Million Dollar Password
I’m on vacation so hopefully these automatic posts work. It’s always a gamble. Here’s a quick little place you can throw your opinions about Million Dollar Password which debuts tonight at 8:00PM ET on CBS.
Network: CBS
Airings: Sundays at 8:00PM ET
Host(s): Regis Philbin
Vote for how many stars you think the show deserves to the right, and then leave a comment!
Million Dollar Password is a revamp of the classic word game format. In the new version’s elimination round, two contestants play four rounds of 30 second guessing games, with five passwords to get per round. The players switch celebrities at round three. Most points at the end of round four plays for $1,000,000 in the money round. Here, the contestant and celebrity with who he or she played the best in the main game must get five words out of a certain amount in order to move up the money chain. After winning $25,000; the player can’t leave with less than that. After six successful rounds, the player wins $1,000,000. Not completing a goal in any round loses money won up to that point and the player leaves with the last milestone.
I get to be the person who few agree with as usual: I’m just not a big fan. I can stand the game play if necessary but even then I have issues. We get more gameplay out of the first few minutes than we do in the money round, the round they are actually trying to promote more. It’s the issue I had with Friend or Foe?. They answered more questions in that last 60 seconds than they do in the rest of the game. On Password it’s basically the reverse of that: more game play in the first five minutes of a game than the actual portion they promote. And I still don’t think the money round format works. This comes from me, again, just not thinking Password works for a million dollar format, at least in the format we have here which is essentially Pyramid without the giant pyramid.
My main issue with the show is the presentation. The set’s nice and fine, but the rest is just not working. The constant applause after each word is distracting and throws off the vibe of what they are wanting to make: a tense word game. And that’s not working either. I’m feeling no tension or connection, I’m just watching. The music is bland background noise like I’d expect from Chain Reaction. I feel like I’m watching Sony’s Pyramid, to be quite honest. The never ending whooshes and sound effects get old very quickly as well. Again, just like Pyramid. Regis almost seems out of his game here. He gets no chance to connect with contestants which is what he was good at. Donny Osmond from Pyramid would have been just as good and probably cheaper. But they seemed to advertise the show on the fact that it had Regis which was a troubling sign to me from the start. No, this is far from a bastardization of a format like Fremantle did with Temptation. And who knows, maybe this will lead to a syndicated series eventually which is where this show works. However, it’s not working as a dramatic format, the presentation is just too much, and it needs more even pacing.
[rating: 3.5/5]
Someone sedate the audience during the :30 rounds, please. The applause is a deterrent to the contestants. Also, Doogie Howser is terrible as a Password player. Let’s see how the bonus round works. . . .
So far, they gave this show the polish it deserved–the music and stage are spot-on. The elimination round certainly ends quickly, but at least they give the interaction between the contestant and celebrity during what apparently is the main game. I think that the hurdle of risking all money earned will soon keep this from being interesting–if the words are getting harder, why not just let the contestants play until they fail out normally and give them the money from the level they stopped at? Who honestly is going to play for the million, knowing they have to get every one of the most difficult words correct? I hope I’m proven wrong later in the show.
Giving away $1,000,000 or more is such a cliche now. But yes, not great password players. I’m betting that this show would feature a $1,000,000 win.
How come that this game uses the same gameplay format as “Power of 10?”
So far, it’s pretty decent, but there’s too much audience sweetening going on, esp. when someone gets a word right.
The no returning champions rule sucks, but it’s apparently par for the course nowadays…
Regis seems right at home and that doesn’t surprise me, I like the pace of the main game and the bonus round, the set is incredible, SFX & theme music are typical for this day and age,
I don’t like the $25,000 safety, it seems to come too soon. if it were at $50,000 it would be better. It seems unnecessary to me to have a $1M prize, a $100,000 prize would have sufficed. and yeah Neil is pretty bad but the show hasn’t been on for 19 years, after a few shows people will pick up tricks and strategies and that will improve gameplay. also, i think it should be contestant’s choice on their celb. partner for the bonus round instead of basing it on who they did better with, especially since she didn’t get to finish her round with Rachel Ray, and I don’t think a 3-clue limit is totally necessary here either, maybe 5 clues or no limit, but I like the 90 second limit it keeps the game moving.
