New Show Opinions
Instead of creating a different post for each show, let’s just do it all in one.
In case you aren’t aware, every game show under the sun starts a new season today. Wheel of Fortune begins its 25th year celebration, Jeopardy! starts a new one, Family Feud gets a new, nice logo with the same fantastic host of John O’Hurley, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? begins its sixth season on its way to its thousanth show, and finally we have the debut of Crosswords (which is quite good) and Temptation (which isn’t quite good to me). Don’t forget tomorrow GSN will start a brand new US season of That’s The Question with a nice set and actual writers! That makes it exponentially better off the bat. What did you think about all the new shows, changes, and such? Mainly, what did you think of Crosswords?
Photo courtesy of Valleycrest Productions.
bah.. Temptation and Crosswords will both be running at 2pm in the Dallas/Fort Worth market.. and the funny thing about that is, I’ve lived here 30 years and have never ever seen a game show air at 2pm here.. so strange that two debut at that time.. Maybe this is a sign that there’s a swing in the game shows vs idiotic courtroom shows balance :D
Im in the middle of a double Temptation block (the season premiere to which the contestant walked after just 1 game) and a later in the year game (Where the “Instant Cash” game was for $100-$100-$3,500) (and increases by $500 each game not won.)
I can see the play of the middle speed round (2 choices) as on the 2nd game, the score was 30-17-68 before it started, and 85-17-68 afterwords.
Got to watch “Temptation” while in the gym. It improved drastically from the “American Idol” previews, which I actually enjoyed. The show has much better pacing, and a pretty nice closing theme song. I just hate the fact that they can’t at least work in some consolation prizes, and/or give the departing contestants the very little money they accumulated (less than $50 in many cases). Even “Crosswords” offers the watch with a logo.
However, it won’t turn me from watching, and I’m happy they worked a few general knowledge questions into the show instead of the pop culture.
“Crosswords” is a pretty fun show too, very easy to play along with.
Here’s why they go faster than heck… they talk and introduce EVERY SINGLE PRIZE in “shoppers paradise”
The Car btw was a Toyota Prius ($850 Temptation price)
I liked both Temptation and Crosswords, but the background music on Crosswords just doesn’t fit. It’s way too light. The concept of the spoilers in the second and third rounds are really cool and some of the clues make me think hard, but that music has to go.
Final Grade on Temptation:
D+
Odds I’ll watch again: 15%
Next up, Crosswords in 60 minutes (again, another double ep)
Anyone else notice that the theme used for “Crosswords” is a remixed theme of “Family Fortunes (the UK verison of Family Feud)”?
I’ll check when it airs here at 3p Central, I’ve currently got the season premiere of Family Feud with the new logo.
Crosswords won’t premier here until 7:30 tonight. I’ll be watching gladiators probably. I’m not sure. I will probably just watch Wheel and Crosswords tonight then go back to Gladiators. I still don’t know when Temptation is on during the day in my area. I didn’t tape Family Feud today, but I’ll probably watch it on Friday.
Okay.
Crosswords: Whoaaaaa the host needs to settle down. I liked the Spoilers round; you can’t really keep your eyes off the action, because there’s almost always a change in the contestants spots. Plenty of chances to earn big bucks in the game with those Crosswords Extras. Bleh, and the host didn’t even acknowledge there was zero time on the clock when the kid won. It was just the same boring stuff over and over again.
Temptation: I threw up a little bit in my mouth. The fame game is laughable, playing Wipeout twice throughout the game is two times too many. I liked the instant bargains, they were k, the final speedround needed to be longer, and having choices for answers is not a very good idea. Make it all general knowledge…which the show lacked immensely. Instant cash was the other thing I also liked. But the rest…yikes.
And Brad, the theme for Crosswords I believe is a remix of a Car Cue that Merv Griffin created for Wheel back in ’89-’92.
Well, I’ve got a double run of “Crosswords” in my area! Followed by double Family Feud! WHOOOOOOO! And get this, I also have on MyNetwork, Feud, Temptations, and Crosswords back-to-back-to-back! Boy, it takes you back doesn’t it? Feud and Crosswords Rock! Temptation, well I hope it grows on me but at least it does resemble Sale somewhat.
