Only A Really, Really, Tough Show

I'm taking a look this week at a show that frequently comes up in discussions of British game shows - discussions that usually end with the conclusion that "The British Are Better Than Us." I'm not going to try to figure out that issue completely, but as there's no news this week, here's a review of Only Connect.

The first thing you need to know about Only Connect is that it's one of those European quiz shows that are so much about the challenge that the season champion doesn't get any prizes - you know, like Countdown. If you don't like this sort of show, stop right now - you won't like Only Connect. If you are willing to give that sort of show a try, here's a further warning - Only Connect is tough. It's really tough. The premise is simple - two teams of three compete to figure out how groups of things are connected - but the execution is about as hard as a game show could possibly be. This show seriously gives you four books and expects you to figure out that they were all banned by the Catholic Church - and it just gets tougher from there.

Are you willing to go further? In round one, the teams take turns being shown four clues and having to figure out what the connection is within forty seconds. The clues are shown one at a time, and as you see more of them, the number of points you get for a correct guess goes down - five points for getting it in one clue, three points for two clues, two points for three clues, and one point for four clues. After each team has taken three turns, we go to round two, which is the same except that after the first three clues, instead of having a fourth clue to guess the connection, you have to figure out what the fourth clue would be.

It doesn't get any easier from there. Round three is the connecting wall, where each team is shown a grid of sixteen clues, and has to correctly group them into four sets of four within two minutes and thirty seconds. Seriously. You aren't told what the groups are - you're just shown these sixteen things jumbled together and have to group them somehow. You get one point for every group you find correctly, can earn four more points for stating why each group you found is connected, and if you figure everything out, you get two more points for a total of ten. We then come to round four, where the teams are given a category and shown names in that category with the vowels taken out - you get a point if you buzz in with the correct answer. This is easier, and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the show - but by that point I was too confused by what I had seen before to care. Like I said, this show is really, really tough.

That doesn't mean it's bad. I actually think this is a great game, and it makes for one of those shows where you really feel good about yourself when you get something right. Unfortunately, this does not extend to the host, Victoria Coren, who comes across to me as really smug - like she's thinking how easy this is and that we should know it all. In all honesty though, she might be my only complaint, and thankfully this is not a show that depends on its host.

This is not a show for everyone. It has no prizes, a format that takes a few minutes to get used to, and what are probably the toughest questions I've ever seen on a television game show. Still, if you can get into this show's mindset, you'll be glad you did. I won't say this is always true, but in this case, yes, the British are better than us.

Aaron

Drew, Drops, And Dreams

Here's the current piece of news: Game Show Network has announced that, at some point in 2011, they will premiere a new improvisational comedy game show to be hosted by Drew Carey. The show will be taped in Las Vegas. It doesn't seem to have a name at the moment (Ticketmaster lists simply "Drew Carey"), but considering that the first taping is January 13, they'd better think of one!

Drew...I honestly am not sure what to say about him. I thought he did a great job on Whose Line Is It Anyway?...but he has essentially proven by now that he is incapable of hosting a "traditional" game show. His performance on The Price Is Right...I'll be nice and say that he seems uncomfortable. That's being nice. I think there are plenty of people out there who would happily go on for pages about how Drew has destroyed the show. I guess it's good for him to find a job where he'll be in his element - I just hope that while he's in Las Vegas, he doesn't start hosting The Price Is Right Live as well.

Moving on...this is probably far from news, but Fox is premiering the new game show Million Dollar Money Drop on December 20 with host Kevin Pollack. I suppose I'll check this one out, but frankly it just sounds to me like yet another generic Who Wants Be A Millionaire? clone with a comedian host and tapings that took eight hours for one episode. Here's the question I keep waiting for an answer to...remember back in May when I described an upcoming show called Six Minds, to be hosted by Vernon Kay? Well, yes, it has had tapings, under the new title of Million Dollar Mind Game...but it shows no signs of premiering. I want to see it! Yes, it has "Million Dollar" in the title and yes, it's being hosted by the guy who's currently hosting Skating With The Stars, but this actually sounds to me like it has a chance at being unique. Perhaps it will be the show that proves American game shows don't have to be dumbed down.

