“Minute to Win It” Not Returning Fall 2011
In our recent Facebook question, we asked readers if they believe NBC’s struggling Minute to Win It would return for another season. A majority of people believed it would. I’ve got bad, but expected, news. NBC released their Fall 2012 schedule and Minute to Win It is absent. The show will finish up its run this summer and it looks to be cancelled after that. There’s still no definitive word on when the NFL will return and that will leave a massive gap on NBC’s schedule, and survived with its meager ratings because of its affordability, so you can’t necessarily count it out. However, it’s not looking good.
Minute to Win It began in March 2010 and has evolved greatly over its short history. Regular viewers like you never saw the original version of the show including extra models, smoke machines, slow motion replays, and more. They completely edited these things out before the series started, and it made the show far more enjoyable than it would have been. After the first few episodes the show changed to a lighter tone and mainly involved couples playing for the still-unwon million dollar top prize. The show’s never been a giant hit, but has enjoyed a loyal following.
I’ve got a lot of issues with the show, but I’m impressed it’s been on the air for this long. Something happened with the show this year, though. It became pretty good at the end of last year and started to become its own entity. It had its own unique identity and was pretty fun to watch. The show jumped jumped off the deep end the past few months, though, and never recovered. It took Deal or No Deal two or three years to become the circus that Minute became in months.
Regardless, though, I wouldn’t have expected something like this to stay on for the length of time it did, it produced a few exciting moments, and it always does the game show genre well to have a show enjoy some popularity. I doubt we’d be seeing the large amount of game shows this summer without it, so there’s thanks for that at least. We’ll see if it ends up anywhere else. ITV has their revamped version in production now so we’ll keep you posted on that.
Glad the show is leaving. Watched it tonight for the first time completely through (only because it was on before Celeb. Apprentice). Guy is OK for a host, but unfortunately his “Food Network” persona will always follow him. The show takes way too many commercials at weird spots in the show, and what is up with that pop/dance theme song they play about “Get Up Get Up…Cause the Party Don’t Stop Now”? when they start, return and when someone finishes a challenge?
Seems extremely out of place to me.
so you’d rather have Retchel Ray host the show?
I know Alex doesn’t agree with me on this, but in my opinion, the first 10 episodes of Minute to Win It were better than the entire rest of the series. During the first 10 episodes, the game show had an actual theme song, as opposed to this “Get Up” song. Also, more emphasis was placed on the games and the program was more serious in nature, along with the seriousness of winning a potential $1,000,000.
After the first 10 episodes, I didn’t like the direction the show was going in. NBC replaced the theme song, they started making practically every episode with 2 or more people instead of just 1 person (of which many times the contestants were beautiful girls with whom I classified as “eye-candy”), and the show started not only dragging out episodes, but also focusing on each contestant having an extremely sad and depressing story to justify them being on the show to win money.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think NBC had a good game show to start off with — until they changed it completely and ruined the tension involved with a prize of this magnitude. They made the show so family-oriented that it didn’t seem to be worthwhile of a “Million Dollar” primetime game show — more like a game show that could be aired during the daytime like Let’s Make a Deal or The Price Is Right.
NBC seems to have this knack for producing great game shows, then deciding they have too much tension in them, so they choose to increase the lighting on the set and make it more cheery and family-friendly. We’ve seen this with Deal or No Deal, 1 VS 100 and Minute to Win It.
Not necessarily saying a family-friendly game show is a bad idea, but whatever happened to the days of Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Regis Philbin and Greed? Now that was a time when high-stakes game shows actually had REAL tension in them.
And of course NBC has sat on Concentration for two decades. But people would cry foul if it were brought back as a big-money show. Some people cried foul about Million Dollar Password even.
Drat! I find “Minute to Win It” an interesting show. It’s a shock that it might end.
I’m glad to see the show put out its misery.
The first season I felt was the best. It started out feeling extremely derivative of the Cube, with the dark set and no emphasis on fun or anything. When they made the changes to everything mid-season, I thought that the show finally grew into its own, and rather than being the generic, false-tension filled, and mediocre 20 minutes of show it was before, by the end of the season the show had a good balance of fun and real (not manufactured) tension, with the lighter set and far less yelling from that god-awful host. I actually disagree with Scott on this point, and think that they made the show actually more fun and family-friendly, which actually helped make a silly show like MTWI
The second season was what truly killed the show in my eyes. It was absolutely awful! I was shocked to find the theme replaced by pop crap, and the wonderful blueprint theme replaced with more pop music, the sound that was the signature of the show (the clock circle beeping) replaced with a low drone, and what I think made American DoND unbearable; “You thought your grandma was dead, but turn around!” (Cue lots of crying, sappy pop songs, and 10 minutes of time they could have spent playing the game wasted). I had to turn the TV off after two episodes, when the show became DoND but quite possibly more unbearable.
I think this could be shopped around for syndication for the 2012-13 season. But they need to retool and have players or teams competing with one another. Play stunts, award points/dollars, winner at the end plays a bonus stunt for big money.
You know what Minute and Deal have in common? They both have players playing against the house. Sure, it allows the host to root on the player, but that’s what also allows them to pull off the sob story gimmick. Millionaire did it right by not going down that road, but that’s a tough quiz where a gimmick like that isnt ever welcome anyways.
The set, in my opinion, is a big improvement over the original, and I like the addition of the Blueprint Bonus. The latter is getting stale because there are only two they give out (extra life and 10 bonus seconds)- maybe if they added others like Switch the Blueprint or some variation on how many extra seconds to receive, then it would be a little better. Still, it was a good addition.
