan, whose only major notable thing was Mango on Saturday Night Live, from the pilot.  Part of some fun with these hidden camera stunt shows is getting unsuspecting people involved and making them believe it.  An old Spike show, Oblivious, handled this perfectly.  But when you ask people to marry you, a process which doesn’t happen in five minutes except in Vegas, it loses and sense of reality.  I always hate to be an advocate of bigger money, but shows that have a top prize of a GSN show seem really cheap in primetime.  Horribly cheap.  I’m not asking for each show to have a million dollar top prize, but when Game Show in My Head’s big winner took home what a loser on Wheel of Fortune gets, it was pretty sad.

But I can bring up one positive.  I absolutely despise the current trend of stand alone game shows.  It ruins whatever drama of a contestant going all the way because you can clearly see no one will be answering ten more questions in five minutes.  But this show doesn’t need it because it doesn’t have the drama to pump out.  It’s a turn your brain off half hour that realizes what it is.  You have to give that credit.  It’s not like Show Me the Money (which looking shows we’ve had to suffer through like Bingo Night and Set For Life, I really took for granted) where a really cheesy show was played way too dramatically.

But that’s not enough to save it.  Game Show in My Head, which has been in development hell for nearly two years, is a summer burnoff because it’s cheap.  CBS still has six episodes of a game show called Do You Trust Me? which they haven’t aired for over a year because it’s a big money show and they’ll have to pay people hundreds of thousands.  Here they just give away around $30,000.  I’d really like to see some brighter, happier, more comedic, and just plain fun game shows again, but this just doesn’t fit the bill.  And judging by the ratings it didn’t make many happy.

What did you all think?

I finally got around to watching GSN’s new one time game show Think Like a Cat, or as I affectionately called it, Freaking Million Dollar Cat Game Show.  After seeing the episode, I think I’ll just continue referring to it as Freaking Million Dollar Cat Game Show.  I hope GSN got a good deal of money for doing the episode and use it to make new episodes of a good show like Catch 21 or Lingo or Bingo America or something, because this was rough.

We’ve been over the rules often, but it’s so crazy it needs repetition.   Eight cats line up on an incredibly small race track, each in their own lane.  First three to make it to a bowl of food at the end of the lane move on.  Owners of the three cats play cat Jeopardy! at this point.  Highest scoring two members play what is essentially cat Newlywed Game.  Sole surviving cat and the owner each choose one bag from the ten available.  If the symbols inside each bag match (only two of the ten actually match), they win a million dollars.

I was hoping I was wrong about this.  I was hoping it could have been so insane and funny that it was enjoyable.  But it wasn’t.  It was just really rough.  First, sorry to all involved with the production, but the show looked really cheap.  Probably the cheapest looking GSN show I’ve seen since the first official season of Lingo and the cheapest million dollar game show I’ve ever seen.  If they had an audience, it’s the most canned one I’ve ever heard.  Couldn’t they have gotten a larger set too?  I mean I’m guessing Catch 21 doesn’t have a large set, much like Lingo, but this looks so unbelievably tiny.

Host Chuck Woolery looks incredibly awkward and out of place the entire show.  I don’t know if he really was or if it’s just how he was edited, but it’s a big drop from Lingo to this.  He seemed really bored too.  Contestants weren’t bad but my jaw was just dropped at how seriously they were trying to make cats look.  And there’s the main issue of the show.  It’s taken too seriously.  Not comedic seriously.  Like, “Why are they pretending Cat Deal or No Deal is life or death?”  Like I said before, I hope Freaking Million Dollar Cat Game Show earns (or earned) GSN a lot of money so we can see some more episodes of deserving shows.  Unless you’re freakishly obsessed with cats, I don’t see the general public, or even the core game show audience, enjoying this.  It’s an infomercial, without an audience, gone awry.

Tonight at 10:00PM ET sees the return of Gong Show on Comedy Central.  It’s hosted by Dave Attell, and you will see judges Brian Posehn, triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and Steve Schrippa and in the future will be Adam Carolla, Kate Walsh, Andy Dick, Ron White, Dave Navaro, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton and JB Smoove.  From the previews it looks to be a really entertaining show.  I’ve noticed that we have a lot of advocates for family friendly non offensive television that roam these parts, so just be warned that it’s going to be dirty.  But hey, dirty humor is good in my book.  Be sure to leave your review of it here.

