News Flashes: “Minute to Win It”, “The Cube”, and “Millionaire”
A few small news stories for you today.
*I appreciate NBC doing the personalized Minute to Win It video they did for us, given how we have a tendency to criticize the show with the best intentions. Last night’s episode did half mediocre and half good. The 8:00PM ET hour scored a 3.3/5 rating, but the 9:00PM ET hour jumped to 5.3/8. Regardless, I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s possible to have assembled a more bloated, drawn out game show. I have no idea what forced this to two hours. I was watching the Penguins game but the reports that came in said the pace bordered on unbearable.
There was a team last season that won $500,000 by actually gambling $250,000; and it still only took very little over one show. This was ridiculous. I will never complain about Million Dollar Money Drop taking forever again. I skimmed through it on Hulu and couldn’t believe it. This show takes the cake for the slowest, most plodding show on TV anywhere. It’s PR campaign for this episode worked, though. Nonetheless, no team will ever win Super Coin. I’d bet the same million bucks on it.
*Meanwhile, The Cube scored yet another honor. The critically and commercially successful Phillip Schofield-hosted stunt show won the 2011 Broadcast Awards for Best Entertainment Program. The Cube beat out shows like Fox’s upcoming The X Factor and Channel 4′s popular cooking show Come Dine With Me. The third series of shows just finished taping and hopefully we’ll be seeing these episodes sometime this spring. You can click here to read our interview with executive producer Adam Adler.
*Capcom finally released its long-awaited Who Wants to be a Millionaire iOS app, for both iPhone and iPad. This 2011 edition follows the current Shuffle format perfectly, including the Jumps. The new graphics and music are in the game as well, so if you want to hear the full soundtrack in master quality then this is your chance. It’s priced currently at $1.99 so it’s pretty cheap. Click here to learn more about the show.
I have to agree that yesterday’s episode was extremely slow, but overall I feel that most of the episodes are at a decent pace, and much better than when the show first aired!! Yesterday was ridiculous however!!!
Millionaire just needs to get ported to android now. Want. So bad.
I disagree Alex. Someone could win Super Coin. Probably by luck
I watched “Minute To Win It” last night, and, yes, it was drawn out. They could have gotten it in ninety minutes, but they had to fill a two-hour slot. Most episodes do go along with more pace.
On the other hand, the contestants did not have such an obvious sob story. No wheelchair-bound grandpa needing a brain transplant in order to survive. The sound of white liquid spurting into a pail was still quite audible, however.
Guy Fieri showed better personality than he had. He is usually somewhat grating, but as the show went on, he demonstrated either an involvement rivaling the best UK hosts, or else just bronchitis.
And somebody might well get “Super Coin”. But, as Andrew Jordan has said, it’ll be pure dumb luck!
Congratulations to “The Cube”. The show deserves its success, its popularity, and now its accolades. I look forward to the third series, and hope that whomsoever (I won’t mention any names that I don’t know anyway) will keep uploading it onto YT, so that folks outside the ITV areas can see it.
If anyone thought Million Dollar Money Drop was slow in its premiere week, I’d tell them to watch this past Wednesday’s episode of Minute to Win It. Sounds like NBC is trying to copy FOX’s slow-paced game show format, especially since FOX’s game show is currently not airing any new episodes at the moment.
When will M$MD go to season 2?
Take off the “When”, Phillip, and you’d have a more accurate question, especially after the “Interactive on-line game” that wouldn’t give the questions to those who signed in…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6YE2_PALSw
May I direct your attention to the most incredible episode of M2WI I’ve ever seen? This guy blows through some of the hardest games we’ve seen people fail over and over here in America. Mind the audio lag, it doesn’t get better as the video plays out. Just ignore it, the video alone is astonishing enough.
Here’s part 2, where things get interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeQ4TxL29Ic
The fact that Minute To Win It was seen by over 10 million viewers and scored a 5.4 in the demo says a lot. That makes it obvious that viewers want more of the show. Don’t expect it to go away anytime soon. It just keeps getting better and better.
If by “better and better” you mean slower, duller and (against all expectations) even more generic.
By “better and better” I mean the contestants are banking more money with the newly added banking levels, the games are more challenging and creative, and Guy Fieri is at the top of his game and is always entertaining and hilarious. Can you see ANY of that on Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy or Family Feud? I think not. Do those shows give out a shatload of cold hard cash? I don’t think so. I’m watching the show now. Good times.
Then you’re not thinking hard enough. Wheel & Jeopardy have given away “shatloads of cold hard cash” before; ask Brad Rutter or Michelle Loewenstein.
MTWI may be popular now, but it seems these nighttime shows have a knack for screwing themselves up when they’re at the top of their game. After early success, Deal or no Deal added tons of stalling and gimmicks too, in addition to making the top prize FAR easier to win. See where it got them?