Photo Gallery and Sample Questions for ABC’s “Million Dollar Mind Game”
ABC is debuting its long delayed quiz show Million Dollar Mind Game this weekend, Sunday, October 23, at 4:00PM ET. The Vernon Kay-hosted Russian import quizzes a team of six in various brainteasers for up to $1,000,000. It’s sadly being regulated to Sunday afternoons, opposite football, so I wouldn’t be expecting a long, healthy life. However, for those of you that don’t like football this is a nice alternative. For others like me, it’ll make great DVR-playback material later that night. ABC provided a few pictures of the set and host Vernon Kay. Not only that but ABC gave us five sample questions. Can you answer these and beat the game?
1) The average American has between 5 and 15 in a lifetime. Barbie has had 108. What are they?
2) This song was written just over a century ago and concerns a young woman’s plea to her boyfriend. Today, it is sung by large groups of people over 2,400 times a year. What is the song?
3) In 2004, UPS made one small change in how their trucks deliver packages in New York City. In each year since, they have saved millions of gallons of gas, increased safety and reduced CO2 emissions. What change did UPS make?
4) One creates and has been around for centuries. The other destroys what the first one creates, and wasn’t invented until 1770. But ever since they were united in 1858, they’ve been virtually inseparable. What are these two things?
5) British psychologist David Lewis said this activity only causes stress for one out of four women. But for men, even the thought of it was enough to cause their heart rate and blood pressure to spike. Most women who do it with men regret it. What is this activity?
We’ll reveal the answers later.
I think the Barbie one is either Cars or Houses.
I thinks it is relationship as in dating.
I think it’s jobs.
My guess is outfits
My guesses:
1) Jobs
2) NO FREAKING CLUE!
3) First thought was switching to bikes, but they could have gotten smaller trucks.
4) Hammer
5) I was thinking childbirth, but then I really thought about the men and blood pressure thing and it makes me think of shopping for christmas or VD day.
I agree that 1 is jobs.
2 is Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
No guess on 3.
For 4, I think claw hammers have been around pre-1770. My thought was a pencil + eraser.
5. No idea – maybe shopping? No clue!
I figured your guess for number 1 and agree with your choice for 2.
Number 3 is they stopped making left turns. Not kidding.
Agree that 1 is jobs, and 2 is Take Me Out to the Ball Game (a lot of people don’t know the verses to it- the part we usually sing is the chorus)…and on a MythBusters ep in 2010 they proved it’s more fuel efficient to make three right turns than a left in city driving (about 3% believe it or not)- because of the fuel used up idling while waiting to take the left turn…
#1 HAS to be occupations. That makes the most sense.
#3, I think (if I had to guess) is either turning the car off every time OR leaving it on more times, but I think the left turn thing is correct. I remember hearing that.
#5, I think, is going to the doctor’s office. I really think so…
#’s 2 or 4..No real idea except guesses.
So, my colleagues at work and I came up with these answers:
1. Occupations
2. Auld Lang Syne
3. Stopped making left turns
4. Pencil and eraser
5. Christmas shopping
Here’s what I thought originally:
1) Jobs/ Careers
2) wasn’t sure
3) Right turn only ( mythbusters!)
4) Pencil/ Eraser
5) Marriage!
I agree that 2 could be take me out to the ball game.
1. Jobs
2. Haven’t a clue.
3. Haven’t a clue.
4. Haven’t a clue.
5. Sex, I’d say.
I probably is Take Me Out…., I was thinking that, but overthought thinking that a man wouldn’t write a song about a woman’s plea to her bf….even if it was baseball.
I guess I need to watch some Mythbusters as well….goodness.
enough people already put the correct answers for 1,2 and 3:
Jobs, Take Me Out to the Ballgame and no left turns for UPS trucks.
Take me out to the ballgame has more than just the one verse everyone knows, and in a subsequent verse, the girl’s name is mentioned as Katie Casey.
I felt those were VERY easy, but the next three are really tough. This style of questions reminds me of what morning drive DJ’s have resorted to because of everyone looking up trivia answers on the internet. With every question so open to be almost anything, I think this will make for a pretty lame show.
So for #4, it is pencil and eraser, it took me about 5 minutes of thought, but I figured it out as well.
As for #5, once I got my mind out of the gutter, I came up with shopping.
I really should’ve tried out for this show!
I wonder what is with all this formal attire…people wearing tuxedos and dresses in the show… seems to evoke a sort of classy environment…
This version is based on the Russian show that is subtitled “Elite Intellectual Casino”, and in the original the attire is very formal:
http://www.fxclub.org/sites/default/files/images/branches/kiev/news/2009-03-17/9.jpg
http://www.vokrug.tv/pic/product/4/8/3/9/medium_48398f4fb9d0ad505d5bac6148b507ee.jpeg
http://www.ogoniok.com/common/archive/2003/4823/44-38-39/44-38-2b.jpg
I think the Barbie answer is hairstyles.
and #3 is the trucks only make left turns
Hey these are pretty nice questions- good mix of “u-have-to-know-it” and guessable
1) Jobs (thought of pets but guess no)
2) Take me to the ball game
3) Avoiding left turns
4) Pencil and Eraser
5) Shopping/ (even thought of Waxing
Answers:
1: Jobs
2: Take Me Out to the Ballgame
3: They minimized left turns.
