23 Responses

1. James

   1

   October 25th, 2006 at 7:19 am

   I’m not surprised at the renewal. There is a good game in *Chain Reaction,* and it can work well as a complementary to *Lingo*. But I would recommend the following changes to make the show better…

   1. Returning champions — why GSN is deathly afraid of returning champs for its shows is beyond me. But having returning champs would increase the likelihood of viewers returning to said show night after night. And who knows? You may have team that could go 6-7 shows.

   2. Fix the word chain snafu. Currently, you can guess the word even when all of the letters are filled in. To quote Carlito, that’s not cool. Make contestants earn the word.

   3. Bonus jackpot for bonus round. Based on what I saw from the show, the bonus round is unwinnable. If it’s truly that difficult, make the grand prize for winning the bonus round $25,000 for the first show, with $1,000 added to the pot for each episode the bonus round is not won.

   4. Contestant searches — as I mentioned earlier, GSN should take a page from *Hollywood Showdown* and do contestant searches nationwide.

   5. “Sweep bonus” — if a team manages to fill all the words in a chain (currently, 5-for-5), said team gets a $500 bonus.

2. TheKid965

   2

   October 25th, 2006 at 8:48 am

   I actually don’t have much of a problem with the current CR as it stands, at least not as far as format goes. The only thing I’d change about that: Lose the men-vs-women routine, as it’s *so* trite. What I’d do instead is have it go the route of Hot Potato or Clash, and have three-member teams that share an occupation and/or specific interest. (I like the idea of the comment above mine about the sweep bonus, too.)

   Other than that quibble, it’s all about the execution as far as why I haven’t been too terribly impressed with the current CR. It needs a new host, a more colorful set (sad to say, the Millionaire look just doesn’t work… not that I’m suggesting a return to the old-school style of set, mind you, because I’m not, but they *can* do better than this), and if they’re still hand-picking their audience members, they need to cut that garbage out.

   It’s sad, really. CR is a great game when it comes right down to it, but this rendition of it just falls flat. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I *hate* it - because those who know me know I have a hard time feeling strongly enough about television to actively “hate” *anything* (except, maybe, political attack ads) - but I definitely feel indifferent about it.

   (Oh, and the reason GSN “fears” returning champions is much the same reason syndicators “feared” them until a couple years ago. Without day-to-day continuity GSN can air the episodes in any order they think presents the show in the best possible light, rather than be tied down to a strict airing order. The reasoning might be, why should game shows be any different than any other entertainment show as far as that’s concerned? …At least, that’s the theory. Not that I agree, of course, but there you go.)

3. Robert McBride

   3

   October 25th, 2006 at 9:51 am

   The only thing I would change is the betting round- teams could bet as much as they want on each word.

4. Doug Morris

   4

   October 25th, 2006 at 9:52 am

   Sheesh, didn’t see that coming. Well… where do we begin in terms of fixing the game…

   1. Get a new host. (Though if CR:WTF’s been renewed, Dylan’s probably been asked to return.)

   2. Get a new contestant coordinator. (Some people on CR:WTF just show they don’t know how to play the game.)

   3. Screw the betting round and actually have a set “goal” to win. (The original series on NBC had a 50-point goal, the Canadian-based revival had a goal of 200 points in two-player team play, 300 when it went to solo player vs. solo player and 500 for the season-long, and series-ending, $40,000 tournament. A goal of $3000 would work here.)

   4. A round-ending speed chain I’m sort of on the fence on.

   5. Writing needs to improve. Break away (somewhat) from the two-word phrases and actually make it a word association chain (”illness”, for example, can link to “cold”; but “turkey” may follow “cold”).

   6. Judging also needs to improve. I’m glad the “singular/plural” rule is still there (staying with the above example, if you guessed “turkeys” for the “turkey” that was under “cold”, you’d still score). But, if a player gives a form of the word, the player should immediately be given a second chance. Also, enough of the gimmes and let’s bring back the concept of “we can’t give you the last letter”.

   7. Bonus game: The “building questions one word at a time”, sadly, has run its course. Alex, I like your suggestion that sort of borrows the endgame from the Canadian-based revival. Spot the team the top word in the chain, the first letter of each of the remaining six words and an account of $10,000. For each letter a team member needs, it costs them $1000. Upon the chain’s completion, the team keeps the remainder.

