E! and Ryan Seacrest Debut “Bank of Hollywood” in December
Let’s get the plug for the new show out of the way first. E! is debuting a new game show called Bank of Hollywood on December 14th at 10:00PM ET. It’s from Ryan Seacrest Productions and hosted by Bryan Callen who among other things was on MadTV for three years and is starring in the upcoming picture The 40 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It which appears to be a parody of comedy movies. Surely that’s going to make the universe explode. In the show contestants ask a panel of four Hollywood “personalities” for any amount of money they want to do things. If they can get the money from someone, well that’s fantastic for them. If not then that’s a shame.
Now the fun part. There’s nothing I love more than a production company and network spinning a show that has had its format driven into the ground so much over the past few years into something new and exciting. And that’s why it’s fun to be as sarcastic and brazen as me, as I get the fun job of raising my hand and saying, “Uh…bullcrap?” The old, “Please give me money because I need it badly,” thing has been done so much it’s nauseating, especially recently.
This summer ABC experimented with Shark Tank which was essentially the same thing. People ask a group of wealthy entrepreneurs for large amounts of money to fund their own business ventures. It didn’t do horribly but it was far from knocking people over in amazement. So many other shows, like WE!’s Most Popular, GSN’s Without Prejudice, among others, have people begging others for money. Bank of Hollywood is based off of the BBC show Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway which itself is based off of Shark Tank’s British counterpart. The sheer amount of format-borrowing from this one idea makes me want to go to the Bank of Hollywood and ask for some money to make a show which is a clone of Bank of Hollywood. Apparently this idea is highly sought after.
Ironically, a decade ago, I thought that Hollywood Showdown would've worked better on E! than on PAX (simply because it had then-E! announcer Todd Newton as host and was a show about movie and TV trivia). They never ran with it (probably because Talk Soup, Wild On and whatever shows Joan and Melissa Rivers hosted were the network's bread-and-butter).
Alas, I fear this is another wasted game show opportunity flushed down the toilet. (Seriously- after everything game show fans have had to put up with these past 13 months, now instead of something intellectual and unique, we get melodramatic garbage like this? Give me a friggin' break, man!)
Well, at least we still have the Cube waiting to be unleashed from Fox. Ryan Seacrest is…so OUT on this one. Doesn't he realize once you copy an idea, it'll get stale real quick.
Fortune was an ITV show, I feel I should point out.
I wish Ryan Seacrest, who has the capacity and smarts to be the next Dick Clark, would put a little more thought and ingenuity into his productions. Here's what he needs to do — bring back Pyramid, host it himself, oversee some interesting changes, and use his gravitas to attract smart and interesting celebrities. Something like that would be much more worth his time, and I cannot imagine that he wouldn't get a pickup. Or, can you imagine a new-and-improved Hollywood Squares with him at the helm?
Seacrest? The "Click" guy? On Pyramid?! I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Fun fact:
Years before becoming host of American Idol, Ryan Seacrest was a substitute host on "Talk Soup" during the John Henson era (other notable fill-ins were Roger Lodge, Brad Garrett, Donna D'Erico [of Baywatch fame] and Meredith Viera; future hosts included Hal Sparks and Aiesha Tyler).
Seacrest's come a long way since then. Boy, do you have a long memory ! :)
Age does that to you! TOO much age seems to take it back, tho!
It would be nice if I could go there and give my plee. I'd want them to buy my mom a house. Since dad cheated on her and all, getting something like that for her would be the best thing in the world……
It would be nice if I could go there and give my plee. I'd want them to buy my mom a house. Since dad cheated on her and all, getting something like that for her would be the best thing in the world……
hi my name is jenny. Im 28yrs old. im the only child. a mother of two beautiful kids. I've worked since i was 14 to support my parent. Now that my parent are laid off. im the only one who can take care of them. I have dreams and been blessed with many talents. I love to dance, sing, design clothes and act. I have taken acting class. I've been writing lyrics and poems all my life. I would love to be in the entertainment business and music industries. I would love to take dance and singing lesson and also take fashion designing school. I want to do it all.I want to persue my dreams and be a star. Im definite triple threat. I know i can with a lil help on the financial side.
Thanks
hi my name is jenny. Im 28yrs old. im the only child. a mother of two beautiful kids. I've worked since i was 14 to support my parent. Now that my parent are laid off. im the only one who can take care of them. I have dreams and been blessed with many talents. I love to dance, sing, design clothes and act. I have taken acting class. I've been writing lyrics and poems all my life. I would love to be in the entertainment business and music industries. I would love to take dance and singing lesson and also take fashion designing school. I want to do it all.I want to persue my dreams and be a star. Im definite triple threat. I know i can with a lil help on the financial side.
Thanks
my voice sucks on karaoke that is why i am taking sining lessons now from professionals ;~.