“Minute to Win It” Plans a Million Dollar Mission
Well that didn’t take long, did it? Minute to Win It, the modestly rated NBC stunt show, returns to the airwaves on Wednesday, July 7th, following America’s Got Talent. New stunts and ways to play, which they have been experimenting with all last season, will be featured throughout the various episodes. Apparently some new guaranteed levels at the beginning and around the $250,000 level will be added to get people to actually attempt to play the practically impossible million dollar game Super Coin. But that’s not stopping them. The show will be doing a Million Dollar Mission.
Thought those words would be gone since Deal or No Deal has been canceled? Nope, NBC apparently loves the phrase and is using it on Minute to Win It. And they some how made it seem even more dumb than ever. One person in the audience each show will be chosen to compete in the $1,000,000 game, Super Coin, bypassing all the other levels. Even if the actual contestant doesn’t get that far someone in the audience gets it. An audience, mind you, who is already being paid to get there.
That has to be nicest job on the planet. Be what can vaguely be described as attractive and clap and cry on command. You get paid around $10 an hour for it. Now someone gets a guaranteed shot at $1,000,000. The odds of getting chosen from that audience to play have to be far greater than the odds of getting selected as a contestant and then working your way up. NBC is not full of ignorant people. They have to know that this did not bring in more viewers to Deal or No Deal. Why is this supposed to work for Minute?
There’s a simple lesson NBC needs to learn with their shows but they never will. If you want someone to win the million dollars you have to make it winnable. 1 VS 100 gave a fantastic illusion that it could be won, but that’s it. The odds of winning the $1,000,000 on Deal or No Deal was extremely low, so if you want a millionaire you need to have a larger prize. Minute to Win It‘s million dollar game, Super Coin, is above and beyond any million dollar challenge I’ve ever seen. It’s beyond hard. If you want someone to win it then it has to be able to be done. It’s what made Who Wants to be a Millionaire so popular. It’s hard but it is conceivable that anyone entering that studio can win the million dollars. People have that hope. If you showed people the million dollar game for Minute and asked if they could do it, I guarantee you that you won’t find more than 5%.
As long as they don’t ask them to “come on down”, I don’t see much of a problem.
Though I think they should do something like what Greed did, have some sort of “tournament” between the best performing players (maybe like that Last Man Standing competition) for extra money and a chance at $1,000,000
I remember when Curtis won the million on The Beverly Hillbillies Movie! I still can’t get over The Rotten Tuna incident. Has there ever been any other case when someone answered incorrectly a question for 2M or more and left with nothing (or lost a substantial amount but had a milestone)?
Alex: “NBC is not full of ignorant people. ”
You sure about that? At least on the decision-making level, NBC has shown a large amount of corporate ignorance.
OK, actually, it’s just short-term thinking. “How can we juice ratings now? Who cares if we kill the show a year or two earlier? We can always get another show! We need ratings NOW!”
Sadly, they don’t get the ratings AND they kill the show.
It sometimes happens that when desperation comes in the window, common sense goes out the door!
At the Eye or the Alphabet, ratings such as “Minute to Win It” have gotten would have earned a swift cancellation. Evan at Fox, that would have been the same. Perhaps the CW or MY Network, or ION would accept such ratings–in fact, they’d be overjoyed to get such numbers!
Were it my decision to make, I’d junk the “Minute to Win It” title, rename the show “Last One Standing” (no need to discriminate against the ladies, now!), and take it from there! Stunts that didn’t lend themselves well to the competitive format would be shelved. Stunts like “Don’t Blow The Joker” would be used for the higher prize levels–that’s as hard to do as “Super Coin”, any day of the week!
Well, there’s my two cents’ worth!
NBC, you suck! You’re doing all of these gimmicks. They killed DOND with the endless gimmicks, and unlike in DOND, I hope that Minute to Win It tanks terribly and The Cube would be the game show that everyone’s talking about.
I’d go with your idea. Get it out of the “money tree” mindset. I’d miss Egg Roll, though I’d hope they try it with three people left.
Apparently, NBC hasn’t learn from the train wreck that was the Deal or No Deal’s Million Dollar Mission. I’m with Alex on this one. If this didn’t work for Deal or No Deal, what makes them think it would work for Minute to Win It? Can we say Titantic-like Disaster?
Deal or No Deal was not a bad show at all. If it wasn’t for gimmicks like this that show would still be on NBC. I actually think they should bring the show back on a friday or saturday night. But sadly something tells me that this show meets the same fate because NBC has not learned. And there will be protests just like there is for Deal that they cancelled a good show because they messed with a good thing.
Interesting. i actually worked as a “Game Tester” for Minute last year. For 9-days, myself and 9-other people would play 10-different games, 10-times each, with every stat being kept. Attempts, misses, success, time, etc…
Whent he show came on it was interesting to see how most of the challenges actually became easier, than the milestones we needed to complete the game for the testing. For example, we would have to catch 8 or 10-ping pong balls fro one game, when the show was like 3 or something.
Also, the one thing that happens, especially in a game like Super Coin, is fluke luck. We had plenty of times on testing, that someone just nailed something super hard, super quick, just by chance, and then wasn’t able to do it again.
