27Jul2011
Two Previews of ABC’s “Take the Money and Run”
We’ve gone on praising ABC’s upcoming reality/game show Take the Money and Run (Tuesday, August 2nd, at 9:00PM ET) for a few weeks now. Everyone who saw the screeners with me was in agreement: it’s very unique, different, and fun. We’re all crossing our fingers it takes off. As we previously discussed, the show asks a couple to hide a briefcase of $100,000 in an hour and keep it hidden for 48 hours through intense interrogation and lock down. Want to see what we were talking about? ABC uploaded two long clips of the premiere. The clips include the hiding of the money and, most excitingly, the interrogation with Paul Bishop.
After seeing these, what do you think?
I’m just ready for this to air. It looks way better than the Chase that Syfy aired back in 2008…
I’m liking this so far! Can’t wait to see the actual show itself! As I’ve been saying over and over again, this is Huckle Buckle Beanstock to the extreme!
What’s the incentive to answer the interrogator’s questions? Wouldn’t you just stone-wall them for 48 hours? Can they offer to buy you out if you rat out the location before your buddy does?
Maybe the interrogators are allowed to offer comforts to the contestants in the vein of “All you have to do is have a little chat with me, five minutes, you don’t even have to tell the truth — just give me answers to my questions, even if they’re lies, and you can have a hot meal and a real bed.” Or maybe they can hand out punishments ala klaxons and loud music if a contestant really insists on saying nothing and not playing the game.
Given that the interrogators are professionals, though, they can probably trick the contestants into talking by telling them things like, “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine, I’ll just spend more time with your partner. You don’t think he’s very smart, do you? You think he’s not going to be able to keep it together, right?” etc etc.
Torture isn’t permitted in the law – so I don’t know how far they can stretch it. I don’t think they can offer bailout prizes, law enforcement can lie after all, and once they have their hands on the money, they can do whatever they please with it.
Instituting artificial game mechanics such as a DoND bank offer would be weird – it looks for an instant that it would work beautifully, but there doesn’t seem much of a point in it. There’s no real mediator, you have the shady guy who hands over the money, and then the law enforcement that the contestants interact with. That’s it.
I wonder if Paul Bishop and Skip Bayless are related…