The contestants play for someone else they know who deserves the cash.  They play five puzzles for increasing amounts of cash.  They are given a category such as “Who is” or “What is” or so on, and spotted one incredibly vague and obscure clue for free.  The amount of cash the round will be played for is split into nine unequal mounts; from small to large.  The contestant will choose a number 1-9 and the amount of cash behind the number is taken away from the round’s bank.  Then the next clue is revealed.  No matter what amount of money is selected clues go obscure at first to obvious at last.  Either you know it and buzz in to answer or you pick another number.  If you’re right you bank the amount the round is worth, but if you’re wrong you get no money for that round.  After five rounds whatever you have in your bank is what the person you’re playing for takes home.

However, let’s be honest.  ABC couldn’t care less about the game in this show.  They solely care about the emotional reveal and constantly-crying-contestants.  I’ll be repeating this often, but this show is not made for us.  It’s a game show made for people that don’t like game shows.  The charity element is shoved in your face so much that it loses any sort of emotion it may carry and becomes very, very annoying after a little bit.  I know it sounds heartless, but that’s just how it’s going to be.  I’m a competition person.  I don’t watch hockey because I care about the player’s lives.  I watch hockey because I love the sport.  I don’t watch game shows because I care about the wretched lives of the people involved.  I watch because I want to see a good game.  You Deserve It shoves it to the side.  But, again, this show is not made for us.

And even if they didn’t shove it down your throat, the typical Deal or No Deal production doesn’t help.  We’ve got the companion seat with people doing nothing more than hugging and crying.  We’ve got a game of pure luck masked around a quiz show.  Having clues revealed from obscure to obvious regardless of what amount of money is taken away or regardless of what number you selected is flat out lazy.  The contestants are oblivious to even the most obvious clue which makes you switch from, “I hope you do well, you’re doing a good thing,” to, “How could someone be this stupid?” at lightning speed.  That’s not good for a show like this.

None of that matters, though, because, again, no one cares about the quiz show in You Deserve It.  Only we do.  They’re clearly going for the post-Dancing With the Stars crowd who really doesn’t want to watch a quiz show and just wants to cry.  It’s for the Oprah crowd.  The bad thing is it has a lot of elements which should be good but they make so many small poor decisions that it piles up and becomes rough.  The game should be fine but it’s getting saddled with laziness.  Chris Harrison is a fine host.  The show just feels off.  But, again, this show is not made for you and I.  We can stick to Sundays at 4:00PM ET/2:00PM PT.

It’s Worth What scored a 1.8/6 share in the key demographic.  It ended up doing better than its direct competition, a repeat of ABC’s Wipeout, and it did better than 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show at 9:00PM ET.  It did end up losing to NCIS on CBS, but I think that was a given no matter what.  Regardless, it’s a pretty decent start for the show.  It just can’t afford to dip to considerably lower levels.  We’ll see what happens next week.  As always, week two ratings for broadcast are important because it shows if people enjoyed the show enough to come back.

However, I ended up enjoying it more than I figured.  The game is sound, the concept and execution is fun, but it just feels like nothing that special.  When Deal or No Deal and 1 VS 100 debuted, you felt something special.  You got a feeling these were different than the garden variety game shows.  You don’t get that feeling with It’s Worth What?.  It feels like typical game show fodder.  Having said that, it’s much better than most shows in recent time.  It’s far better than NBC’s last game show effort Minute to Win It.  I applaud them for staying far away from the Millionaire format.  We haven’t seen a truly original show (though it was derivative of The Price is Right) in primetime in a while.

Really the only issues I had were with host Cedric the Entertainer.  It was the first episode and I know he’ll get better, but he seemed very stiff and unnatural in the game show host role.  He needs to loosen up and be himself more.  Not to mention we don’t need three or four catch phrases a show.  We had, “It’s worth WHAT?” which got very annoying; “Bank It or Bust It,” which wasn’t necessary; and the worst of all the lock-in phrase, “Sure Sure.”  If it’s written in the rules that the final answer decided by the team is what is accepted, they don’t need a lock-in phrase.  Not every show needs their own, “Final Answer.”  But overall I was pretty impressed and we’ll see if the show can keep it up.

Given what I read on Twitter and emails and comments last night, many of you felt the same way.  What did you think?