GSN needs a hit.  Badly.  How Much is Enough?, which I still feel bad about giving a remotely positive review about after just one episode, bombed.  Bingo America is fine enough but obviously cares much more about the bingo players at home than the actual game, and that hurts the final product.  Catch 21 has a long history with GSN.  Pitched years ago under the title Casino, the network went back to it for some help.  I have some good news: Catch 21 is actually really good and a lot of fun!

Catch 21 is very simple.  Each player is dealt one card face up.  A question is asked, and the first player to buzz in with the right answer gets 100 points.  A new card is shown, and that player can choose to keep that card or pass it off to another player.  If you keep the card, you get the option to freeze.  If you’re the only player not to bust, have the highest card total by the time everyone freezes or busts, or you get 21 first, you get 500 more.  Lowest score after round two is eliminated.  In the final head to head round, all points are done away with and the player who gets 21 first, doesn’t bust, or gets the highest card total wins $1,000 and plays the end game.

Catch 21’s end game is equally as simple.  Whoever wins gets one Power Chip for each round they won.  Three columns of cards are dealt with one card face up in each.  A card is shown, and you can either place it in one of the available columns or get rid of it using a Power Chip, if you have any.  Catching the first 21 gives you an additional $1,000.  Catching a second 21 will turn that $1,000 into $5,000 (If you stop, you leave with $6,000).  However, if you catch all three 21s, you leave with $25,000.


 

Both hosts, Alfonso Ribeiro and Mikki Padilla were fine, though Mikki was a lot rougher.  Alfonso could use to improvise a bit more as well instead of relying so much off teleprompters.  It’s not like Grand Slam where every second is insanely fast paced trivia.  It’s a laid back show, and both hosts could really use to show that more.   Presentation wise, the set’s nice and bright which is a refreshing change; that is until the end game.  I don’t know what happened, but they play the end game on a totally different set than what the front game is on.  I really don’t think that was necessary, but whatever.  If you watched our Casino video we posted a bit ago, you can see exactly the software the show uses.  Every device used in Casino is used in Catch 21, and it works great.

I don’t really know what to suggest for the front game, it works fine.  However, the point system is a bit annoying when players win $1,000 after getting somewhere between 1300 and 1600 points.  I would think they could have figured out a way to make the game use dollars.   Yeah it’s a budget move to save a few hundred bucks per episode, that’s very clear, but it just comes off as insanely cheap when the difference between points and the actual win is only a few hundred.  It’s the same issue Lingo had.  On Casino, you had to answer a question correctly to freeze, and I did like that.  I’m not disappointed to see it go persay, but it would have been nice.  Again, in the end game, I really don’t know what to include.  As far as game play goes, the end game works and emulates the Catch 21 online casual game they are trying to plug.  It could stand to be a bit quicker though, seems to drag.

I can’t really fault the pacing that much, though, since it was a rough cut.  And in terms of the dozens and dozens of rough cuts GSN has sent me, this is by far the best.  Catch 21 would have been a hit when it was originally pitched over five years ago, and it should be a hit now.  It’s a great update to the old game show Gambit and definitely emulates it perfectly.  As with most other decent shows on the air today, it just really needs some help presentation wise.  Catch 21 is perfect summer fun for GSN.

Do you remember when we talked about a “Price” PC game in development? Well, after a long wait, it has been released to the public.

I must say, it’s pretty good. Graphics are good-looking,

There’s only a couple of minor issues. First, the prizes are video clips from actual aired shows, so there’s a very small chance that somebody playing may have that episode on tape, and can then guess the ARP exactly. Second, it would be nice to have keyboard support for typing in bids. Clicking on “hidden arrows” up and down gets the job done, but it’s not the way the average user would expect to enter numbers on a PC game.

The complete list of pricing games:

• 3 Strikes
• Bonkers
• Check-Out
• Cliffhangers
• Flip Flop
• Freeze Frame
• Hole in One (or Two)
• It’s in the Bag
• Master Key
• Money Game
• Plinko
• Punch-A-Bunch
• Push Over
• Race Game
• Range Game
• Shell Game

Overall, I give the game 4/5. Try it out first, then buy it if you like it. I certainly did. :-DLudia’s “The Price is Right” software is available as a 30-minute free trial or as a $19.99 purchase (plus applicable sales tax). Download it here.

