When you think about, the "Phone-A-Friend" lifeline on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has always been lame.
In theory it sounds good: if you don't know the answer you call a friend to see if they know. You even get to choose a few friends for your list so you can have people with different specialties/knowledge. So why did it fail so often? Friends that contestants called either got the question wrong, weren't that sure of the answer at all (forcing the contestant to use another lifeline to narrow it down more, like 50/50), or they couldn't even get their answer out before time ran out and the call was cut off. It always made me nervous.
Producers say they've developed easily replicated challenges because they want us to play along at home, like how we yell prices to contestants on The Price is Right. There are no prizes for participating at home, unless you count having to figure out what to do with an entire roll of toilet paper strewn about your living room.
They're even going to set up a website where we can see 50 demonstrations of tasks people on the show might be asked to perform. Which means we can start right now trying to figure out what those might be. Fold a basket full of inside out shirts? Match 50 pairs of socks with your feet. Stack empty bottles of laundry detergent on top of one another on top of a running dryer. Sound off with your ideas!
Terry Kniess, the Double Showcase winner on The Price is Right who got his bid right on the money, may have been a "dark day" for Drew Carey, but he's no cheater.
In fact, there have been more egregious and blatant attempts to guarantee a win in a pricing game by skewing the odds in their favor, sometimes right in front of the host's eyes.
For instance, here's a "Shell Game" contestant who does something so outrageous, so ballsy, so completely devious that Bob Barker can't help but rip her to verbal shreds in front of the entire nation. And not only does she get away with it, but she actually wins the game!
The show no longer has a set-in-stone jackpot in the final "Fast Money" game that the winning family plays. Instead, at the start of the show, each family starts with $15,000 in their "Jackpot" and then there are five quick "Bullseye" rounds where the familes have to guess the number one answer to a question. Question one gives you $1000, question two gives you $2000, and so on. Whatever you win is added to the bank and that's the amount you play for. It's great if you get a few questions right, but not so great if you don't (this is actually something they had on the show in the 90s and have brought back).
Normally I wouldn't do a post about a show that's hard for us Yanks to see, but this game show addition to the Brit's ITV Network merits special attention because it shows just how far ahead of the curve they are when it comes to kicking our asses on television.
The Cube sounds like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill challenge game show, designed to humiliate people on national television by making them look stupid for not being able to complete menial tasks for cash and/or prizes. That's because on the surface, it looks like every single game show you've ever seen since executives realized that crushing the human spirit on live television would score them lets of cash and/or prizes.
But when you watch an entire episode, its stylish look and dark feeling matched with the complexity of the game's concept make for an hour of television that sucks you in and never lets you go for a second. Compare that to just about every recent American game show that pushes you away and makes you run as far as you can from your TV set.
You should be reading Classic Television Showbiz, a really fun blog that often showcases video of old and/or obscure TV shows. This week he has a video of the short-lived game show Pitfall, which Alex Trebek hosted.
Not only did the company that produced the show run out of money, they ran out of money while the show was still on the air. So they couldn't pay some of the later contestants and Trebek didn't get paid either! He still has the check framed in his office. Video below (quality isn't great, but it's interesting).
ABC's newest stunt game show Crash Course looks exactly like the kind of show that bloggers and critics watch just so they could put their "Suck Extinguishers" to good use.
And yet 45 minutes of TV viewing later, I'm not even feeling the need to break the protective glass. On the surface, it appears to be just another reality/game show with typical contestants having their ids scared for life for cash and/or prizes and most of it is just that.
And even though it met those stereotypical expectations, I still didn't hate it. Part of me actually kind of (gulp) enjoyed it. Did I just swallow my brains along with my pride?
Regis Philbin played Millionaire on TV the other day, and not just on ABC. He actually showed up on a rival network, CNBC, and not only plugged the show but also played a stock-oriented version of the game called Who Wants To Be A Fast Millionaire.
Game show fanatics will be pleased to learn that network game shows are returning to daytime television. Finally, people who take actual sick days will have something else to look forward to other than another mind-bending dose of NyQuil.
CBS has confirmed they are replacing the outgoing Guiding Light with a remake of the classic Let's Make a Deal.
The ex-Tiffany network has already shot a test pilot of the updated show with smiling crooner Wayne Brady in the host's chair. Brady hasn't officially won the job, but he's the front-running favorite. CBS executives are expected to make Brady's deal official later today at the Television Critics Association hoedown, unless, of course, he chooses to go for what's behind Door Number Two. Don't do it Wayne! It's just a lifetime supply of goat feed!