Finally, remember that all the contestants are encouraged to practice and play all the games at home before they come on the show.
I think it will be fun to see the audience members attempt to go for the million.
I like the format of the show. Unlike most game shows out there, you don’t have to be a book nerd to win loads of money. Supercoin is a winnable game just look all over youtube. There are people playing and winning at it. I think the funniest part of this blog is that this guy Alex does not even live around or does not even work in this industry and he thinks he is so much better than us. Lets see you step up and make a show that is going worldwide. You won’t do it.
BTW, almost all shows out here have paid audiences with the exception of a few. This just shows how little you know.
“BTW, almost all shows out here have paid audiences with the exception of a few. This just shows how little you know.”
Hmmm, Jeopardy! Wheel of Fortune, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Price is Right to name a few doesn’t have paid audiences, I can go on if you wish.
Unless you’re the contestants1 friend in the audience, don’t you actually have to pay money to sit in Jeopardy!’s audience? For something like Jeopardy!, it’s obviously worth the money. I just find it funny that people are getting paid like that. It’s almost like being an extra.
First off it’s not unbelievably hard to make an internationally popular show when you’ve been in the business for a while and when you have a show that’s a cheaper version of a critically acclaimed very popular in-demand one and when you’re on a network where pulling barely over 5 million viewers makes you a hit.
Second off I’m in my mid 20s and if I had an internationally popular show right now I fear for the future of television.
Third, I constantly mention the paid audience thing for tons of shows whenever they are available so that’s a moot point.
Fourth, I find it hysterical that the only comments I ever get when I say anything remotely negative, despite my positive reviews of the show as of late, come from Studio City, where the show tapes.
Fifth, I never said it’s flat out impossible. I said practically impossible, and it is. It has to be sheer luck. There’s no skill at this game. There’s no way to practice this and get it down which the show advertises constantly. You’re forcing people to gamble $250,000 (as of late episodes) on a game of odds I can’t even fathom. It’s much easier to just give someone a no-risk chance at it and fluke a win than actually fixing the problem. There’s a game tester even saying it’s fluke luck. Come on.
Look, I’ve praised the show a lot as of lately. I like the show. It’s very difficult to keep praising it when every time I post anything that can remotely be construed as a criticism, I get someone on here insulting me and it’s always from the same location or the same area where, incidentally, the show tapes. I’m a critic. I criticize. That’s my job.
First, inHollywood is a twit. I think that’s a safe statement, if a little coarse. That said, I’m gonna play devil’s advocate to your reply.
1) It’s always hard to make a successful show. Even for NBC. Even when “borrowing” from other formats. You yourself noted how likely this was to suck. It hasn’t. It’s not regular viewing for me, but given the genre and the budget, it’s doing what it’s supposed to.
2) The difference between a format written by fanb0is like you or me and a format written by “professionals” is that the pros are much better at sacrificing gameplay for television. Now recent years have seen that balance tip too far, but that’s a fight for another day. To put it another way, now that you’re seen your first season of podcast game shows close, how would you change the format to make it better?
3) I hate paid audiences, but it’s a necessary evil these days. Yup.
4) You’re more likely to draw comments on a negative review, of course. You review a niche genre, one where uninformed fans are likely to want every game, simply because it’s a game show. You’ve got a more balanced outlook on the thing. But what would you have them do, submit a bunch of “yup, me too” comments? Maybe you can leave your future entries more open-ended. Your posts rarely asks questions that encourage replies, so, yeah, you’re more likely to get comments from pissed off fanb0is.
5) Supercoin is a pattern repeated over and over, and not just by NBC. They have a game with a big prize. They make the big prize too hard to win. They panic and force a win. Even the primetime millionaire’s progressive jackpot was a response to this problem, as they a) wanted to improve ratings, and b) wanted to encourage people to risk big money.
Yes, you’re a critic. But you don’t solely function as a critic. You bounce back and forth between critic, industry insider, and even occasional format host yourself. Unfortunately, you don’t get the luxury of a single title and the umbrella that comes with it.
In that case, Kudos to primetime DFTL! for realizing their mistake quickly enough and having it corrected for their next set of taping. Few, if any, would have risked $475K on a shot in the dark like that. Raising the garuntee to $100K was a smart thing to do (although it did cost contestant Diana Drake $400K, since she wouldn’t have gone for the mil if the garuntee was at $25K).
Then again – there are a finite number of number-one hits, and someone could memorize the words to all of then. They would know for sure that it would be a song that they know.
NBC will never learn, will they. This is what happened to Deal or No Deal. ‘Twas the gimmix and the M$M that killed the show. Minute, on the other hand, not as great as Deal or No Deal, but NBC’s just killing it faster.
Alex Davis, if you’re reading this right not, I’m sorry, but this is my take on it.
Oh it’s cool, man. I like Deal or No Deal and I completely agree with you. My point, ignoring how it’s done for the sake of sanity, is that if the Mission did not gain any viewers for Deal or No Deal, then why do they think it will work for the other show? I think you and I are completely agreeing there.
You never have to apologize to me, haha. Especially when we agree.
Sunday Night Football (the only good thing on NBC) is right around the corner my friends just in case Minute to Win It fails to get a millionaire. We’ll soon get our snf FIX yet this fall.