As a tip: You can skip through Rich’s explanation of Contestant’s Row, the pricing games, etc., by clicking anywhere in the main portion of the screen. However, you cannot skip through prize descriptions (unless you bid on the first showcase, which will then produce a “Skip” button to click on during the second).

As I recently said, I really mis-reviewed How Much is Enough? and I do apologize and hope you’ll still believe me for some of my reviews. Because of that last horrible judgement on my part, I was a tiny bit afraid of Bingo America. It had three check marks which made me afraid. One, again, my wrong opinion of How Much is Enough?. Two, it’s well documented that I truly think National Bingo Night is the worst game show in ages. Three, I really find bingo to be boring and stale to begin with. Luckily the producers of ABC’s primetime screw up retooled their show from the dreck that it was and created a fast paced fun little quiz show that is almost a full package.

The game is really really simple. $500 is put into the game’s jackpot at the start of the game. A ball is taken from the gigantic hopper that survived from ABC. At-home players mark it off their card ($50 goes to you if you get a bingo. Not bad if you ask me.). After the ball is placed on a glowing stand by co-host Crystal Wallasch, main host Patrick Duffy asks a question with no choices. A right answer adds the number of the ball into the game jackpot (in dollars obviously) and puts the letter on the ball on your board. If you miss, your opponent gets a free shot. All you have to do is spell BINGO to win a game. Two games gives you the jackpot and the right to play for $100,000. If a game takes a long time to complete, they switch to a two-choice question format after each ball is drawn to speed it up. For the bonus, there are 75 numbers. The champ picks numbers randomly off the board, and the first pair he or she matches (whether it be trips, prizes, or cash up to $100,000) is what he or she takes home in addition to the main game jackpot. At-home players have to bonus numbers on their downloaded card. If the studio player calls both of those numbers, the at-home player is a winner.

Let’s start with the set and music. Not much to say about the music, it’s stereotypical current game show music. Much better than the overly synthesized How Much is Enough? music but nothing to write home about like Lingo’s. The set is nice but again, the same as everything else today. It looks like a bruise; all black and blue. The huge hopper is there which is a nice touch. Also, it’s a GSN show with an audience! I know I gripe a lot about audiences, but you can’t fake the enthusiasm on a set with a canned audience. The graphics are also very nice too.

The hosts are good for the most part. Patrick Duffy keeps it going but has little time for any interaction or fun because of the constant throws to the at-home players. Truthfully, I got sick of it after a bit. I get the point and I think most of America gets the point of how to mark numbers off a card. A reminder in the beginning and middle of an act will suffice, not every five seconds. Co-host Crystal Wallasch is plays practically the same role the model on ABC’s version did, just taking the balls out of the chute and saying the number. They are sure to bill her on advertisements, press packs, and the website, but she does little beyond just stand there and shuts up. At least give her something to do. Talk to her for a few seconds, just something. Her job could have easily been done by Patrick the way they are doing it now.

The front game is actually pretty enjoyable. I think it’s worth noting that this is GSN’s first straight quiz show in a long long time. No word game here, it’s all quiz. The money is not bad at all. I’d expect to see game jackpots in the area of $1,250 to $2,000. It’s more than any other main game on GSN gives away to a person. The trivia questions are things you should know but often don’t which is nice as well. It’s a challenge, but not so much that it becomes frustrating like Camouflage. They move through it briskly as well so there’s little boredom.

One big step up from the ABC version is the fact that you don’t have to play the actual bingo game to participate. You can answer the questions and play along as well as marking off the cards if you choose. One small thing bugs me about the main game presentation, though. Every time they draw a ball they have to cue the dramatic lighting and music. At the start of the round is fine, but every 25 seconds for each ball, again, gets old very quickly.

Where the show drops the ball big time is in the end game. They go from a fast paced quiz show with a bingo aspect to complete luck of the draw “Pick numbers and you win what you match.” Not only that, it’s incredibly slow and lacks the tension it should have. It seems to me that they got really lazy in developing the show and just threw together anything they could. You’re telling me they couldn’t have made some bingo related end game instead of randomly picking numbers? In the game I watched, we got through three picks in four minutes. One thing I’d like to see is the layout of the board. I know there aren’t going to be tens of thousands of dollars floating around everywhere, but I’m sincerely hoping they don’t have a gap from like $10,000 to $100,000. I’d rather just have a lower top prize but more generous cash values. Regardless, the end game needs some serious tweaking to at least fit the theme of the show. It’s the only time I truly felt bored during the show.