Saw Crosswords this morning on WRDC, the MyNetwork affiliate in Raleigh/Durham, and I must say I was more impressed with that show than with Temptation. It was everything that Merv said it would be: fast-paced and challenging. Ty Treadway is as much as a rookie as Rossi Morreale is but the former is more likely to grow on me than the latter. He’s quite okay as a first-time host, though not as great as Todd Newton was
My opinion on the other show is unchanged from when I saw the nighttime preview. I don’t give a CRAP what those other guys at Game Show Forum say, I still believe that they made entirely too many changes to the Grundy format in their efforts to preserve the shopping aspects of the game. Hated the new Fame Game, hated Knockout, hated the home shopping segments, and wasn’t blown away by Rossi as an emcee. At least they kept Instant Cash and improved on it. Should this survive another year, they should at least do it exactly like they do it in Australia and see where that goes and get a better host (nothing against Rossi, but I still think Todd Newton could be more capable of handling a faster-paced format) and make the questions more challenging (pop culture is okay, but throw in some current events and general knowledge into the mix). They also need a female co-host by all means (maybe Brooke Burke could generate some chemistry with the quizmaster).
In short:
Crosswords: B+
Temptation: C- (there’s a lot of room for improvement)
By the way, I believe the name of that theme from Crosswords is called “Buzzword.”
WEAU moved Family Feud to 1:30pm and 2pm (because of Today’s expansion), and WKBT-DT2 (MyNetworkTV affiliate) has Crosswords at 5pm.
While the theme for crosswords was probably used for a car cue on wheel, I’m 98% sure that the theme is the theme for Family Fortunes. Anyways Temptation wasn’t that great imo. The old sale of the century was much more fast-paced. In temptation everything was slow. Rossi is a decent host though. I hate the theme song and the home shopping network segments in between commercials. Overall I can’t see the show lasting for very long. Crosswords is a good show too. The bonus round reminds me of blockbusters since you can work your way around an answer (or in this case a word) you don’t know. Spoilers in the 2nd and 3rd round is a interesting concept but in a way it’s executed poorly/sloppy with players moving back and forth from podiums. The set is pretty decent but I don’t like how the rope light sways. It kinda looks tacky but yeah it’s nothing major. I would give Temptation a D and Crosswords a B-. Onto season premieres, Family Feud made some cosmetic changes. For one there’s a new logo of course to make reference to the Dawson era. Another thing they did to make reference to the Dawson era was have the lights where the audience is sitting behind the board, orange and blue. The new font for the answers on the board is too bold. I prefer the font used before better. Also the font for the family names isn’t that good either. They should use the font used for the family names during the dawson/combs era. Millionaire didn’t make that many changes. For one the big screen shows lifelines when they are in affect and when a question is answered correctly the dollar amount animates on screen. But yeah both shows are still as good as they were last season.
Anyways, can’t wait to see the new Wheel, Jeopardy and TTQ.
The theme music for “Crosswords” is indeed a car cue from Wheel of Fortune from the late 80′s early 90′s. Intellegent777 is obviously from the Boston Area because I get the double crosswords/double Feud on WHDH TV-7. It sucks though that I dont get WZMY(Mytv) except at my mom’s house in Pembroke because she has the satellite dish. So I am going to have to bring my VCR up there to get any chance to judge “Temptation” I did enjoy Crosswords, I only wish there were more money around, but hey.. First year program, it will get better
After seeing Crosswords, it looks like the late Merv Griffin was able to pull out one more winner. Liked the fast-paced gameplay and spoilers, didn’t like the theme music (they need to try something new other than recycled WoF themes). Overall, I have a feeling this show will be around for a while. (Oh, and congratulations to Neville- look for his post in the “Let’s Finally Do Crosswords” topic.)
As for Temptation, my opinion has changed little. Too little gameplay, too much advertising, little chance for 3rd-place contestants to stage a comeback- looks like another Fremantle brand failure. Something tells me this show belongs on QVC and not syndication.
I only watched two shows so far…
M.G’s Crosswords- I really liked the game show. Even though I’m never good at crosswords, it’s worth a watch.
Family Feud – I too like the new logo. There’s not much changes, except the audience (thankfully) stopped applauding when the host mention the points being doubled or tripled. Otherwise, it’s still good.
Wheel & Jeopardy! coming up!
now for wheel, I’m a little bit bitter for the changes at the podium. The scoreboards are wider to make the numbers bigger and added the contestant’s name on the same screen. It’s a little bit bland, but not bad after the first (and difficult) round.
Not commenting on Millionaire and Feud since the changes were light, and I ran out of recording time for Crosswords.
Temptation wasn’t that bad for me. Yes, yes… the Knock-Off game is a copy- so friggin’ what? It’s only a small part of the game. I do agree about the Super version, though. Maybe ten questions in sixty seconds with increasing Temptation Dollar values would be better.