Take The Money and Run could not be any simpler.  However, it’s cinematic nature adds great layers and depth.  A couple is given $100,000 in a briefcase by a mystery man.  The man handcuffs the case to one of them and gives them the key.  The couple is given a car and cell phone, and has one hour to hide the briefcase literally anywhere they can.  It can be hidden behind objects, buried in the ground, or really anywhere they can creatively hide it.  After the hour is up the couple is “arrested” by their competitors: two actual law officials, and taken to the station.  The couple is finger printed, placed in typical prisoner clothing, and locked up in jail cells apart from each other.

Rebecca Albano, an outlaw on ABC's "Take The Money and Run"

The law officials have 48 hours to find the briefcase of money.  Helping them are actual interrogators and law professionals Paul Bishop and Mary Stone.  These two go through intense interrogations with the contestants trying to break them down until they either give enough clues as to where the suitcase of cash is, or until they flat out say it.  Another item of help given to the team of detectives, since the case could literally be anywhere, is GPS coordinates of where the car went and cell phone records.  The team needs to be strategic and use both wisely in order to throw everyone off.  If the law officials find the briefcase of cash in 48 hours, the two split the $100,000.  If they don’t, the outlaw couple keeps the $100,000.

As you can tell from the description and the pictures we showed off earliery, the show shines because of its cinematic nature.  If they didn’t go through great lengths it would just be a typical hide-and-seek style reality show.  However, the careful details they add to each element of the show make it an hour long unscripted spy/crime drama each week.  You see the contestants actually break down in solitary.  Some of them can’t take it and crack.  Some play it up and make it through.  It’s treated like it’s real, and you get sucked into the action instantly.

Special mention should go out to Paul Bishop and Mary Stone.  These two play up the roles of interrogators perfectly.  They start out nice and we get to know the two outlaw contestants.  It’s like a host introducing contestants.  However, as the game progresses, you see the interrogators get more intense and try to break these two down to pieces.  They treat it like it’s real, and you can feel the tension.  Perfect casting with those two.

The action on screen is divided as well as they could.  The first act or so is spent watching the couple hide the money.  After that we

Paul Bishop, an interrogator on ABC's "Take The Money and Run"

see the couple being taken in, going through the prisoner routine, meeting the police, and initial interrogation.  The action is then split with the interrogations and clue-hunting with Paul and Mary; and police officials running through the city searching for the cash and canvasing the landscape and people on the street.  The only lull I felt was right when the couple went through the process of getting arrested and taken into the station, but it was a necessary evil.  It’s not enough to make me turn off at all.  It’s just something I’d fast forward if I have DVR.

Take The Money and Run is the perfect link connecting a crime drama and a reality show.  It’s Law and Order meets The Amazing Race.  Again, most of this is due to the great attention to detail the producers pump into the show.  You can tell when producers just go through the motions, and things like this make of break shows.  It makes this show.  There’s nothing like this on American television.  I’m really hoping people accept it, and they’re marketing it correctly.  If you’ve seen Law and Order‘s detective section, then you are instantly sucked in.  It’s tense, intense, and great summer fun.

Take The Money and Run debuts Tuesday, August 2nd, at 9:00PM ET on ABC.

101 Ways to Leave a Game Show pits eight people against each other in a quiz show to win the weekly $50,000 top prize.  The eight are split into two groups of four that compete individually.  To start the host, Jeff Sutphen, asks a numerical question.  Each player writes his or her answer down on a pad.  The people closest get to answer the actual trivia question first.  Jeff then asks the round’s question with as many choices as there are players.  Each player, in order of how they did in the numbers round, gives an answer.  The last player is stuck with whatever is left.  All but one answer is right.  All you need to do is not be wrong.  If you are, you’re physically ejected from the game.

When two are left from each group, everyone joins together and climbs to the top of The Tower for the finale.  The Tower is a ten story structure decked out in lighting and features four diving boards suspended water.  A numerical trivia question is asked again, and the people closest go first.  Jeff asks another question with four choices.  The order of answering depends on how close you got on the last one.  This time there are three wrong and one right.  If you answer wrong the diving board you are standing on drops and you free fall into the water ten stories below.  If you get the right answer you win $50,000.