All in all, it’s a nice little GSN quiz show. Nice money, nice presentation, nice game play, nice host. The truly disappointing thing is the end game. This review would be a bit more glowing if they had some substance there, but they took the easy way out which is rarely every a good way to go. However, there are a lot of positives to relatively make up for it. It’s nice to have a fast paced straight quiz show on the network again. Quick, fun, and fast: a perfect edition to GSN’s lineup.

A perfect addition would be a new season of Lingo to complement it, but oh well.

Was it a huge shock to anyone that My Dad is Better Than Your Dad bombed?  I honestly think (and it’s probably true) that some major Hollywood players, like Mark Burnett, can pitch a show with the flimsiest and, to be honest, dumbest of concepts and get it picked up because that’s the person that’s making it.  This show just did absolutely nothing for me.  It was a stereotypical stunt show that seemed like a tamer version of American Gladiators with children thrown in.

I say it over and over: I really don’t like to complain about prizes, but seeing a show where people fight for $50,000 max after a show that gives away money like it’s nothing makes My Dad seem extremely cheap.  The Singing Bee could get away with it because it felt like a syndicated show that was placed in primetime television.  I don’t know where you’d throw My Dad is Better Than Your Dad, but it definitely felt completely wrong for a primetime show.

The show did nothing outright wrong, it just felt awkward to me.  The host, Dan Cortese, was annoying.  Just a regular talking head.  And not the good David Byrne type of Talking Head.  A good deal of the kids were annoying.  I think that word describes the show best: annoying.  I said the show was Double Dare taken too seriously and too far, and I was right on the money on that one.  Lighten it up, get a different host, put it on a channel like Nickelodeon or some other family oriented network and I think you could potentially, with work, have something.  It just felt completely wrong on primetime television.

And a good deal of America thought that too.  First off, Deal or No Deal had an unbelievably strong night with over 16 million viewers and a 10.0/16.  I tried dropping some hints before: executive producer Scott St. John said he’s not adding any more $1,000,000 cases after 13.  They didn’t say the mission was over.  Watch on Wednesday’s episode.  My Dad lost 48% of Deal’s audience; down to 5.3/8.  They should be happy that Hollywood is still recovering from the strike or it have been gone sooner than expected.  It still might be.

Network: GSN
Airings: Weekdays at 6:00PM ET, Tuesdays through Sundays at 10:00PM ET
Vote for how many stars you think the show deserves to the right, and then leave a comment!

Russian Roulette is the ultimate game of chance. Four contestants stand on “The Revolver” and on their own “Drop Zone”. A question is stated and the player in control chooses who to pass the question to (or they can answer it themselves in the final round). A right answer awards the challenged money while a wrong answer bankrupts a player and forces them to play “Russian Roulette” with however many drop zones are active for the question. When the handle is pulled, lights circle the set, and if a red light stops under the player’s feet, that person literally drops from the stage and is eliminated from the game. The sole survivor plays the Killer Questions and, potentially, one final game of “Russian Roulette” to win $100,000.

This is and was GSN’s quintessential game show and their only remote answer to the big money game show craze. It had it all: big money, amazing set, amazing soundtrack, fantastic host, tough trivia, and one of the best and most exciting end games on television. Honestly, there’s little to fault the show with other than a few production errors, especially in season two. The producers seemed to be very keen on making sure that players who chose not to gamble for $100,000 could have potentially won. It seems they often edited out the first hypothetical spin and threw in a second one to make sure they seemed like they made the right choice instead of losing out on six figures. The sound effects for the spin were completely screwed up for that season as well.

The only other larger issue was the questioning on the end game. They could just never seem to get it right. The five Killer Questions in 60 seconds seemed too easy, but the ten Killer Questions seemed too difficult to some. I really think six questions in the season one brainteaser format would have kept it a bit more original while making sure no one gets a three drop zone $100,000 spin. But that was a minor issue that barely made an impact in my eyes. Why’d the show disappear? Network politics and more. Hopefully with game shows fully back in the public eye some smart production company and network will bring this gem out and let it shine while there’s still a demand to see people fall through holes in the floor.

[rating: 4.5/5]

Links
Clips and episodes of the show courtesy of creator Gunnar Wetterberg