4: Pencil and Eraser
5: Shopping
2) I will survive
SHow was decent, yes it moved kind of slow as one would expect from most modern primetime game shows, and the questions weren’t something one would catch on J! or BAM too often. Vernon Kay was passable as host.
I just watched the premiere of Million Dollar Mind Game today and it’s pretty interesting, but the dollar amounts are very low, even though the question difficulty is pretty high at times. With 6 people on your team, unless you make it to $600,000 or $1,000,000, then you won’t be walking away with much money at all.
It will be interesting to see what kind of ratings this show gets. It’s going on against NFL football on CBS and Fox, and the Rugby World Cup on NBC.
Wouldn’t it be wind if we were all surprised to find that this get a bigger rating than rugby?What most of us Americans know about rugby cold fit into a thimble and still leave room for an ample thumb!
Watched the first episode, loved the questions enough to hope some other network picks it up. I don’t have any high hopes for ABC renewing it, since they’ve managed to screw over Duel and The Mole, and it looks like this is no different.
My one concern is that the money ladder just feels like the show’s trying too hard to be another WWTBAM but with even more risk. I highly doubt we’ll ever see anybody elect to play on at the higher money levels with this format. I think it’d work better with a ladder like 6K-12K-18K-24K-30K-60K-120K-240K-480K-1M, no risk for playing on, and maybe one or two “free” wrong answers, after which each subsequent wrong answer removes the highest value from the ladder (a la Millionaire Hot Seat, but still awarding the money for one level down if they miss the final question). This would also cut down on time between questions by removing the vote procedure, which could be used for fitting in more questions per show.
Still, I think the show deserves a longer run. Maybe it’ll benefit from ABC having low expectations of it; I recall hearing rumors that Whose Line Is It Anyway? was renewed at least once because it did surprisingly well despite ABC execs deliberately trying to screw it over by placing it against Friends. But on the other hand, we have Duel and The Mole as examples of how efficient ABC executives usually are at killing a perfectly good show.
I saw some of it on TiVo, it’s interesting and kinda slow at the same time. But I’m seeing ABC renewing this as an alternative in case the NBA lockout isn’t resolved.
The Edison question on today’s episode was one of the questions they asked at the tryouts, too. Yeesh.
I tried out for the show and had a great time at the auditions, but that was more than a year ago and I don’t trust my memory on whether questions from the auditions were used on the broadcast. If so, that seems very inappropriate. How would that pass muster with Standards and Practices?
I really like the show and hope it has a future.
Well, that was certainly better than most of the shows we’ve had to endure lately. I love that set so much! It’s nice to see something relatively original like that on network TV these days.
Probably my favorite part of the show was that, while they did have their moments (of course TPM didn’t mean texts per minute, you moron), it didn’t really seem like they went for the SHOUTY PEOPLE WITH NO BRAINS that get cast these days. It’s really too bad this show is essentially guaranteed to fail.
Man…they didn’t run it in my market…I had vacuum infomercials!
I saw the opening show….and abc found a gem……an intellictual game, with a bit of friend or foe and unam1ous put in…..
I am glad to hear it has been finally shown and it is very sad to hear that it has little chances to survive. May be ABC originally took it not seriously enough. In Russia it is a kind of a small sport industry with teams of different leagues and only the best of them participate in the national TV show. Plus most of questions come from viewers and there is strong selection of the most interesting questions. A really cult game with long-standing and deliberately cultivated traditions.
It aired here, but was working and the DVR I programmed for some reason didn’t pick it up. Hope ABC puts it up on the site to watch.
It might be on Hulu as well. I caught most of the show, but missed the last fifteen minutes for dinner.
Don’t understand why ABC won’t put this on the website. I can’t find a stream anywhere. I’d love to watch the show but I’m not going to miss football for it.
IMHO, Vernon Kay could be mistaken for Ron Greeneburg(Duel from 2007). I didn’t think it was too bad of a show, really.
It makes TOO MUCH SENSE to be IN THE PRIMETIME SCHEDULE. Now we know why ABC tried to bury it
You mean Mike Greenberg. Ron Greenberg is the veteran game show producer.
I like these questions; they’re very Hollywood Squares-esque (Feel free to dis/agree with my answers; they are all guesses).
1. I think it’s outfits; Mattel is the world’s largest clothing manufacturer.
2. Auld Lang Syne; the question said 2,400 times a year; it didn’t say the span of time.
3. They opened “post offices;” that is, UPS customers could walk-in to pick up parcels without them being delivered.
4. Pencil and eraser.
5. It’s a 3-letter word that I’m not sure if I can say because this is family website.
It’s a very good concept, but very poorly executed.
The show would be much better with less questions and a longer time limit. There’s way too much prattle/loud shouting/people talking over each other to allow the viewers at home to think through the question for themselves.
Something like: $6K/$12K/$30K/$60K/$120K/$240K/$1 Mill and only one incorrect answer allowed, with progressively more difficult questions and longer time limits, would make this show fantastic. As it is, it’s merely bearable.