101 Ways to Leave a Game Show, Courtesy ABC

Let’s be honest: no one will be watching this for intense trivia battles.  You’re watching to see people get tossed, thrown, and battered for cash.  It’s the same people watch Wipeout.  A major complaint of the British version was that all exits really degenerated to dropping people into water.  While that’s funny for a bit it gets old very quickly.  The ABC version is miles more inventive and, frankly, terrifying than that.  The very first exit anyone will see is a contestant being flown away, standing up, on the wings of a bi-plane.  Other exits in the first episode include the reverse bungee and dropping backwards off a moving truck.  The finale, though, shocked me.  It’s really a ten story free fall into water.  There’s a support cable and safety obviously, but there’s no giant bungee apparatus like the British version that slows your fall significantly.  If you are wrong, you’re going straight down.  It’s extreme, terrifying, and incredibly fun to watch.  However, the finale on top of the Tower is apparently the same each week so we’ll see if it stays enjoyable week after week.

The terrifying new challenges have created a new tone for the show.  The British version was a bit more goofy and comical.  The ABC version takes a more Fear Factor-like approach.  It’s also a very different tone from sister show Wipeout. There’s no fake studio.  Contestants don’t stand behind a podium.  No traditional game show trappings.  It’s all done on location and shot on a large scale.  It’s not the quickest show on earth.  We only get five questions/exits a game.  However, there’s no long countdowns or anything like that.  Any extra time is spent getting to know contestants, and showing off the exits.  Speaking of Jeff, he does great.  He’s the host of Nick’s BrainSurge which I’ve not seen so I went in blind.  He does a great job.

101 Ways to Leave a Game Show, Courtesy ABC

The only issue I can find that could hinder the show, structure wise, is that it takes a while to get to the first exit, which, again, is the focal point of the show.  It takes some time to cut to the chase.  Wipeout cuts to bashing people over the face with foam platforms quickly.  This show takes about six or seven minutes to get there.  I really don’t know what could have been done but hopefully that audience will carry over to see this.  The success of the show is just going to depend if the same crowd that likes Wipeout will carry over here and enjoy the physicality of this.  I did.  We’ll see if anyone else does.

101 Ways to Leave a Game Show is turn-your-brain-off television at its core.  I went in there expecting what I got and left satisfied.  It’s got a little trivia to keep those fans engaged but it’s got some very creative and jaw-droppings exits to make the Wipeout fans come over.  If you come here often then you’ve probably seen the British version.  If you were turned off by that I encourage you to check out the ABC version.  It’s a big improvement and a good action summer game show.

The easiest way to describe Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza is a hostless Whose Line is it Anyway.  Drew Carey opens the show and is billed as the star, but different comedians open different acts.  Arguably the three most popular cast members and the three most brilliant improv comedians on the planet; Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Greg Proops; introduce the other segments.  Others will introduce later.  Each game takes up an entire act.

Brad Sherwood, Wayne Brady, and Jonathan Mangum sing on Improv-A-Ganza. Courtesy GSN

If you’ve seen Whose Line, then you have an idea of what games will be played.  The only new game in the episode I saw was Freeze Tag, but it’s up there with the better games played and makes me wonder why they never tried it on the ABC version.  One of the games played was the Whose Line classic Moving People, where audience members have to move the two improv performers (in this case Ryan Stiles and Jonathan Mangum).  You will want to watch for this.  Colin Mochrie accidentally picks an incredibly intoxicated lady from the audience and it ranks up there with some of the all time classic Whose Line games.  I’ve watched it repeatedly and I still laugh hysterically each time.

I know we are a game show news site, but I make no bones about my love for comedy.  Comedy is what drives me.  Whose Line is it Anyway is, without a doubt, my favorite television show ever.  It drove me into improv comedy and influenced me immensely in my professional life.  Ever since Game Show Network became GSN I said that GSN should try picking up a show like this.  They play games during it.  If you’re going to stretch the genre, you may as well go all out.  They picked up the best version they could if they couldn’t do the original, and it works perfectly.  Is it a game show in the strictest sense?  No.  Do I particularly care?  No.  Because it is the most entertaining, funny, and enjoyable show the network has put on the air in some time.  Whose Line fans will instantly feel at home and fall in love with it.  Comedy fans, in general, will enjoy it.

