19Jul2011
NBC’s “It’s Worth What?” Debuts Tonight at 8:00PM ET
Another new game show is entering the Summer primetime schedule tonight. NBC will debut its newest effort, It’s Worth What?, tonight at 8:00PM ET. The show has had a long history dating back to GSN when it was under a more flea market-like format. The current show is more like The Price is Right with antiques. A couple attempts to build a bank by gauging which antiques or collectables are worth more than others. The couple can win up to $1,000,000 throughout the show.
NBC supplied us with a few more video previews and behind the scenes videos. Take a look below. Be sure to let us know what you think of the show tonight after it debuts. Did it live up to your expectations? Good or bad? Let us know.
2 Hours of Game Shows Tonight. First, It’s Worth What? premieres at 8 pm and then an all-new 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show at 9 pm.
Surely an exciting night for all! =D
This is a nice showroom of antiques, no question about it, but I still say that it’s an antique version of Price’s “Most Expensive.” Why eat up money to produce a show here when there’s a whole pricing game’s worth of gameplay? I prefer Price to do an antique edition of “Most Expensive.”
Just got finished watching and I was pleased — I’ve gotten in the bad habit of fast-forwarding to the big-money rounds on most game shows, but I watched this show all the way through and had a great time.
The good:
- The concept is great
- The set designers get bonus points for the scoreboard.
- Thanks to the producers for bucking a horrible trend and not teasing the reveals just to head to a commercial.
- I liked overall prize and bonus structure.
On the criticism side:
- Obvious voiceovers hurt the experience a little; maybe nothing to be done about that.
- One of the games felt like foul play — it looked designed to trip the contestants up. In retrospect, I probably just felt like the contestants thinking was too solid, but it came off sour to me.
The thing I see as the BIGGEST problem that needs changing ASAP is how small the prices appear. It might just be that I’m getting old, but surely there are older viewers out there.
Nevertheless, a very good production. I’ll be tuning in next week.
My expectations weren’t really all that high at first for this show, because NBC had previously demonstrated that they loved cramming 30 minutes of pointless time-wasting padding to take what could fit in half an hour into a one-hour show. Although after NBC’s promos actually used the words “game show” and focused on the game, I figured it was worth a shot.
And I simply have to say, thank you, NBC, for cutting down on the padding. It may not be what I’d call “fast-paced”, but for the first time in recent memory (since 1 vs. 100 left the schedule, I think), you actually aired something in primetime without making me roll my eyes and predict (correctly) two minutes of filler followed by a commercial. It’s a vast improvement over virtually everything else we’ve seen in the US in the past few years.
One thing that did bug me, though, was the “sure sure”. I realize they probably need a phrase to confirm locking in an answer for legal and S&P reasons, like Millionaire’s famous “final answer”, but they couldn’t come up with anything less corny?
Overall, it was pretty good, and definitely better than I expected, but it still has room for improvement.
Agreed on the “sure sure” repetition. That and Cedric’s constant asking of “it’s worth WHAT?” when he calls for the reveal of a price of an item got old quick..
That also *might* be a legal department issue — but then again, you never heard Bob Barker, Drew Carey, et al, constantly ask “is the price right?” umpteen times per episode.
Agree! Can’t stand the screeching “it’s worth whaaattttttt”. And I’m sure sure I can’t watch this again! This show is not going to last. I hope!
I didn’t care for the constant repeating of, It’s Worth What? It didn’t appeal to me, even though some of the antiques where interresting. Right now the host and the hollering the show is not worth muchhhhh!
I guess it was just me but that was a snoozefest. The “Sure, sure?” thing grated on my nerves to the point of insanity! Why is every show has to have some kitchy ass phrase to confirm something? I can see it on the final game for the big money, but the $5,000 one? Come on! The trend needs to end ASAP.
Play along factor is OK, but it’s just flat out guessing. Only a select few have the skill to know what they’re looking at. Prime example being the motorcycle for $13K that the girl thought was $100K. The set was great. The scoreboard was fantastic. Cedric was decent, but the WHUUUUUUT?! thing got old quick.
Can’t see it doing too well. I don’t think the ratings tomorrow will make me say” IT GOT WHUUUUUUUT?!”, but I’ve been wrong before.