Depending on the soap/talk show genres as of next year, we may even see this show get a shot in network daytime.
I’ve had some people email me this and, I don’t know, I just don’t see it happening. NBC plugged the crap out of it, but it was never really that popular. They made it seem like it was, but it wasn’t. It had a small, loyal following and it did OK this past summer, but it never attracted a big group of viewers. At least it never attracted anything remotely close to the level of viewers that Deal or No Deal and Fifth Grader did at their peak. And those only lasted two seasons in syndication. I think it would end up going down worse than Don’t Forget The Lyrics. I just can’t see that much interest in a daily version.
I’m not convinced that Minute to Win It would work in Daytime or Syndication. Game shows that succeed in a five day a week format tend to be games that the viewer can play along with, answering trivia questions (Jeopardy & Millionaire), solving puzzles (Wheel of Fortune), or any other format involving games of personal knowlwdge (pricing games on TPIR). I think the main reason Deal or No Deal did not succeed in syndication is that the viewers cannot play along. All they can do is root for the contestant. And because a lot of the primetime elements were cut, presumably to make budget (only 2 of 26 models were retained and replaced by potential contestants with the 2 models barely seen, 4 less suitcases, and a jackpot cut in half), it felt like a poor imitation.
I think Minute to Win It is very much like DoND. Viewers can’t really play along, so the main entertainment value is rooting for the contestant. Could get old really quick five days a week, especially if it’s put up against stiff competition in individual local markets.
This is just a thought. Maybe “Minute” might take a break for the fall and come back in January, just like last year.
Oops! DId I type the same thing twice? Sorry about that.
That’s what I’m thinking. MTWI is probably going to take a fall hiatus and come back in December or January, just like last season. In addition to the ongoing NFL lockout and there being no definitive answer to when football may be coming back, there may as well be an emergency hole in the lineup where NBC could slot Minute to Win It.
Hey Guy,
I hope you’re right. I found this to be a fun, light-hearted show. I was good entertainment. Hope it makes a comeback. I liked Guy Fieri, too!
This is just a thought. Maybe “Minute” might take a break during the fall, and come back in January, just like last year.
Yeah, it didn’t return for the fall last year but it did return in January after 3 holiday specials in December which actually started the season. So I think the major difference between Deal or No Deal and Minute to Win It is that while Deal started their new season in the fall, Minute started their new season in the winter. It is a major possibility so don’t give up on hope.
Generally the broadcast networks announce all of the mid-season shows it plans to air through spring when they announce the fall schedule. So unless NBC has an emergency hole in the schedule to fill due to extreme duds getting the quick hook, (We are talking NBC) I can’t see a return to network for Minute To Win It until the summer of 2012, if at all.
’twas a fatal move to expand it to two hours.
NBC does the same dang thing with every decent game…they run it into the ground. They’ll do it with the next one too.
But there’s a chance by this time in three years NBC as we know it won’t exist. Comcast might put it out of its misery if they have another failed season…which, given the proposed schedule, is likely.
I’m not surprised that MtWi is canned. The latter part of the run was too much chit-chat and not enough gameplay. I think the team format hurt the ratings.
If there is no season for NFL Football this year (a distinct possibility!), then we might not count “Minute to Win It” out just yet. The Peacock is going to need filler programming, and fast!
The last time that there was a strike against the NFL was about thirty years ago. NBC tried running Canadian football, but the ratings were less than stellar. Despite the differences, so-called red-blooded American football fans thought that Canadian football was for wusses! (Not so, actually, but tell that to Joe Sixpak!)
“Minute To Win It” tried several formats after it returned in the Spring of last year. Its “Last Man Standing” format (used twice) was its best, and provided the most suspenseful moments the show had–without having to milk sob-stories for more than they were worth.
They settled on a teams format–father/son, mother/daughter, BFFs, odd couples–it’s a wonder that they didn’t have Worst Enemies!
If I were plumping MTWI for a syndicated try, I’d go with the “Last Man Standing” format. Five games can go into a half-hour, with five contestants at the start, and the Last One Standing then trying for a moderately-difficult bonus stunt.
As for the Home of the Three Chimes–they have stumbled upon a hit with “The Voice”. Not my cup o’tea, but they seem to be enjoying it, and ratings are higher than anything that NBC has had with the exception of NFL Football.
Man, most game shows getting axed this year. First 5th Grader, Lyrics, & I learn Money Drop may also getting ax as well, & now Minute is next? I guess it was the great run & I think the show might end up airing reruns on GSN in a near future.
As the blueprint voiceover would say “Your Game is Over”.
I wasn’t really much on this show. I have seen worse gameshows though like Card Sharks 01. I am waiting to hear more about NBC gameshow Still Standing and an airdate. Minute It to Win It was ok but for me it wasn’t much see tv for me like Deal or NO Deal or 1 VS 100 was. I’d like to see Deal Or No Deal come back like it was the first season and make contestants have 30 seconds to choose. As far as Minute It To Win It it was ok. I’m hoping Still Standing will be awesome.
Unless NBC’s new shows tank in the ratings (which is VERY possible), MTWI will probably be seen weekly on GSN or maybe The Hub. This was basically “Beat the Clock” on steroids.
Comcast is likely keeping the show “in reserve”. The NFL Lockout will likely mean shows “in reserve” will be ready just in case.