Perhaps I was a bit harsh on NPH up there. He tightened up a bit in the big money round. Mr. Power speaks the truth when he says that the $25k safety comes to soon. Another one at 100k might help the contestants along a bit, and guarantee us another round when the money gets high. And a “here is your first word” from Regis might be nice here and there, coming from an old Pyramid fan. I always thought those were dramatic words.
Four words: The preview is brilliant. That might be the most amazing way to entice people to go higher. I’m actually glad they thought of that!
I like the preview, although the producers “shafted” the hell out of him with fiasco. His clues were brilliant up until corner. NPH did all he could. Good show.
After seeing the whole thing, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not your grandfather’s Password.
And I still liked it. Fremantle made changes that actually bring the show into the 21st century. I give it a B. Stop with the audience sweetening, and I’ll like it even more.
First thoughts right after seeing the episode:
1) Agree on the audience, needs to stay quiet during the word rounds themselves.
2) I thought Regis was ok, but he’s not the center of this show. They probably would have done just as well with somebody less famous and have the two celebrity players be the focus.
3) I thought the rounds themselves were good. I think the contestant should get to choose who they are partnered with on the money ladder though.
4, and biggest point) There is no way I would go for the million with this format, even with the preview. Absolutely not. The bar needed to clear is too insanely high. I doubt many will even go for the 250K, so my solution (to at least insure longer second segments) is either having two guarantees at 25 and 100K or move the single guarantee up to 50K.
I’m in agreement with you Alex. This is not a format for a million dollar show. But it’s not a bad show overall. Personal verdict: lower the top prize and move it to syndication.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised as well.
The elimination round is almost a bit more like “Pyramid” meets “Password”, but, I think it retains enough of being Password to work.
The “Million Dollar Game” I think worked pretty well, considering they were trying to get it in the “Millionaire” step-style of game that basically any prime time game show seems to have to do at this point.
I agree that ‘fiasco’ was an incredibly hard word, but, I think that was the point. The five words he was previewed were pretty doable, which is why they do the preview I think, although if you got caught up on one (like he did with “corner”. My 3 clues, although would I have thought of them on the show?…. billiards, pocket, siiiide…), then you are stuck with a hard word with no pop-culture or common thing you can link to it, like fiasco. Obviously he got caught being the first contestant, so, he wasn’t aware of that. Now people will know, you’d BETTER get it with the five they show you, or else you are stuck with a near impossible word.
My guess is that they’ll also “preview” the 5 words for the Million. Another thing they might do (I have no idea, just seems like would help get people to go for it) is actually give SIX possible words, and if the contestant decides to go for it, they can pick which word gets thrown out before they play the “5 out of 5″. Almost more of a psychological thing (“Hey, I can pick which words I do!”), but, it would help get more people to go for it.
It was somewhat better than I thought it’d be.
Neil Patrick Harris (for anyone who didn’t know what NPH stood for before this post) certainly came around during the main game. Although I do agree that $25,000 is a little too early to grant a safety net (then again, I have a feeling they will be a few players who will stumble at the 25 or even 10 grand mark). One thing that should’ve happened at the end of each failed main game is that Regis should chime in with a few alternative clues the contestant/celeb should’ve used (like Bert Convy used to do on Super Password).
Also, that female contestant in the second elimination round really screwed up (and Rachel Ray did better than I thought she would have).
I agree that the numerous applause is unnecessary (like the contestants concentrate, please). A couple other gripes I have are the fact that you have to wait for your partner to take a guess before you can move on to the next clue (this is all find and good in the main game, but in the elimination round, it’s annoying and unnecessary) and the numerous camera jump cuts/edits (I thought an ADD-beleaguered child was operating the editing booth).
All gripes aside, this show certainly has promise (though I’d still like to see Super Password make a return, this time in syndication).