The Fame Game? It’s awkward without the nine-number board, which annoys me a tad. I’m really tired of hearing how it’s copied from Wheel. The damn concept was used on “Scrabble’s” Speedword 16 years before Wheel picked it up. There should be two of thes , and should decrease in value as more of the name is revealed.
I don’t know what to think about the This or That segment. Of all the things they added to the show, I can safely say that this one should go.
And yes… that final Speed round. No way around it, it’s TOO short. It should be sixty seconds @ 5 Temptation Dollars a question, just like old times. This round makes you or breaks you, but not if they don’t give you enough time to make a move.
As for Rossi, he’s okay, and I have no doubts about him getting better. The execs just need to pull him over and make him aware of his shortcomings. If they don’t tell him he’s annoying to viewers, how is he supposed to know. If he’s the “Host with No Bounds” as he claims (claimed?) to be, he’ll learn fast.
This game’s a C+ for me.
My improvements in a nutshell: There should be more game time, the home shopping should be canned, one less Knock-Off, and more interest added to the In$tant Bargains.
I enjoyed crosswords. It reminds me of Scrabble.
Temptation is a show I enjoy as well. It needs to be worked out some but hey.
BTW- I recorded the show on DVD-RW and I edit out the commercials. When I was done editing, the shows running time was 19:56 min.
I just learned the other day that my local Fox affiliate is switching up their schedule. They had WOF and J! from 7-8 for the past couple of years, and now from 6-7 they have FF and MG’s CW! I am ecstatic about that change, as the last time 2 straight hours of syndie games were shown in our area was in 1989, IIRC.
Family Feud: Set changes were nice, O’Hurley as smooth and congenial as ever. Good start.
MG’s CW: I fell off my chair when I heard the theme! It is indeed the Car Cue WOF used starting in 1989, called specifically “Buzzword.” Whether or not it was also the same theme as Family Fortunes, I don’t know, but it is assuredly Buzzword, and that got major props from me.
The set was great, and the game itself was intriguing. Treadway was a good host, but I want to see him interact with the contestants more, instead of just straight hosting, which may come after a few more shows. The game is harder than your regular word game, and the pace was nice, but I’m wondering if, after a time, it will start to get a bit monotonous and repetitive.
My one “real” gripe with the show, however, is the bonus *call it mo’money syndrome if ya wish*. I like the format, but when you have other syndie games like WOF and Temptation offering $35k, $45k, or higher automobiles and exotic trips all over the world, while MGCW’s grand prize for the guy was $2k and a trip to Antigua, that worries me. If the returning champs format is still in place, hopefully the prizes get bigger as players go on in their reign, but if that kind of thing is all players have up for grabs on a regular basis, a lot of viewers I think will be slightly turned off, it’s almost melodramatic, as you could also earn potentially more in the maingame than in the bonus…
All in all, I give it a 90/100, make the bonus a bit more valuable, and it will be the most exciting (and easily the “can’t miss”) portion of the game, by far…
WOF: Well, the new intro theme is nice, and I LOVE the new speed round tune. I’m not sold on those new scoring displays, the ones from last season were the best by far, but that’s almost minor.
The 25 space is a nice touch for the season, I’m just glad there’s a 2nd “valuable” prize on the wheel again. The BIG MONEY WEDGE will be interesting to see how much of a factor it becomes, but the concept itself has been slightly overdue on Wheel, IMHO. I’m just happy they didn’t throw out the Mystery Round for it. However, with all this stuff up for grabs in the 3rd round, the 4th round seems like it needs a raise, as supposedly it’s supposed to be the “exciting, dramatic, deciding conclusion” to the main game, with the infamous $5k space in play, and it’s beginning to also seem melodramatic. Maybe they could keep the Big Money Wedge on for the remainder of the game, or add a 2500 space for round 4 *Yes, Mo’Money if ya like*?
Otherwise, I have no gripes. I also learned Temptation was, at the last minute, squeezed onto our local CW station against TPIR, so I’ll try and catch that later in the week.
LONG LIVE THE GAMES! :D
Ok, the rest..
Crosswords, nice, didnt notice the Fortunes theme in it, it however makes GSN look like they are giving out millions!
Rating: B Odds watch again: 70%
Wheel
Nice new think music for speed round, however HATE the new scoreboards, the dollar amounts get covered up by the pegs on the wheel…
Rating: A- (love wheel) Odds watch again: 85%
Family Feud
Beautiful… Rating: A Odds watching: 85%
Jeopardy
New graphic package, and good as usual
Rating: A- Odds: 85%
All right, here we go on the newbie that I was able to catch: “Crosswords”
It’s quite an interesting game. I like the idea of having three additional opponents vying for the win. And the game is easy to play along with.