Hey...I can dream, can't I?

Aaron

Happy Thanksgiving!

As I'm leaving town for Thanksgiving, there's no post this week.

I'll be back!

Aaron

One Versus 1 vs. 100

I might as well get this out there: I never really got into 1 vs. 100. It just seemed to me to be a pretty basic Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? clone (Millionaire with a bunch of other people involved!) and the vaguely worded questions just seemed gimmicky. I realize it's silly to like Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? (Millionaire with easier questions!) and not like 1 vs. 100, but there you go.

What did impress me about 1 vs. 100 (in as much as anything did) was the set - the single player facing these rows and rows of people brought to mind the Imperial Senate from Star Wars. Naturally, that was the first thing Game Show Network dropped for their new five-day-a-week version of the series.

The actual mechanics of the game haven't changed too much. A single player is competing against a group of 100 dubbed "the mob." The mob this time is prerecorded and displayed on a monitor, but does still seem to come in groups - like Bob Saget on NBC, Carrie Ann Inaba reminds everyone at the start of each game that the mob contains five MENSA members and eight professional cheerleaders. A vaguely worded question is asked, and the mob is given a few seconds to lock in their answers. The single player then can answer in his\her own time, and if that answer is correct, any mob members who got the question wrong are eliminated. Every time you eliminate ten mob members, you advance on the money ladder towards $50,000, and are given the option of quitting ("Money...or the mob?") The contestant also has two helps sponsored by Progressive Auto Insurance - Poll The Mob and Trust The Mob.

So...is it good? Well, as I said, I wasn't a major fan of 1 vs. 100 when it was on in primetime, so a scaled down version isn't going to change my opinion. They took away the one thing about the show I really liked - the set. Carrie Ann, too, looks to me like she's drank too much coffee, and while they kept the theme music from the primetime version, I always thought said music just sounded generic. If you liked 1 vs. 100 in primetime, by all means, check this out - but that wasn't me.

Aaron

Charlie O'Donnell 1932 - 2010

One of the game show world's most legendary announcers has died at age 78. If you have no idea who I'm talking about...let's just say you know his voice. If you need another hint: "It's AMERICA'S GAME..."

That's right. Charlie was the announcer on Wheel Of Fortune. He wasn't the only one - at various points Jack Clark and M.G. Kelly have held the position - but I didn't know that until years later. Charlie's been doing this job for as long as I've known what Wheel Of Fortune was. I remember hearing Pat Sajak talk to "Charlie" at a very young age and having no idea who, if anyone, Charlie was.

It turned out he was quite an accomplished personality. If we stay focused on game shows, Charlie announced more than I can possibly name; if we branch out, he began his career on American Bandstand with Dick Clark and has been everything from a DJ to a local news anchor. If you can announce live events ranging from the Beatles to Pope John Paul II, you know you've got talent.
The field of game show announcer is a dying one. The sad fact is, while countless people associate game shows with phrases like "what do we have for him Johnny?" most game shows today don't have an announcer or any need for one. Thankfully, Wheel Of Fortune doesn't seem to be abandoning the idea just yet; on-air tryouts for the job are being given to both Jeopardy announcer Johnny Gilbert (what a surprise) and former The Price Is Right announcer Rich Fields (cue screams of joy from the hardcore The Price Is Right fans). I certainly hope we don't end up with an out of work comedian.

I'll have my review of the Game Show Network version of 1 vs. 100 next week.

Rest in peace Charlie,

Aaron

I've Said It Before And I'll Say It Again...

I am not a major fan of The Newlywed Game.

Oh, I realize it's an legendary game show, that Bob Eubanks is iconic, and that the "up the butt" incident probably did happen. The whole dirty laundry thing just isn't for me. As I said in January, it's only a short jump from The Newlywed Game to the horrific Three's A Crowd, the game show that purported to find out who knows a man better - his wife or his secretary?

It was every bit as scary as that makes it sound.

Game Show Network's revival of The Newlywed Game began in 2009 with new host Carnie Wilson. Before you say anything else, you should know that Bob Eubanks is far from the only person to have hosted The Newlywed Game; however, it seems that every time someone else is tried, they eventually have to bring Bob back to save the show...and sure enough, when Carnie left, guess what the rumor that went around was?

