02Feb2011
Guy Fieri Wants Buzzer Readers to Watch “Minute to Win It” Tonight
Guy Fieri is specifically calling out to you, BuzzerBlog readers. Minute to Win It‘s new season continues tonight at 8:00PM ET on NBC. Tonight is a special episode for them. For the first time, a family of five, the Bishop family, will step into the sixty second circle and play for the $1,000,000 prize. Tonight’s edition is a special two hour episode so given that, not to mention the commercials for it, I’m sure you can guess what’s going to happen. See if they finally give away the big prize tonight. Host Guy Fieri has a special message for our readers. Take a look below.
That studio audience behind Guy seems frozen in anticipation.
So excited! Can’t Wait Until Tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO MINUTE TO WIN IT!
Whats that you say, 2 hours of Minute to Win It tonight? Coun’t me in… twice!
It’s about time they have kids on this show! I cannot wait for tonights episode, my kids love it!
This episode is more padded than even the first episodes of Million Dollar Drop [Not Live]. Also, knowing from the start that they will get to game 10 is not “thrilling” in the least.
Or maybe I’m just spoiled by The Cube.
Yeah, the spoiling and padding are disgusting. There’s really no other word for it.
It’s obvious that NBC didn’t learn too much from Deal or No Deal.
A personal Call out to Buzzerblog by Guy?
That was pretty cool.
I think we all see it coming tonight. Guy finally gets to give away the big one. (and it looks like Guy beats Howie to the big win)
Prediction fail.
At least you got to watch it. It was pre-empted by my local NBC affiliate (WTLV-12 Jacksonville) for a special on AIDS awareness.
NBC has a genuinely suspenseful game, an engaging host who is perfect for this type of show, but the network is milking a good thing too much with all the schmaltz and the (non)-spoilers! I almost hate to say this, but this is one time I almost wish some of the dingbats from (name your Fox game) Du Jour would come on over to MTWI so I can have someone to root against occasionally!
Is anyone surprised that NBC didn’t come up with a more creative way to shoot the first official MTWI attempt at Super Coin? Either a split screen or an occasional tight shot of the jug’s opening would have helped the home audience feel a little more engaged with the gameplay.
I couldn’t give less of a rat’s ass if I tried. I heard the contestants won a lot of money, so congratulations.
As for NBC stretching ten levels to two hours, I’ve nothing but scathing vulgarities to them. They need to reformat their primetime if they rely on Minute to Win It to take place of canceled shows.
From the way Minute to Win It’s announcer was talking before going to a commercial break, it truly sounded as if the Bishop family would win $1,000,000 tonight. But alas, they walked away with only $500,000.
Am I the only one noticing how NBC keeps adding new safe money levels to the game?
At the beginning of the first season of Minute to Win It, the only safe level was $50,000. Then they decided to add safe levels for $1,000 and $250,000. Now, there’s a safe level at $500,000 as well.
So this means that 5 of the 10 money levels are guaranteed safe levels: $1,000 / $50,000 / $250,000 / $500,000 / $1,000,000.
No offense, but don’t all of these safe levels eliminate the risk and suspense involved in risking your prize money to continue playing the game? Maybe NBC is so desperate to have someone win the $1,000,000 and then end the show, that they’re willing to go to any lengths to ensure that more people have the chance to play for the Million Dollars…
Then again, it is 5 kids playing the game. I’m fairly certain there are s+p regulations that would make their parents have to make the call if they are to risk the money (Jokers Wild+ Card Sharks kids weeks come to mind). Also charity episodes of M2WI said that if you reach a level, the money is guaranteed. I think in “normal’ gameplay, the $250K IS guaranteed, and then the Supercoin game is a $250k crapshoot, but still, it doesn’t carry the same risk as with the $50,000 as the only safe level. If they wanted people to go for it, but save money overall, change the money tree up a bit, but thats for another post altogether
They could have an hour of nothing but people attempt Supercoin and still no one would win it- it’s almost entirely luck that it would go in (between the three guys they had what, 50 attempts?)
Steven, one of the team was 18, so I assume he was the “captain” and made the decisions…
Whoa, nice to see BB get a shout-out from the MTWI team. I didn’t even notice this, but I did sorta watch MTWI last night. By “sorta watch”, I mean I watched bits of it, and for the remainder, I left the TV on in the background while playing games and doing work on my computer, until Supercoin came and got my attention. I had every intention of paying attention, but the commercial break bumpers basically gave away everything up to Supercoin and spoiled all the suspense.
