US “The Cube”, At a Glance

We didn’t plan on it, but we had a small army arrive at The Cube‘s studio yesterday for the pilot shot for CBS and hosted by actor Neil Patrick Harris.  First off, we were apparently name-dropped by some audience members at the taping so now that we’re internationally famous as of this moment, I thank you greatly.  But here are a few notes from the emails and Facebook and Twitter comments we received.  REmember, you can usually find information the quickest on there.

*They’ve got a very good money chain.  It starts at $1,000; then $2,000; $10,000; $25,000; $75,000; $200,000; $500,000.  It’s enough of a risk to make you want to stop occasionally, but it’s a big leap up for each step so it really makes you play on.  This is probably the reason why three of the games ended in $0 winners, which is interesting since the UK edition has not had a single $0 winner yet.  (EDIT: Apparently there was one?  We’ll look into it, my fault)  One contestant won $10,000.  If I had to take a wild guess they’ll probably try to shoot maybe one more game somewhere down the line to show off a big winner.  It’s good for a pilot.

*The show is the same as the UK version.  Nothing changed, which is nice.  They did very few reshoots I heard also.  Taping lasted around four hours, and I frankly expected it to last a lot longer.  I heard a few people were complaining.  Let me give you a comparison.  It’s taken upwards of 8+ hours to tape episodes of Deal or No Deal and 1 VS 100.  It took three hours to tape a half-hour episode of The Newlywed Game.  Trust me, two episodes worth of games in four hours is unbelievably great.  It’s why I trust CBS more with this show than any other network.  This is their kind of style, and it’s why their game shows tend to be better than most others.

*Neil Patrick Harris was said to do great.  He was fantastic at ad-libbing, and really got into the game for the contestants (and audience) without trying to influence it at all.  It’s said he’s a bit more low key than the UK host Philip Schofield, but I’m fine with that.

So really the ball’s in CBS’s court.  If they liked it, we’ll get it.  But don’t get overly confident.  A few years back they shot six episodes of the Tucker Carlson quiz show Do You Trust Me?, which was GSN’s Friend or Foe? on crack, and they let those sit, so I wouldn’t be getting your applications ready to face The Cube yet.  However, it’s a good sign at least.  I didn’t hear a bad review from the many audience members.

Thanks to David H., Matt F., Deejay M., and anyone else who helped us out and reported back.