The tricky part comes if GSN’s core audience will accept it.  I hope they do because it is, admittedly, a big gamble for the network.  They don’t take risque comedy that well as is evident by the very funny panel game show Late Night Liars.  But this isn’t as bizarre.  This is something people have seen before and have accepted.  And I hope they accept it because it’s the best thing they’ve done for a while.  Do yourself a favor and check out Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza, debuting April 11th at 8:00PM ET on GSN.

By now you know how the game works.  Drops on the set correspond to answers.  You have a million in cash in front of you.  Place all your money on one or more drops, always leaving one open.  Money on wrong drops goes away.  Whatever you keep after seven questions is yours, if you get that far.  The actual changes to the show from the British version are slight.

*Seven questions instead of eight.  Questions 1-3 have four choices and 60 seconds to answer.  Questions 4-6 have three choices and 75 seconds to answer.  Question 7 has 2 choices.
*After time is up players are, just once, given an option to use a Quick Change which gives them 30 extra seconds to move any money.
*Models move the money back from the surviving drop to the player’s area.
*Drops not being used in later questions are physically removed from the set, which is a nice touch.
*Set is inspired by the British version but Americanized.  Music is full on American, but very good.  Sounds a bit like Crazy Train to be honest, as stupid a comment as that is.

If you like the British version, you’ll like this.  The pace, game, and general tone of the show is identical.  It’s a tense, nerve wracking, suspenseful quiz show.  Is it the next Millionaire like many want to make it seem?  No.  But it’s one of the more solid straight forward quiz shows we’ve had in years, and how often do we get a show where you just answer questions without any major gimmicks of luck?  Again, it’s practically the same as the British version in everything but set and music and if that’s somehow enough to turn you away then that’s a shame.

The only giant difference is in the players, and that’s just different types of mentalities, I guess.  The British contestants tend to play conservative for the most part.  In the screener of the show I saw, the American contestants were gambling nearly everything, in the area of $800,000 to $1,000,000; constantly on questions where they either weren’t sure or questions based on surveys and studies where you really can’t know for certain.  It was pretty exciting exciting and will make for some moments we’ll be talking about depending on how great or poorly it goes.

All that being said, will Americans respond to it?  I don’t know.  I think they’ll pick up on the drama but winning the million is nearly impossible and all you do is constantly see your prize dwindle, which is the polar opposite of anything they know and feel safe with.  As we’ve seen with many recent shows, Americans don’t deal with change that well.  I’m crossing my fingers for it and we’ll all be surprised together if it does well or not.  I want it to do well, so I hope you check it out.  It’s worth a view and given Fox’s track record with quiz shows recently I think it stands a shot.  Million Dollar Money Drop debuts Monday, December 20th, at 8:00PM ET on Fox.

Customizing your character is also improved, although the default options have me looking like a raggedy-ass homeless dude. (Spare some change for a vowel?) In-app purchases can unlock more accoutrements for your WoF avatar, including ski goggles and 3D glasses, not to mention more styles of shirts and the like. For those who really want their avatar to look exactly like them in real life, then spending a couple bucks to get a pirate hat is, I’m sure, a welcome addition to the game. If you’re really looking to spend a few bucks to make this game better, spend your money on the ten different puzzle packs. At 99 cents a pop for 180 puzzles, it’s a good way to extend the life of the game without having to buy a whole new game.

The game, where it counts, is solid. The Wheel itself doesn’t look like a painful piece of crap anymore (someone figured out how to make JPGs!) and has all the decorations of the actual Wheel: LED Jackpot Wedge, Million Dollar Wedge, Wild Card, Free Play, and Mystery Things, none of which are sponsored by Eggland’s best, sadly. The arrangement of the rounds, however, is confusing to those who care about that kind of stuff: There are two toss-up puzzles, then the jackpot round, then a round with no gimmicks, then the Mystery Round. Edit: I’m the dumbass who hasn’t watched Wheel all season: commenter Kevin gave me the scoop and the arrangement of puzzles is correct. Odd, to say the least, but it’s not a dealbreaker. You still get plenty of spinning. And, if you don’t want to watch your CPU opponents (who border on absolutely merciless in the Hard difficulty) spin, buy or solve, there’s always a handy Skip button.