Anyway, since NBC seems to actually pay attention to this site, here are a few comments in case anybody from NBC reads this.
First, the positives:
* The music during the third Supercoin attempt was just great. It added to the tension and the whole climatic feel.
* You picked contestants who had clearly practiced the games and knew them well, and you put emphasis on their skills and their ability to play rather than just their background story. Kudos, since this is a gigantic improvement.
The negatives:
* You’re still making commercial breaks interrupt tense moments. That does NOT draw out the suspense; it ruins the moment because it interrupts the game, and the mood’s completely gone by the time the show returns. Imagine, if you will, that you’re having a romantic dinner on a date. The two of you look deep into each other’s eyes, lean closer together, about to kiss. Then your date suddenly pulls away, says “I’ll be right back after a short bathroom break,” and runs off. I doubt the romance would pick right back up when your date gets back.
* The whole “we’re gonna use the money to help our family” bits are still poorly done (although I have to admit they’re not as bad as before). They feel like they’re shoehorned in at a really inappropriate moment. One second everybody’s happy they just completed a game, the next second everybody’s somber talking about their family, and the next second everybody’s excited again. It’s like the show suffers from manic depression.
* I counted 13 attempts at 10 games in two hours. That’s way, WAY too slow of a pace, and it’s the main reason the show just could not keep my attention. The show really could use more action and less time wasted on idle chatter. Do you really need Guy Fieri to repeat the rules for a game two more times after the Blueprint?
* You gave away the fact that they were going to reach Supercoin, on more than one occasion. That also ruins the tension and suspense. Look at The Amazing Race – early on, they said “Who will be eliminated tonight?” and “Warning: The last team to check in will be eliminated!” on every episode, except non-elimination legs. People quickly figured this out (and at least one team pointed it out on the air), so they changed it to “Who will be eliminated *next*?” and “Warning: The last team to check in *may* be eliminated!” on every leg, including non-eliminations, to increase the suspense. It worked better that way, and they’ve kept it ever since.
Oops. Each of those asterisks was meant to start a new paragraph, but I only hit Enter once instead of twice. Is there any way to edit a comment after I’ve already posted it?
As much as I love Minute to Win It, there’s a couple things I really need to vent about.
When I’m watching the show, I pay attention mostly to the blueprints and the gameplay. After deducting for commercials a show lasts about 43 minutes; with the bonus life and seconds, a single player or team’s actual gameplay will last a maximum of 13 minutes 10 seconds. Blueprint videos average about 30 seconds, so that’s a maximum of 5 minutes. That leaves a good 25 minutes for introductions, talking to the contestants, videos of people playing at home and what have you. Even if they make it to level 10, there’s no reason a single game should have to be stretched out to two frigging hours. Also, I tuned in to see a game show, not a drama. I don’t want to sit there for several minutes between games watching somebody mope about how their parent, child, dog or whoever couldn’t be there (only to be brought out on stage, surprise!) or that they really need the money for whatever.
Also, they shouldn’t be afraid to straddle games more often. In fact, that could fix the whole spoiler promo issue. In a game like last night’s if you have the hour end after they reach $250K (and AFTER they reach it, not 10 seconds before the $250K game ends), people who are watching will be more likely to tune in next week and have ample time to let their friends know to watch, without NBC explicitly saying ahead of time that the team’s going to reach Supercoin.
As for last night’s actual game itself, it was pretty darn exciting when the game was actually being played, though the lack of success on Supercoin after all that buildup was quite a letdown. (I was pretty certain they weren’t going to win though, seeing as we all know that if they did win NBC would have explicitly said so over 9000 times in the past week instead of implying that they might make it.)
And it’s really only our version that does this- most other versions can get through 2 full games in one episode…
Minute to win it has another flaw,,,,,,,,,,,, the contestants are only given 59 seconds.
The clock needs to like a game clock in basketball with 1/100′s of a second countdown. After the clock flips to zero contestants should still have 99/100 of a second to play.
And my hatred for NBC continues…
Dont forget that three weeks ago there was a message on the bottom of another persons game which said, “Is This Is Million Dollar Episode?” Stay tuned to find out… So NBC really has been spoiling a Million Dollar Moment for the better part of an entire month.
Meant it said “Is This The Million Dollar Episode?”… So by that can I assume the rest of the shows this season will be duds? lol