Red Dog

That was the stupidest group of people I have ever seen on a trivia type game show. Those idiots would not even make it to final Jeopardy.

I like the SNL theory.

sundog

It was like watching the bastard child of Survivor and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

I liked the relatively rapid question rounds, but then they spend as much, if not more time on the idiotic voting. I had the closed captioning on while playing some CD's and when I turned the TV sound up at the end I realized the host speaks...extremely...slow.

I'm sure, at some point in the development of this show, someone pointed out that this show is too derivative (sp?) of the whole "reality/game" show trend. And I'm sure the person that made said point was promptly relieved of his/her position for *gasp* maybe suggesting doing something original.

It's all a big game of copycat, and NBC decided it doesn't mind copying CBS and ABC at the same time.

benedict

I've never watched the show all the way through but sometimes see the last few minutes when I get home from work. Here are some factoids (some of which may be slightly misremembered!):

Anne Robinson is being paid over a million dollars for just 13 US shows. (Money for old rope. Who cares if it bombs!)

She was taking elocution lessons so that Americans would have less of a problem with her accent. (I never get this problem people have with accents. I understand all accents that are thrown at me; even easier if the person is fluent in your mother tongue. All you need to do is listen!)

The average UK prize money is around £2300. (That's about $3,500; 5% of the US prize.... Hello!!)

Certainly in the 70s and 80s the vast majority of UK gameshows were styled on US originals. (So, sorry for all those that deplore the lack of homegrown talent, but we are just getting you back or Wheel of Fortune and Celebrity (Hollywood?)Squares!!)



[Edited by benedict on 04-17-01 at 12:23 PM]

Bobubott

In all fairness, though, if you only saw the last round, it was quite different from the previous rounds. In the last round, there was no time limit, so she read the questions much slower. Most of the time she was pretty fast, with the exception of the "Treaty of Guadalupe..." question; she read that question slower than molasses, because she was probably afraid of screwing up the name.

Jeraden

The ones people asked her to repeat were ones she gave right after they said 'Bank' (guess they weren't expecting the question to start right away), or ones where the question was something like "What 'P' stands for a ..." or "What 'G' did this or that" (meaning the answer starts with that letter). I didn't understand them either on the first read because the sentence ends up sounding kind of awkward. Out of I think 4 or 5 questions that were phrased like that, I think only 1 of them didn't ask for it to be repeated.

caiman

I didn't quite understand the rules about banking. How far along in the reading of the question was it still okay to say "bank"? One guy said it when the question was about a third of the way asked, and it stil counted. Also, why didn't anyone ever say bank when it bacame their turn with very little time left? Wouldn't it make sense to say "bank" when you knew you didn't have enough time to answer the question? It seemed like no one ever did that.

adamblast

Accents aren't usually that big a deal, but the ticking-clock aspect of the game makes any small glitch a big deal... Her unusual speech patterns (to the American ear) and the odd wording of the questions (ditto) will take some getting used to.

I agree that the "What P" or "What G" kind of question was messing people up. That form may be standard grammar on UK game shows, but it hasn't been used here commonly.

It may take several episodes for the program's style to settle down. In the meantime, the participants will be goofing up due to unfamiliarity as much as the usual ignorance and panic.

We can at least be thankful that "Richard from Survivor" wasn't chosen for the host -- he was under serious consideration for a while. Yuck.

adamblast

Any UK experts correct me if I'm wrong...

They're supposed to say BANK right away, but when the hostess is in speed-talk mode they're going to be lenient unless it's obvious that the contestant was trying to hear the question before deciding. Also, contestants don't know the information we see on our screens, like the exact question values or remaining time left. That's why you get so many people trying to bank non-existant cash, for example.

And while it'd be smart to bank often at the very end, I expect it'd be nearly impossible to estimate time accurately during the adrenelin rush of a round.

caiman

Ok, that does make sense. I didn't realize that the contestants could not see the remaining time.

Bust

Um...I'm pretty sure that the contestants know that when the person before them answers a question wrong, the bank is at zero. It is idiotic to say "bank" right after someone gets a question wrong. This happened numerous times on last nights program.

caiman

I would imagine that the pressure and intensity of being there answering questions on the spot would cause someone to think less clearly than they would watching at home, leading to some "idiotic" mistakes. But that just might be me.

Marvdog

I thought that the high school kid James played pretty good. It was cold when Mary and that Undertaker dude voted him off just cause he was a kid. He was the strongest link in that round yet he lost cause of the other people being babies.

Scott27

Looks like the show could be around for a while. According to EMOnline, the it won it's time slot, the first Monday 8-9pm victory for NBC since March of 1999 (over 2 years). It also showed a 73% increase over the previous week's Dateline NBC, and had a healthy adult 18-34 rating. NBC is also considering Richard Hatch to host a syndicated version of the show they hope to launch for the 2001-02 season.

Click the link above for more info on the show's performance last night.

chowderhead

Both the questions I think were fair.
There were four Lethal Weapons movies so far but the correct answer is 3 sequels. I think under pressure, one could have answered this question wrong. With the Salmon Rushdie question, you either had to know it or you didn't.

I liked this show very much. The host's cracks at the contestants are funny as hell and quite witty in that British dry humor way. It won its time slot and should be do well if NBC doesn't move it around too much or air it too often. Goodbye!

edytwinky

She has the coolest accent.

TheyCallHimJim

The whole premise is that people who apply to be on quiz shows evidently think that they're smart, and it's pretty amusing seeing some wiseass who thinks he's Einstein get chewed up for getting all his questions wrong. And, of course, it's always the people who think they're smartest who f*** up the most. Much more interesting, IMO, than watching some moron win a poorly built catamaran for playing Hangman...

Basically, the only reason you'd choose to bank before your question is when you're not confident you're gonna be able to answer it correctly. The smarter you think you are, the less likely you are to do this, and the more chance you stand of "losing" the team huge piles of cash. Marvellous...

In the UK a while back, they had a "special" episode where they invited back the contestants who'd been the worst losers and made the biggest fuss when they got voted off and reckoned they were "cheated". And, of course, they were all too proud to bank, they made virtually no money at the end of the program, and they still all whined and moaned like a bunch of babies.

If you're gonna go on a prime time TV show just for the sake of greed and getting on TV, then being humiliated in front of tens of millions of viewers is a fair enough price to pay, if you ask me...

matchpenalty

Last night the players seemed pathetic. This game would be more interesting if they got people who get more than half the questions right.

Scott27

Exactly. And if people did bank on the rare occasion when they got more than 1 in a row right, so they actually play for a decent amount of money at the end of the show. $38,000? Give me a ****in break.

CPA-ESQ.

They do need to bump up the $$$, maybe give the strongest link in the round a "bonus." Reward the people who keep the game going and who bank the most $$.

I like it, and will watch it again.

And I like how the host makes fun of those "loosers," I mean she is only saying what we are all thinking at home

Red Dog

I now stand corrected. Tuesday's group is now the stupidest group I have ever seen on a trivia type game show.

Jamezuva

Well, another reason you'd bank is if you thought the next person after you would get their question wrong since you obviously can't bank after you answer your question. Also, banking a decent amount of money can put you in a good light when it comes to voting. Your logic is probably right most of the time (since a lot of the people on this show don't appear to be too bright in the first place) but I think there are more reasons to bank besides lack of self-confidence