I pegged the motorcycle at $15K, and I wasn’t that far off on the golf clubs, but what I thought was really bad that round was two 17th century pieces of art in the same round.
The gameplay is rarely padded, but the commercials are; most of the time, there’s one round per segment. When gameplay padding does happen, it’s when Cedric speaks a bit too deliberately or, more obviously, repeats things that don’t need repetition. We don’t have to hear everything about each item – what is it, which celebrity owned it, how much it sold for – all over again, we’ll just watch the rest of the round!
Chad’s about.com column on games that always end at the end of the episode seems to have made no impact, as the bailout at $80,000 was the only possible option at that time which finished the show in two minutes. If the majority of the drama is stacked in the final game, with eight items, ten minutes of gameplay and up to $1,000,000 in the cash vault, then ruining this part of the game this way hurts the whole show.
Overall, a bit more potential than the generic NBC Primetime Syndrome game show, but the producers need to see the doctor to grow healthy.
It’s now been 20 years since NBC’s own COncentration was last in first-run. Not that that would be a candidate for a primetime revival in this day and age. But NBC could have bought back DOND. I guess if Millionaire were to come back to prime time, it would have to be on ABC because of the Disney connection, no?
Has some potential, but I don’t know if I’ll want to watch more than the one episode.
Set is nice, resembling somebody’s idea of a very upscale antique shop. Scoreboard is also good, making use of big neon numbers.
I’m not sure if I would have gone with Cedric the Entertainer as host. His voice suggests a chronic case of bronchitis! I can see why the producers went with him, hoping that some of the lightning that marked Steve Harvey’s work on “Family Feud” would strike again. A teeny bit of innuendo was allowed to creep in. (But then, television hasn’t honored the old Family Hour in a generation or more!)
Wonder when–or whether–they’ll use a Robert Johnson blues 78 as one of the items up for comparison.
I liked the show overall and was even happier that NBC called it a “game show” in the promos for it. However, there were some points that I found to be in need of improvement, and I’ll talk about those in some detail.
First, I agree with what ARC said above. The prices for the items being displayed are very small and I can see it being a problem for older viewers trying to squint their eyes at the TV set to read them.
Second, it seems like there’s very little risk factor involved in the game with regards to the money earned. We know for a fact that the contestants are going to make it through the entire episode because they’re forced to play all 7 Rounds, so there’s no anticipation until the final Round 8 where they risk it in an all or nothing style. There are no Helps given to the contestant either, so it’s purely a guessing game.
Third, as HARRY put it, the show seems a bit…dry…for me. Perhaps it’s the lack of a theme song, low-key gameplay music and sound effects that got the better of me. I just wanted some nice “thinking” music in the background while the contestants were deciding which items were priced more than others.
And finally, as far as the host is concerned, Cedric was ok, but two things were a HUGE problem.
POOCHY mentioned about Cedric asking the contestants “Are you Sure Sure?” every time they made a decision. This I found REAL CORNY and unnecessary.
Also, as HARRY said above, it began to get annoying when Cedric kept saying, “It’s Worth WHHHHAAAAATTTT!?” with the emphasis on the “What” word. Honestly, even the audience stopped playing along and saying that catchphrase after a while.
Overall, I like it. But these things need to change, especially with the “Sure, Sure” and the “WHHHHHHHHHAAAATTTT!?” statements. I mean, come on. It gets old real quick.
Honestly, I’m getting rather bored with these types of shows………. I’m getting to the stage where I think I’m going to toss the box. I know what you are thinking….. WWWHHHHHAAAATTTTTT?!!
Pretty good, and I love the set and graphics. The games work (I love shows with banking concepts), and Cedric is okay. But the “Sure, sure?” thing is annoying, one half of that pair was a typical NBC contestant, the music sucked, and the “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?” thing was annoying from the start.
The show itself is not the worst thing I’ve seen. A more appropriate name for the show would be “The Price is Right”……ooops, taken huh?
Cedric is a terrible host. You can obviously distinguish between his live dialogue and the tons of post production commentary that’s spliced in because he doesn’t have the chops or information ready to give on cue.
Their “catch phrase”……ughhhhh!!!!! “Are you Sure, Sure?”…. What a un-creative, stupid copy of “Is that your final answer?”. “Are you sure?…are you sure, sure?”…..I’m “sure” they could’ve made a much better choice of catch phrase and host.