Don't know if the sixth and final episode (for now) of ABC's
"Million Dollar Mind Game" has aired on the West Coast yet,
so this may be a spoiler. The show went out on an up note;
six trivia buffs, including "Jeopardy!"'s all-time biggest winner,
Brad Rutter, elected to bank $600,000 (smarter move than the
computer geeks a few weeks ago when one of their group got
greedy, went against his teammates and voted to go for $1,000,000,
and the team ended up broke).
The team today played as if they were born to it, missing only one
question. I had a feeling, though, that they would not go for the
top prize as it was approaching 5 PM on the East Coast and time was
about to run out.
I've enjoyed this show but have doubts about production resuming;
after all, ABC gave it an impossible timeslot. I do hope Vernon Kay
gets another game (not reality) show in this country.
On the other end, ABC's other new game, "You Deserve It," may play
out a six-week run and be gone for other reasons--like ratings. I didn't
see it last Monday night but a critic or two said it reminded them of
"Queen For A Day" with all the crying that went on. I did see some numbers
out of Dallas, where "YDI" airs on WFAA; "Dancing With The Stars" (7 PM CT)
attracted between 300,000 and 350,000 viewers; "You Deserve It" (8 PM) lost
about two-thirds of that; "Castle" (9 PM) got back that missing 200,000+. But
the winner in the all-important (in the Central time zone) 10 PM news ratings last
Monday was CBS o&o KTVT, where "Hawaii Five-O" is the lead-in. In fact, although
WFAA normally wins at 10 among 25-54-year-olds, the two stations are in a tight
race for the overall audience, something I attribute to CBS's strength in primetime
(which helps KTVT) and many viewers who watch WFAA out of habit and have perhaps
done so since the station's 10 PM newscast became dominant in the '70s.
"Million Dollar Mind Game" has aired on the West Coast yet,
so this may be a spoiler. The show went out on an up note;
six trivia buffs, including "Jeopardy!"'s all-time biggest winner,
Brad Rutter, elected to bank $600,000 (smarter move than the
computer geeks a few weeks ago when one of their group got
greedy, went against his teammates and voted to go for $1,000,000,
and the team ended up broke).
The team today played as if they were born to it, missing only one
question. I had a feeling, though, that they would not go for the
top prize as it was approaching 5 PM on the East Coast and time was
about to run out.
I've enjoyed this show but have doubts about production resuming;
after all, ABC gave it an impossible timeslot. I do hope Vernon Kay
gets another game (not reality) show in this country.
On the other end, ABC's other new game, "You Deserve It," may play
out a six-week run and be gone for other reasons--like ratings. I didn't
see it last Monday night but a critic or two said it reminded them of
"Queen For A Day" with all the crying that went on. I did see some numbers
out of Dallas, where "YDI" airs on WFAA; "Dancing With The Stars" (7 PM CT)
attracted between 300,000 and 350,000 viewers; "You Deserve It" (8 PM) lost
about two-thirds of that; "Castle" (9 PM) got back that missing 200,000+. But
the winner in the all-important (in the Central time zone) 10 PM news ratings last
Monday was CBS o&o KTVT, where "Hawaii Five-O" is the lead-in. In fact, although
WFAA normally wins at 10 among 25-54-year-olds, the two stations are in a tight
race for the overall audience, something I attribute to CBS's strength in primetime
(which helps KTVT) and many viewers who watch WFAA out of habit and have perhaps
done so since the station's 10 PM newscast became dominant in the '70s.