“Minute” Renewed, ABC Orders Skyscraper Game Show

Today has been an interesting day for game shows.  The resounding word seems to be, “What?”

*First off, NBC has semi-shockingly renewed their new stunt game show Minute to Win It for another series of episodes.  We may see some in the summer.  I say shockingly because I don’t know if anyone has noticed the ratings but they suck a bit.  They’re barely pulling in above a 3.5 rating, which is not good, and it’s not doing that well in the key demographic either.  I applaud them for at least fixing the issues with the show (through editing) and making it far less stupid than it originally was.

I’m just shocked to hear of a renewal already.  Million Dollar Password was pulling in nearly double the people (and not that far away in the key demographic) and it got pulled.  1 VS 100 had far better ratings and got pulled.  The only saving grace for this show is the cost effectiveness.  If this show was, say, something very similar like The Cube which costs some cash to do, it would have been gone quickly.  But it’s dirt cheap apparently.  They use stuff in my office kitchen to play and I imagine Guy Fieri, the host, can’t be that expensive.  He apparently gets paid per shout since he never seems to stop.  But regardless congratulations to the show.  You may want to pick up those ratings a bit, though.  If NBC wasn’t so desperate it would have been gone.  CBS can bring on The Cube any time now, by the way.

*ABC has ordered a new game show from Fremantle called Downfall.  This one confuses me, so bear with me.  The show is set on top of a skyscraper (an actual one) and gives contestants up to $1,000,000 in cash and prizes.  The catch is if the contestant loses their winnings will go off the side of the building.  The player won’t, at least as of now.  They say they are looking into how to make that work but I doubt it’ll happen.  So you’ll just see dollar bills fall off a building.  Is this a bit confusing and strange to anyone else?

Again, this is going to be a cost issue.  I doubt this would be any more to do than Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  The difference is with Downfall ABC doesn’t have to order any studio time, and that’s a big saver there.  It’s definitely debuting this summer for an unknown number of episodes.  We’re clearly and obviously not getting the full picture of the show here of what the show is and Fremantle typically does well (except for a few instances coughTemptationcough) so this could turn out to be interesting.  Seems awfully familiar to a show that would actually be a tense, scary show like they want to make it seem, though…