Overall, the game looks fantastic, and it plays equally so. The added features, including cool multi-player modes and online play, just add to the package. This is one of the best and most well-rounded game show games on the App Store, and it is well worth the $4.99.

Wheel of Fortune Platinum [via iTunes]

Let’s get the positives out of the way.  The game works very well.  It’s fun to play along with and very tense and dramatic.  The lifeline aspect works.  The game’s just a challenge.  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.

Image courtesy of AmericanProfile.com

1: Do Not Puss Out.  We get it.  The prizes aren’t real.  The contestants are being safely lowered.  We know you aren’t literally dropping anyone off the edge of a roof.  Much like we knew no one was being sucked into a black hole below them on Russian Roulette.  But the latter kept this impending sense of doom the entire show.  Downfall made it extremely clear, to a point of negating the actual idea of the drop, that nothing close to dangerous was going on.  This show was billed on a sense of danger.  They pussed out.

2: The Drop is the Point of the Show.  The entire basis of the show is seeing people fall off the edge of a building.  Seeing fake money fall off isn’t really that tense.  Some of the fake prizes dropped off worked, like the fake car and fake TVs and all of that.  Showing essentially a cardboard cutout of a pizza oven falling off the edge isn’t really that tense.  The contestant should have been on that belt sweating and screaming as they get closer to the edge.  Just showing them lift suddenly, while it’s still scary, doesn’t give the full effect.

3: Do Not Show the Contestant at the Bottom of the Drop: So we finally see someone drop off the edge.  It’s what should be the moment everyone talks about.  The contestant is dangling over the edge.  My heart was literally pounding, since it’s a scary moment.  The contestant drops and we hear screams.  But then we flash to the contestant at the bottom?  Again, we really know no one is being killed.  Not a single viewer is that stupid.  And it’s not even seeing them being slowly lowered near the bottom and let go, but then we have to see them frolicking on the ground.  This show would have kept a massive level of dread and suspense if they dropped and we moved on.  A Mark Walberg-like tone of indifference would have worked.  Showing the contestant jumping around at the bottom negated all the drama.

The show would have been better off by switching between money rounds and prize rounds.  Have fewer items on the belt.  Have the contestant at the end of it for the sense of dread.  The show had to keep switching between the drop and the questions.  So much was going on at once it got hard to follow.  Plus I had one small complaint about the marketing and this wasn’t the fault of the show.  They couldn’t really settle on a tone.  The game tried to be dramatic.  The commercials tried to be funny.  It didn’t match up.

Again, I want to state that the show was fun, had a good game, and I’ll be watching again.  It just had some issues and it basically all had to do with drop, which is the reason the show exists.  I have no idea at all how the show will do in the ratings.  If it gets picked up it’s really not that far from being one of the better quiz shows to come in modern times.  Just decide if we’re playing this for laughs and to say, “Look at the paper fall of a roof,” or if we’re going to go for suspense and dread and say, “Keep watching because this contestant is only seconds away from falling off a skyscraper.”  If we can decide how we’re going to play the show, we’ve got a show here.

Like I said, I give it a 7 out of 10.  I’m close to loving the show.  I just had a few issues, and it’s more due to personal preference more than anything.

Image courtesy of UKGameShows.com

One team of two starts the game.  They see another couple on the video screen and hear about them.  They can choose to play against that team or play against another team that they don’t know about.  That’s the general theme of the show.  When the actual game starts, the team in control begins on spot one of ten.  A question and one answer is posed.  They can take that answer or leave it for another they don’t know about.  If they are wrong they switch places with the other team and they move forward a step.  If they are right, they get a chance to add money to the game.

A game board of 20 safes is shown.  Values range from 1p and £15,000, plus two Booby Traps, are shuffled and placed.  The team selects two and are shown the first one.  They can take that value and add it to the bank or leave it for the other.  If the team draws the Booby Trap, though, they lose control.  It’s OK so far up until the end.  Whoever has control of the game after question 10 wins.  So you can be leading the entire game and miss that final question and lose.  Yeah, it sucks, but it’s a dramatic device that does the trick

Image courtesy of UKGameShows.com

and fits the entire theme of the game.  The winning team plays for whatever is in the bank which can be up to £50,000.  A clip of the end game can be watched here.