No such luck. The new host is Sherri Shepherd. Apart from that, it appears that absolutely nothing has changed from the previous season. Yes, the show is now taped in New York, but the set looks the same to me...and yes, there's a new announcer, but I can't identify him. Sherri...I suppose there are worse choices, but she comes across to me as a bit too loud and obnoxious. It doesn't really matter, however - no host could change my opinion of this show. It's not a bad game. It's not badly produced. It's just not for me. If you like this sort of thing, then watch.

I'll have my obituary of Charlie O'Donnell next week and my review of the Game Show Network version of 1 vs. 100 on November 18.

Aaron

Well, It Is Better Than Minute To Win It...

"It gets worse, however, when we move from the network to game show fans, who immediately dismissed this show (an American format) as a ripoff of the British series The Cube. Every now and then, a show premieres in some other country that game show fans immediately latch onto, saying that when this show comes to America, it will forever change things. I remember when it was Millionaire (which lived up to the hype)...then The Weakest Link (which burned itself out pretty fast)...then Deal Or No Deal (ditto). I've heard a lot of game show fans say, essentially 'What is this Minute To Win It nonsense? We want the real The Cube!' What difference will it make? From what I've heard, the major difference between Minute To Win It and The Cube is that on The Cube, contestants do the stunts inside the eponymous Plexiglas structure. Is that seriously going to make a difference?" - From my review of Minute To Win It in March

Now that I've seen a couple episodes of The Cube...I guess it's time to try to answer that question.

The bare-bones description of The Cube sounds almost identical to that of Minute To Win It -a contestant starts out with nine lives. If this contestant successfully completes a game, we advance on the money ladder towards 250,000 pounds; if this contestant doesn't succeed, a life is lost. Quitting after successfully completing a game is of course an option, but once you say you want to go for it, you are committed to that game until you win or run out of lives. The contestant also has two lifelines - Simplify (which makes the game a little easier) and Trial Run (which allows you to try out a game once without fear of losing a life).

That's the format...so what makes this show different from Minute To Win It? Well for starters, the games don't seem all that similar to me. From what I've seen of Minute To Win It, it's mostly plain old Beat The Clock-type stunts. There are a few of those on The Cube, but also a lot that don't come close. An average contestant's game might include pushing a button to stop a light in a certain place, stepping over a barrier while wearing a blindfold helmet, and building a certain tower with wooden blocks within twenty seconds. One contestant I saw just had to catch a ball from a pitching machine for something like 10,000 pounds.

Of course, if you said "Just catching a ball for 10,000 pounds? That sounds dumb" you've captured the biggest problem here. The fact is that, while this show is mind-numbingly entertaining, it also contains some of the dumbest games I have ever seen, being played out in the most overdone way imaginable. Host Phillip Schofield talks to the cube. The cube talks to the contestant, addressing him\her by name. The games are demonstrated by "the body" (a woman in a mask who the cube intones is "an expert at all games played within the cube") and frequently shown in slow motion.

The padding is endless. Phillip has to resort to giving the contestant statistics like "on average, it takes 3.2 lives to complete this game, and women are 38% better at it then men" and constantly repeating "next time you walk out of the cube, it will be with X pounds...or nothing." Of course, all this padding has to be there - if they just played these games without it, the show would be fifteen minutes long.

If I'm making this show sound bad, I'm sorry. The fact is that Phillip is excellent and the show is really, really, incredibly fun to watch - way more so than Minute To Win It. While I'd love to see an American version, I'd love even more to see a game show that did something really unique - not follow the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? model.

I usually point to Million Dollar Password as the ultimate proof that Millionaire clones have taken over the genre...well, here's an even bigger example. In March 2009, it was announced that NBC was producing a pilot for an American version of the British topical panel game show Have I Got News For You. The article contained the following sentence: "NBC declined comment on its plans for 'News,' but it seems likely the network will make some changes to the show’s format in order to make it fit with the big 'event' feel seen in most primetime reality shows."

There's your thought for the day.

Aaron