GSN needs a hit.  Badly.  How Much is Enough?, which I still feel bad about giving a remotely positive review about after just one episode, bombed.  Bingo America is fine enough but obviously cares much more about the bingo players at home than the actual game, and that hurts the final product.  Catch 21 has a long history with GSN.  Pitched years ago under the title Casino, the network went back to it for some help.  I have some good news: Catch 21 is actually really good and a lot of fun!

Catch 21 is very simple.  Each player is dealt one card face up.  A question is asked, and the first player to buzz in with the right answer gets 100 points.  A new card is shown, and that player can choose to keep that card or pass it off to another player.  If you keep the card, you get the option to freeze.  If you’re the only player not to bust, have the highest card total by the time everyone freezes or busts, or you get 21 first, you get 500 more.  Lowest score after round two is eliminated.  In the final head to head round, all points are done away with and the player who gets 21 first, doesn’t bust, or gets the highest card total wins $1,000 and plays the end game.

Catch 21’s end game is equally as simple.  Whoever wins gets one Power Chip for each round they won.  Three columns of cards are dealt with one card face up in each.  A card is shown, and you can either place it in one of the available columns or get rid of it using a Power Chip, if you have any.  Catching the first 21 gives you an additional $1,000.  Catching a second 21 will turn that $1,000 into $5,000 (If you stop, you leave with $6,000).  However, if you catch all three 21s, you leave with $25,000.


 

Both hosts, Alfonso Ribeiro and Mikki Padilla were fine, though Mikki was a lot rougher.  Alfonso could use to improvise a bit more as well instead of relying so much off teleprompters.  It’s not like Grand Slam where every second is insanely fast paced trivia.  It’s a laid back show, and both hosts could really use to show that more.   Presentation wise, the set’s nice and bright which is a refreshing change; that is until the end game.  I don’t know what happened, but they play the end game on a totally different set than what the front game is on.  I really don’t think that was necessary, but whatever.  If you watched our Casino video we posted a bit ago, you can see exactly the software the show uses.  Every device used in Casino is used in Catch 21, and it works great.

I don’t really know what to suggest for the front game, it works fine.  However, the point system is a bit annoying when players win $1,000 after getting somewhere between 1300 and 1600 points.  I would think they could have figured out a way to make the game use dollars.   Yeah it’s a budget move to save a few hundred bucks per episode, that’s very clear, but it just comes off as insanely cheap when the difference between points and the actual win is only a few hundred.  It’s the same issue Lingo had.  On Casino, you had to answer a question correctly to freeze, and I did like that.  I’m not disappointed to see it go persay, but it would have been nice.  Again, in the end game, I really don’t know what to include.  As far as game play goes, the end game works and emulates the Catch 21 online casual game they are trying to plug.  It could stand to be a bit quicker though, seems to drag.

I can’t really fault the pacing that much, though, since it was a rough cut.  And in terms of the dozens and dozens of rough cuts GSN has sent me, this is by far the best.  Catch 21 would have been a hit when it was originally pitched over five years ago, and it should be a hit now.  It’s a great update to the old game show Gambit and definitely emulates it perfectly.  As with most other decent shows on the air today, it just really needs some help presentation wise.  Catch 21 is perfect summer fun for GSN.