In the end game the team answers five questions the same way.  Six safes are raised from the ground.  One of the safes contains their prize fund and the other five contain nothing.  The questions are then randomly mixed up, but the right answers will always come before the wrong ones.  The team can decide to take their answer or leave it if they are afraid.  If they take a right answer one of the bad safes goes away.  If they are afraid they missed they can leave it and select one of the safes, hoping they choose the money safe.  If they take a wrong answer, though, they lose and the game is over.  So that means if they can get all five right and take them all, they win the money.  The only clip we can find that can be embedded is this.

It’s got a few issues but it works for what it sets out to be.  It’s a fun game to play along with the ends up being exciting in a few places.  I particularly like the end game.  But this is a good example of how to use a safe or money box idea and get some good from it.  Who’s Bluffing Who is missing a lot.  Again, GSN was developing this and looking at ways to fix some elements of it.  One idea shared to me was splitting the game into two different paths the teams go on individually and the first to reach the end wins.  But it never made it out of the gate.  It should have, though.  Given this was in development around the time Deal or No Deal was popular this could have been good for them.

The game is as simple as it gets.  Having said that the show really isn’t about the game, despite it working well.  The show is all about the comedy.  Two contestants face off each episode.  In each round a category is given and the panelists give an answer for the category.  Some are telling the truth and some are lying (in round one two are lying and in round two only one is).  Figure out who’s lying and you get seemingly random money.  The third round lets a contestant choose a panelist and decide if the fact is true or false to get a “random” amount of money.  The most money at the end of the round wins the game (the loser gets $500 no matter what).  The champion faces the end game, where two panelists each have a different category and go back and forth rapidly saying facts.  The contestant has to correctly decide if the fact is true or false.  Getting 8 right in 43 seconds (those numbers are correct) wins $10,000.  If the goal is not met, the contestant gets $500 for each right answer.

The quick review is that it’s often laugh-out-loud funny, Larry Miller hosts it wonderfully, it looks nice, it plays nice, and it’s just an all-around entertaining and fun show.  But again, most importantly, it’s very funny.  And that’s the really nice yet strange part.  Even without humans, it’s hysterical.

You truly, in some trippy sense, forget you are watching puppets.  I’d love to know how much is improvised and how much is scripted because it sounds natural, like everyone has their own personality.  It’s the biggest throwback to the old school panel shows like Match Game I’ve ever seen.  It’s funny that the show that has recreated the old feel the most doesn’t involve a human other than Larry Miller.  It’s inappropriate, off-beat, and produced as well as they could have done.  Most importantly: it’s actually funny!  It’s because they’ve got the best in the business, Jim Henson Company, doing this one.  With anyone else it would have been remotely as good.  It’s also because Larry Miller, the host, does a phenomenal job and under anyone else’s watch the show wouldn’t have worked.

But the semi-crude part is what worries me.  Late Night Liars makes The Newlywed Game‘s innuendo look pathetic.  There’s no bleep worthy moments, but it’s as innuendo-filled as Match Game was, but just pump it up (without being vulgar) to 2010 standards.  It’s clear why the show won’t be airing, ever, before 11:00PM ET.  I just don’t know if GSN’s older, very conservative usual viewers will watch.  This show needs some younger people to watch the show to survive, and they will if they can market this correctly.  They won me over completely after just the screener.  GSN needs to, urgently, start spreading viral videos on places like YouTube or Facebook or somewhere to really show people this is not a stale old game show which will frighten away what probably needs to be their biggest audience for this show: the 20 to 40 year olds who are watching the current Muppet videos on YouTube.

So again, it’s the most selfish review I’ve done.  I don’t know if it will click because GSN has never done anything this out-there and strange before, but to be selfish in this rare moment I enjoyed it a lot and that’s all I care about right now.  I’ll enjoy it while it’s on.  I think a vast majority of the readers here will like it also so I implore you to watch it starting June 10th at 11:00PM ET and ask your friends to also.  Even if it doesn’t work I’m glad GSN is taking some chances and doing something very original.  I flat out thought it wasn’t going to work when I first heard about it.  They changed my opinion.  There’s no game show around right now as funny, sharp, and entertaining as Late Night Liars on American television.  This should be GSN’s newest big hit that can get their name out there a bit more…they just have to market this correctly.

Late Night Liars debuts June 10th at 11:00PM ET on GSN.

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.

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.

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.