I thought that the show was pretty good. Going to break it down here:
Host- Regis is as good as expected. (9/10)
Gameplay- The beginning elimination game is basically the bonus round of the original password in the 60′s but with two contestants and two celebs to see what contestant can get the most words. It works well. The big money round after is good too. I was skeptical of the concept but it’s executed fairly well. The only gripe I have is with the 3 clue limit. There has been many times in password bonus rounds in which they used a lot of time on one word and still came back to win. Instead maybe for each round they should cut the time down maybe 5 seconds each level. This will allow the player to use their time better instead of wasting it trying to think of a good clue while still making it harder. I would also up the safety level to $50,000 instead of $25,000. (8.5/10)
Set- The set is pretty nice. It’s typical but it’s still nice. I like how the floor elevates during the big money round. (8/10)
Music- Again typical. Doesn’t sound anything different from most game shows these days. It would of been better if they would have remixed an old password theme in some way. (7/10)
Overall-8 out of 10
The show is good. Some old time password fans may not like it but I personally feel that the format used in previous passwords would bore most these days who aren’t familiar with the previous passwords. They had to speed up the gameplay to keep the attention of today’s typical television viewer. The celebs weren’t the best in playing but I’m pretty sure that they will get better when they came back (that is if they do). I was really rooting for the guy who’s stuff got robbed during the big money round. For fiasco, I would of gave the clue “lupe” (which is also the name of a famous hip-hop artist). But Anyways, I can see this show having a good run as long as CBS doesn’t change it’s time (like they did with Power of 10).
Oh and also, the preview of the words during the big money round is a great way to make the player consider moving on. Great idea.
Just a question with the “fiasco” word…
Is emphasizing part of the word illegal? My thought is, give a clue like “CriSCO” or “NabiSCO”. And then two words to try to make them think of fiasco, and hopefully they got the hint that it ends in “SCO”.
^No it isn’t illegal. They do it with some words during the show if they are opposites (player can tell in the tone of voice if the word is an opposite).
I personally think that “lupe” would of been the best clue since lupe fiasco is a popular hip-hop artist but I doubt that Neil would have gotten it.
I really like Million Dollar Password. Regis is a great host. NPH really showed that he was a good Password player. I’m glad Fremantle didn’t screw up Bob Stewart’s creation. I’ll be tuning in every Sunday for Million Dollar Password. I bet Allen, Tom and Burt are pleased right now. Can’t wait to see Betty!
The Password is CRAP! What was this? I was interested, but it did not deserve the name Password. The front game, what 90% of the original game was, is reduced to Pyramid with one word clues. The pacing is so quick that if you blink, you forget the other contestant and celebrity existed. The million dollar round is just horrible. Does every new game show have to have a money tree and play for a million? Plus, what was with all the music in the background? Watch shows on GSN, and you’ll hear something very interesting…silence. Does everything have to be so fast paced with music in between? do producers actually think that 5 seconds of quiet will get people to go, “OMG! This is so boring. I’m switching to MTV?” I’m sorry, but the more I watch GSN and see how game shows have gone to crap in the past decade the more I love the classics. There is actually some tension without music. The continuous background music gave me a headache.
Sorry about my ramble, but I really did not like this. It seemed polished, but for THIS day and age. Password is not supposed to be like this. Password was such a tense and dramatic show. Freemantle has tarnished yet another franchise.
There are two good things about this, though. Regis and the time slot. Regis is always good, but in this format, he doesn’t really get a chance to be himself. 8PM on Sundays assures this show being a hit.
I can’t really say anything that hasn’t been said already. Good show, I think the format has been updated nicely.
Also, yes, they indeed had the foresight to add a “preview” for the upper levels! Contestants will be enticed to go on, even though it still will be hard to find people who might try for the million. But, I feel the point is, make the Million hard, but certainly not impossible to win. They have that here.
I hope we see some bigger winners next week, and in the weeks ahead. One week features Rosie O’ Donnell, and from what we’ve heard, she was an “impressive” player. And of course, Ms. Password herself, Betty White is also featured! Can’t wait for that.
I think the new version is great. True, the new changes make the game go quicker…but, I got used to it. The $25,000 safety is probably to early…but a lot of shows (e.g. Lyrics and 5th grader) have an early safety zone (and no other), so I thought this was par for the course.
I remember the older versions (and watch them on GSN). I’m glad they didn’t change how a clue is ruled illegal.
The only thing I would change is this: if the receiver doesn’t know it right away, let the giver know right away by saying “clue” quicker. By “thinking about it”, you’re wasting time. I had the same problem on “The Weakest Link”…only this time, you’re screwing with one contestant’s money…not a shared jackpot…but that could change (I hope).
I’ve never been crazy about Regis…but that’s just a personal decision. But, this time, he’s mainly in the background. I liked how he let the players play the game…and not trying to take over.