5. Nicholas Todor

   5

   October 25th, 2006 at 10:48 am

   How to improve Chain Reaction: Get rid of it, and bring back IGAS.

6. Pierre Kelly

   6

   October 25th, 2006 at 12:00 pm

   Bring in a new host and the old format like the USA one.

7. Trent

   7

   October 25th, 2006 at 1:06 pm

   Make the betting round where you can go all in

   Make the bonus round where if you get 10 words right you get an extra $25,000

8. Marc

   8

   October 25th, 2006 at 1:56 pm

   Let’s see.

   1. Where’s Geoff Edwards when we need him?
   2. Chains should be more than just seven-part “Before and After”s. Make them “could-be-anything” associations like they were in the past.
   3. Don’t give away the last letter of a word.
   4. I rather liked the disco-esque theme music of the original version, but seeing as how disco is “out”, I’ll settle for a modern remix.
   5. Fix the scoring system to something like this: In rounds 1 and 2, $100 for each word, with the connecting word worth $200. In rounds 3 and 4, $200/$400 words. No speed chains in the main game. $2,000 wins, and (optionally) everyone keeps what they win. If after four rounds, neither team reaches $2,000, we go to sudden death. Whichever team solves a “speed chain” when their opponents don’t, wins the game.
   6. I had this idea for the bonus round: 90 seconds to solve as many “speed chains” as possible, at $250 each, or $10,000 for ten.

9. Adam

   9

   October 25th, 2006 at 4:50 pm

   New Bonus round. Choose one of these options:

   A. The 1987 CR Bonus. Four words doubles the money and completing the chain triples it.

   B. If you feel you need to keep the current round, keep the 5 to double, 7 to triple rule, but for every point higher than 7, not only triple the money, add an additional $1,000.

10. Jebb

    10

    October 25th, 2006 at 7:57 pm

    Wow. It’s sad to see this renewed and IGAS left in limbo. If there must be more of this train wreck, the most pressing thing to do is get rid of the absurd betting round and have the teams play to a set score or goal, as a previous commenter said. Maybe they need to have the contestants watch some old Chain Reaction and Go episodes to see how it’s done, because they obviously aren’t getting it.

11. Scott Meckley

    11

    October 25th, 2006 at 8:13 pm

    I think that what they should do is set it up to where $3,000 wins the game. $100 for a correct answer and $200 for a double score. in round 2 you can have $200 for a correct answer and $400 for the double score word.

    In Bonus Round have the first word and the first letter of the next six words and have 7 letters to play with. If you get all of the six words before you lose all 7 letters then you win $25,000 if not then have the jackpot go up either $2,500 or $5,000 each time its not won. once its won then it starts back at $25,000

    I also would like the returning champs mode. this isnt too bad of a version of chain reaction but i like the classic chain reaction better.

12. Steve

    12

    October 26th, 2006 at 7:51 am

    Hey Alex!
    Yep, you know who it is, and you know I’ve posted these improvements before, but they’re worth repeating.

    1. Lose the speedchains. Add an extra word and make it 6 words in each chain.
    2. Lose the betting round — make the final round worth $500 per word.
    3. Lose the “Guys vs. Girls” thing — mix it up a little bit.
    4. Get a real audience in there. I want to see 200 game show fans cheering and there are enough of us to make it really exciting.
    5. Wean Dylan off the cue cards. We need him to actually improv a little bit. He can do better. If he can’t, get someone who can.
    6. Go quicker in between words in the final round. It should take no longer than 0.75 - 1 second to get a new word up there once it’s called as right, wrong or pass.
    7. Have Dylan call “1 right”, “2 right”, etc. He can also say “Next word” or “No. Next word” on a “pass” or “wrong” answer.
    8. Do not give out the last letter. Say “We can’t give you the last letter”. If neither team gets it at that point, say the word and move on.
    9. The bonus round is practically an identical copy of the version that was used in 1980. The only difference is that they have the one guy wearing a blindfold. Change the payout — make it, say $200 or $300 per word if doubling or tripling is not met.
    10. Have returning champions.

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23. Anon

    23

    February 14th, 2007 at 10:44 am

    Please remove comments 13-22, they are just a waste of time