If you didn't watch today's episode of The Price is Right, you missed a woman wearing a "Substitute Teachers Need Random Sets Too" t-shirt (which I'm still not sure I understand), a woman winning a set of Star Trek Pez dispensers (!),Drew Carey showing what the price card looks like inside that envelope used on Contestants Row (not sure if we've ever seen that before), and a woman flapping her arms up and down like a bird in excitement, even though she didn't win a car in the Lucky 7 game (side note: that game is impossible to win now). Oh, and you also missed Bob Barker return to the show he hosted for over 30 years.
Barker made his first appearance on the show since his retirement to promote his new memoir, Priceless Memories. He showed up during the showcases. After the jump, his appearance (along with interviews and some behind the scenes footage).
Now thatGuiding Light is destined to become another sad memory of lonely housewives nationwide, CBS is hoping an old daytime tradition will pull them away from their housework.
And for those of you now engulfed in hate flame who've found the fuel to write some snide comment about my Mad Men-ish view of soap opera viewers and women, please calm the #*$& down. One, I realize this is not the 1950s and women don't all strive to stay at home barefoot and pregnant. And two, who the hell else watches soap operas? Only male hair salon stylists and hospital patients who don't have the physical ability or cognitive capacity to operate a bed remote.
There are some forces in the universe that should never be messed with: the sun, black holes and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Take it from someone who knows.
The man has the unholy ability to make ANYONE look stupid on national television. He can make an Ivy League PhD appear as though he went to city college. He can turn a Midwestern elementary school teacher into someone no parent would entrust their child with for eight hours a day. His trademark "Oh, sorry" alone can make a world renowned neurosurgeon look like a jabbering mental patient who doesn't know the name of the bone that houses the human brain.
So it's no wonder that politicians are scared to be seen in the same camera shot with the man.
The hours of preparation have been grueling. The amount of studying has been tedious and boring. The sacrifice required to reach this moment has been great and punishing. I didn't shower for two days and the smell almost set off the fire alarm in some of the smaller rooms.
Now the only weapons I have at my disposal are my nimble fingers, my rapid comprehension and my ability to remember everything I've read in the span of four days. We're about to go head-to-head with the razor-toothed man eater that is the Jeopardy! contestant test.
It's more than a little ironic (or tragic, depending on how much you give a rat's ass) that the most successful game show in the history of American television has never had a truly worthy home game. One worthy enough to give to loser contestants so they can win against their own friends and family at home because God is a cruel comedian.
Now after more than 35 years on the air, there is such a game: The Price is Right video game. And it's so well done and fun that it could crush the soul of a 300-pound linebacker from Obetz, Ohio who lost out on his chance to be the only guy in town who owns a Chrysler Crossfire.
When you think about, the "Phone-A-Friend" lifeline on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has always been lame. 
Think Deal or No Deal is too easy? Want more interactive for that big prize? NBC might have the answer. They've ordered Perfect 10, a one-hour game show where contestants have 60 seconds to complete ten tasks for $1 million; tasks like unraveling an entire roll of toilet paper with your body.
Terry Kniess, the Double Showcase winner on The Price is Right who got his bid right on the money, may have been a "dark day" for Drew Carey, but he's no cheater. 
We've seen changes to The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune and a big change to the Jeopardy set. Now Family Feud has changed things too.
ABC's newest stunt game show Crash Course looks exactly like the kind of show that bloggers and critics watch just so they could put their "Suck Extinguishers" to good use. 
Game show fanatics will be pleased to learn that network game shows are returning to daytime television. Finally, people who take actual sick days will have something else to look forward to other than another mind-bending dose of NyQuil. 
If you didn't watch today's episode of The Price is Right, you missed a woman wearing a "Substitute Teachers Need Random Sets Too" t-shirt (which I'm still not sure I understand), a woman winning a set of Star Trek Pez dispensers (!),Drew Carey showing what the price card looks like inside that envelope used on Contestants Row (not sure if we've ever seen that before), and a woman flapping her arms up and down like a bird in excitement, even though she didn't win a car in the Lucky 7 game (side note: that game is impossible to win now). Oh, and you also missed Bob Barker return to the show he hosted for over 30 years.
Now that Guiding Light is destined to become another sad memory of lonely housewives nationwide, CBS is hoping an old daytime tradition will pull them away from their housework. 
There are some forces in the universe that should never be messed with: the sun, black holes and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Take it from someone who knows. 
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