As for the “fiasco” fiasco (pun intended), it was $250,000…he had already won the $100,000. So, there had to be a catch of some sort. As for going for the Million, I doubt there would be a choice. I think it would just be the 5 words…and that’s it. To me, it would resemble the original “lightning round”…5 words in a certain time limit (in that case, one minute). Except, in the lightning round, they could pass…it was $50 per word…but they couldn’t return to a passed word. I think being forced to play all 5 words is a good rule for $1,000,000. After all, in most shows (if not all), there isn’t any lee-way (sp?) when they go for $1,000,000…in fact, in 5th Grader, the cheats disappear for the Million Dollar Question. So, having to deal with every single word seems fair to me.
As a final thought, Password was known to aid in educating students for the entire time it was on. Maybe students will use this tool again.
I think “fiasco” rather appropriately sums up the “million dollar” money round. There are some good things–but there are definitely some kinks in the format that need to be worked out. Regis, the NPH, and Rachel Ray were just fine–Harris in particular was trying to have some fun with the format, which a lot of celebrities on these shows don’t do. And Regis was his usual self, inasmuch as the format permitted.
I find myself not minding the structure of the rounds in the money ladder. It’s essentially an extension of the “Ca$hword” format from “Super Password.” Five right in 90 seconds with no reference point–and the audience distractions and clue limits–seems reasonable.
The main issue right now, like everybody else, is with the structure of the money ladder itself. After watching this first episode, they should rename the show from “Million Dollar Password” to either “$100,000 Password” or “Idiots-Flushing-Large-Amounts-of-Money-Down-the-Drain Password.” I think the problem is that they picked contestants with decent, but not solid, playing ability. I would have taken a look at “canteen” and “corner,” figured one of them would be a no-go, realize that I have no clue what the next word might be, and take my $100K and run.
I also agree with the posters above who have complaints with the main game. They could use a shortened version of the original Password format, with clues alternating between teams, and worth one less point each time it gets passed back and forth. (Say, 5 points and counting down.) First team to 20 or 25 points wins a round; first team to win two rounds advances to the bonus round. Alternatively, they could make the main game more exciting by making it a cash game, X dollars per word (500-1000, perhaps).
OK!! Julia, take a chill pill!!! Fremantle did not entirely tarnish this one. I liked the show very well, and it did go better than most people would’ve thinked. I really got into that last round where the guy ALMOST won $250,000. My three clues for “CORNER” would’ve been “STREET”,”POINTY”, and “SHAPE”. The money tree is a bit distorted with the next level after $250,000 being $1,000,000 but overall, this was a good show. Fun to watch.
What game show will Regis Philbin’s corpse host? He’s 76, not early to decide. This version of PW sucks donkey ass.
Well, as a big Password fan and a big Pyramid fan, I kinda like how they married them. It is paced like Pyramid and plays like Password.
They said that this would take the best parts of all of the previous versions of Password. It doesn’t. It’s the original lightning round on crack. But I kinda liked it.
Regis was great. The celebrities were OK…not great, but most of the great Password and Pyramid celebs grew into it over time. If this show takes off, the stars will be OK.
And I loved how the players introduced the civilians, just like on the original.
Here’s what I didn’t like:
Password was a serious game played for fun. The tone of MDP is all deadly dramatic and tense. Hopefully they’ll lighten up in time. And would someone please compose some decent game show music for a change?!
The Games are the same: the elimination game is pretty much exactly the same as the bonus round. I’d like to see them add the “Password Puzzles” from P+ to the elimination game…still do five in 30 sec., but have the passwords lead to the identity of a person, place or thing. The more Passwords you get, the more clues you have to guess the puzzle. Guess the puzzle correctly for two bonus points.
Too many “bonus rounds”: six rounds is way too many for a bonus game. Since this show is mighty Pyramid-flavored already, might as well go all the way. Keep the money tree, but give the player the choice of leaving with their winnings, or risking it by facing another contestant to get to the next rung.
I liked the set, But I didn’t like that the players were standing. NPH had his hands in his pockets the entire show. Looked awkward.
Is 90 seconds too long? They only get 3 clues per password. Tonight, when they lost, it wasn’t because they ran out of time. They ran out of clues. One minute might suffice.
But hey, I wasn’t expecting it to be perfect. I didn’t really expect to like it much, but I did like it…a lot. If the ratings were decent, I hope the folks at Sony were taking some notes for the inevitable Pyramid revival.
I was not expecting good things from this version, I came away pleasently suprised. I am a password fan from the ABC days (later the + and Super versions) I agree with the what everyone is saying the audience clapping etc. Ill be watching, finally a show that Fremantle didn’t completely destroy.