There isn’t a traditional lock-out system here. Instead, players ring in if they know the answer and go into a queue in case the leader can’t answer.
But there are plenty of downsides. First, Ty Treadway. Yes, I’m aware that he has never hosted a game show before this and good Lord does it show. I think everything he said came from the teleprompter. He was looking away from the contestants most of the time. And the ending was about as bad as it could get. Did they not rehearse the show at all?
If the podium has no use, get rid of it. Ty spends all his time leaning against it.
The set is nice, the music fits, and it’s a nice atmosphere. Just ax the stiff who’s hosting!
I taped all the shows today, and I can tell you that I am impressed.
Crosswords was really fast paced and fun. Very easy to play alongand scream at the screen. Reminds me of a combination of Scrabble and Jeopardy. Ty Treadway is really good and enthusiastic as a host, and I can tell why Merv (RIP) picked him. The theme music really was a bummer. Reusing a car cue from Wheel of Fortune was not what I was expecting, but the theme does not make the show. The only negative I have is the budget. It is relatively small. While seeing that it’s a small distributor, and not Sony or Freemantle, producing this show, I can understand. But, I would have liked to see at least an average of $10,000 per show. The first win was about $3000 and the second I saw today was about $4600. While I would watch a show no matter what the budget, it would be nice to see bigger money to compete for viewers with Wheel and J!.
Temptation…Hrm…what can I say about this show…hrm…it’s not all that bad. I thought it would improve over the celeb episodes. Those eps were just very awkward, but these shows were not. Rossi Moralles was actually OK. He stopped reading off the teleprompter, but still has to learn how to not be so robotic. He was really good in the first game while interacting with Nancy, who just interjected a lot of energy into the game, while making some stupid mistakes. This show is deffinately not the Sale of old, or the Aussie Temptation. But, it is not all that bad. The KNockoff rounds were knock-offs of Wipeout. So what? They worked, IMO. The Fame Game doesn’t fit. It’s one part of the game, and to call it the Fame Game is wrong, because it’s nothing like the original. A flat $15 is not enough for me. You need some risk involved, like that 9 space board. The theme sucks, but I could care less. The Instant Bargains were horrible, though. He didn’t bargain. (“OK. I’m gonna sell that to you for $15 Temptation Dollars. 5 second shot clock.”) No adding money to the deal…No lowering the price…no Going once, going twice…that is poorly executed. All in all, it’s OK, and I’ll watch again, but it needs to improve some before it’s really good.
Wheel…Nice additions to the wheel. The only gripe is the new score readouts. ANyone notice that there is no blinking color pointer anymore, and that prize wedge just looked owkward placed wherever it was. Plus, the score readouts are too big and/or too low, so the scores ended up behind the wheel spokes. Not good. But, it’s the same show we know and love.
J!…New graphics package. Nice. Nothing else changed.
Feud…Liked the new logo, and the minor set changes, like the lighting behind the audience on the stage. BTW- Wasn’t Feud rumored to be moving to STudio 33 at CBS? The credits still said they were taping at Tribune Studios. Happy that a station within Philly actually picked it up this year (paired with Crosswords). I saw it on an Allentown station for the past 3 years or so after the station playing it in Philly got bought by TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). JOhn O’Hurley is the best Feud host since Ray Combs. He only makes the show that much better.
MIllionaire…A few new graphics, like the dollar amounts after getting a question right, and the big screen showing the lifelines as they’re being used. Nothing else significant. Same old, same old. Still hate the fact that they removed the fastest finger, though. (I know…that was removed when the syndie show began, but I just hate when shows only have contestants competing against a money tree, and no other people. The fastest finger was awesome, IMO.)
All in all, very enjoyable day of game show premiers. Should be a good season in syndication. Hopefully, next year there are no casualties, and Deal or No Deal is just another addition to the group.
I haven’t seen TEMPTATION. So, can’t comment.
Don’t watch WHEEL (I know, I KNOW…it’s as if the Chuck Woolery era never happened, which is why it’s celebrating “only 25 years”) and, let’s face it, boys and girls; if you have any sense of old skool tradition, get real…there’s still NOTHING like the readouts with the “eggcrate”-type display.
CROSSWORDS? A “Poor Man’s SCRABBLE,” in my book. What was Merv thinking…Ty Treadway? Who IS he? A cousin four times removed of Dash Riprock? Todd Newton or Marc Summers would’ve been far better choices. I mean, at the very least they have track records, and I think it’s safe to say that people have actually heard of THEM.