I found it quite entertaining myself. I also thought the preview at the $250,000 level is a great idea to dangle a carrot for the players to go on. And then, they spring “fiasco” on you. Genius.
I realized that the money round is like a bunch of Super Password’s Ca$hwords. The format worked quite well, I think. Rachel Ray, however, needs to stick to cooking. :P
Looking forward to the next episode!
This show is not Password. It’s “One-Word-Clue Pyramid” without the categories. While both shows are Bob Stewart creations, that doesn’t give them the right to mesh them together and call them the name that Freemantle owns. If Sony put this together it would have the same format and be called Million Dollar Pyramid, and the Winner’s circle would be a little different, but not much, from the MD Password format. Very sad. Does anyone have any new ideas these days? Plus, the show is dramatic enough. You do not need to add fake drama to a former format that had enough to begin with.
I might watch next week, if I’m home. If it sucks just as bad as this week, I won’t give it another shot.
Bring back the Super Password/Password + format, please. Watching them today made me realize just how great they were, and watching tonight’s MD Pyramid bastardization made me realize how much crap Freemantle produces nowadays. If the show hasn’t been around since before Freemantle (i.e. TPiR and Family Feud), any remake by them will suck horribly.
Wow! So far this is pretty bad.
For starters password in general is suppose to be a laid back game. Even Super Password as intense as it got in times was laid back. Which is why with the time limit in the elimination round just kills it. It feels too much like Pyramid. Also like everybody else has said the celebs aren’t great password players which is vital.
The bonus round even feels like Pyramid especially when Regis says “Do you want to give or recieve?”. In general it’s unforgiving especially since there is a three word limit and a timelimit. What was wrong with alphabetics?
The only things I liked was the set and Regis. The music sucks.
In general this is too much like Pyramid and doesn’t resemble the previous passwords. More importantly it doesn’t have the charm that those passwords had either which is probably why it will get canceled in a couple of weeks..
I’m a lifetime game show fan, with a special place in my heart for word-association games, particularly Password. As such, I became really nervous about “Million Dollar Password” after reading Alex’s preview of it, and seeing the trailers.
After having watched the show, I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I thought it really clicked, and was a very good modern interpretation. In trying to respond to some previous comments:
The host: Regis is, like him or not, associated with the idea of giving away $1,000,000. Thanks to “Millionaire,” just having him on makes the show mean something to the general public, even if it doesn’t have that effect on hardcore game show people.
The qualifying game: I won’t call it the main game, because what you’re all calling the bonus game is actually the main. The qualifier is just a means to an end, like on “Power of 10.” That said, it moves quickly, but not frenetically, and I thought it was quite exciting. It will be even moreso once some players show up that are better at the game.
The celebrities: Gotta promote the CBS properties, I guess. Harris was fine; Rachael Ray was actually outclassed, I think. The only problem here is that one celebrity winds up being featured the entire show, while the other becomes an afterthought if they do poorly in the qualifier.
The main game: I’m in the minority, but I think the money ladder really works. I like the safety at $25,000 because it is fairly easy to accomplish, but is a big fall from the higher levels. Also, the jumps from 100k to 250k and from 250k to 1 million are good, because you’re allowed to preview the words. If you’re playing well, you don’t mind risking 75k for another 150k, and you might even get a sense that risking 225k for 750k is a good idea, if you’re very confident in your partner. It’s enough of a payoff to make the risk worth it. The only change is that if you lost on the million-dollar game, I’d give an extra $5,000 per word right, as a bonus for trying, added to the guaranteed $25,000. That way, they’ve got SOMETHING for the attempt.
Overall: I really enjoyed it. The pacing was much faster than any other iteration of “Password,” but I don’t think the average viewer today is cerebral enough for the methodical pace we’re used to. However, this might just be the bridge to get “smart” games back in vogue, and might set the stage for “Pyramid” to return, done right this time.
Its not bad, but its just not the same game. I miss the puzzles of P+ and Superpassword, it really made you put everything together and think. It was also really the only way pop culture references today, and it would have been interesting to have compared todays references with those of shows past.
I also agree with the previous poster that no one looks like they are having fun anymore. I miss the host/celebrity/contestant/banter, which Regis would have been great at.
Personally, I would have just liked to have seen SP but just make the alphabetics round with higher stakes. Maybe if this show does well that is what they will do in syndication?
Can’t wait to see Betty, though!