Jeopardy- Nothing new. Just a new opening/graphics package.
Wheel of Fortune- I love the new intro and the new music cues. I hate the scoreboards! The wheel pegs block them. I didn’t get to see the lose a turn animation on the scoreboard since no one landed on it but the bankrupt animation on the scoreboard seems like something better suited for a kids game show since it runs down the scoreboard screen like black ink (ala slime). But yeah nothing major. The 25 space is okay (isn’t really new since the 25 prize would probably be on the wheel already even if there wasn’t a 25 space) and the big money space is pretty cool. Anyways looks to be another great season of Wheel. But yeah they need to trim down on the wheel pegs or just get new scoreboards altogether.
And yeah the theme for crosswords is “buzzword” and it’s also the Family Fortunes theme! Here’s a link to the Family Fortunes theme:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FUcBlYV6u-Y
lol let me take that back for a moment. I just heard the buzzword cue again. The family fortunes theme has similarities to the crosswords theme but yeah I think it’s better to say that the crosswords theme is a remixed version of the buzzword cue.
Wheel: I am not a fan of the new score displays at all – they get obscured by the wheel spokes! Also, the “Big Money” wedge is too much of a gimmick for my taste. I think, though, that I like the “25″ space more than the standard gift tag fare.
Jeopardy!: Great new graphics package, especially the intro, until they got to Final Jeopardy… I don’t know how it is on HDTVs, but on my old set, the red “FINAL” blurs together and is a pain to look at – fortunately, it’s not on for too long.
Crosswords: I like any show where I’m the first winner. It was a lot of fun to be on, and I hope this translates over well. After seeing only my episode in edited form, though, I must say that I’m biased. To those of you who say they could be handing out more cash – I agree! :) I think, though, it’s low because not only is it new, many of it’s contestants aren’t of the Crossword variety, but instead of the LA side job acting variety.
Quick answers to some “questions” above about Crosswords:
- Yes, a lot of what Ty says of teleprompted. But, he’s a great guy to talk with during the breaks.
- The photo finish was not mentioned most likely because of a technical error that occured during the final round. Yes, it was tight, but it comes out differently on the show.
- Will it get repetitive? My guess is no, as long as they keep the clue material fresh, just like any game show. Think Wheel on that one, I believe.
Neville Fogarty, first (and youngest!) Crosswords champ
Hi, Neville. Congratulations on our show today. If you had any extra time, I was wondering if you could tell us more about your experience on Crosswords. We love hearing contestant stories.
Congrats Neville! I was also a contestant on “Crosswords”. (don’t know when mine will air yet.) I have not yet had a chance to see the final edited show. I’ll catch it tomorrow (I love my DVR), but I must say that on my tape day I was totally impressed. The back story was that I did some run-throughs for “Crosswords” before they started taping, and I had a lot of concerns. My main one was the disadvantage for the Spoilers at the beginning of the third round. My reasoning was that by the time the third round started, approximately 2/3 of the puzzle would be filled in, and the two front players could figure out the words from the letters if not form the clue. I was very pleased that the fast pace of the show helped to fix this. Also, as Neville said, Ty Treadway was an extremely nice guy who really wanted everyone to do well.
This was my fourth game show appearance. I was one half of the very first team to get all ten bonus words on “Lingo”; I was a runner-up on “Win Ben Stein’s Money”; and I was part of a successful mob on “1 vs. 100″. I have to say that
“Crosswords” was the most challenging game show I have been on so far.
As far as the low prize budget, I have always been a person who enjoys the game rather than the money. I still love watching old episodes of “What’s My Line?” where the most you could win was $50 because the game was good. I wish nothing but the best for “Crosswords.”
One thing I noticed, I was expecting either “Jeopardy!” or “Wheel” to do some sort of tribute to Merv, but unless I missed it, neither one did. I was somewhat disappointed by this.
Right now, I believe we have the most diverse types of games on the air than we have in a while when you consider the singing games (Singing Bee, Lyrics), the survey games (Power of 10, Feud), word games (Wheel, Crosswords, Lingo, TTQ), trivia games (Millionaire, Jeopardy), pop culture games (Temptation), the luck based games (DoND, Set For Life, Bingo night), etc. Now I know not everybody likes every one of the current flock of game shows, but based on this diversity, I think it’s a great time to be a game show fan. Long Live Game Shows!
Sorry for the long post.
Benjamin Ziek