Surfing after the Panthers-Redskins game yesterday, I stumbled
across a new game show on ABC: "Million Dollar Mind Game," which
was having its premiere and is hosted by British personality Vernon Kay.
(It's on at 4 PM ET; KABC shows it at 2 PM PT, and I don't know what
time it's on in the rest of the Pacific time zone.)
Six contestants, seated in what looks like a casino and all formally or
semi-formally dressed (as is Kay, with his dinner jacket), answer tricky
questions which require logic to answer (sample question: In October 1931
President Herbert Hoover asked Americans to turn off their lights for one
minute. What was the occasion?) The six contestants, working as a team
with each taking turns as team captain (who gives the only acceptable answer),
then talk it out for one minute before Kay asks for their final answer (he doesn't
use that term; "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" probably has it copyrighted);
in this case, the answer is the death of Thomas Edison. After the team answers
a question correctly, they vote on whether to continue to the next question, whose
dollar value doubles, or keep what they've won, and the vote has to be unanimous,
else they keep playing until they either win the top prize of $1,000,000 or answer
four questions incorrectly, which eliminates them and takes away all the money won
up to that point. There is also the equivalent of "Millionaire"'s lifelines to help them.
The game is based on a Russian idea, and it has all the trademarks of a primetime game:
the constant music, the million-dollar top prize, etc., although Kay is more low-key than
some I've seen (like Howie Mandel and Bob Saget). Merv Griffin's company is producing it.
In a way this show is the answer to my dream, a game show tougher than "Jeopardy!".
But with its emphasis on logic, and with the contestants and viewers forced to stay
focused on the many details contained in the questions, some viewers may throw up their
hands in frustration. (The Edison answer came to me right away; a couple of correct answers
dawned on me after I heard the contestants reasoning it out; some didn't come to me at all).
I don't predict a long life for this show; in fact, if ABC wants to do game shows on Sunday
afternoons, I'd prefer they bring back "GE College Bowl."
Did anyone else catch this show?
across a new game show on ABC: "Million Dollar Mind Game," which
was having its premiere and is hosted by British personality Vernon Kay.
(It's on at 4 PM ET; KABC shows it at 2 PM PT, and I don't know what
time it's on in the rest of the Pacific time zone.)
Six contestants, seated in what looks like a casino and all formally or
semi-formally dressed (as is Kay, with his dinner jacket), answer tricky
questions which require logic to answer (sample question: In October 1931
President Herbert Hoover asked Americans to turn off their lights for one
minute. What was the occasion?) The six contestants, working as a team
with each taking turns as team captain (who gives the only acceptable answer),
then talk it out for one minute before Kay asks for their final answer (he doesn't
use that term; "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" probably has it copyrighted);
in this case, the answer is the death of Thomas Edison. After the team answers
a question correctly, they vote on whether to continue to the next question, whose
dollar value doubles, or keep what they've won, and the vote has to be unanimous,
else they keep playing until they either win the top prize of $1,000,000 or answer
four questions incorrectly, which eliminates them and takes away all the money won
up to that point. There is also the equivalent of "Millionaire"'s lifelines to help them.
The game is based on a Russian idea, and it has all the trademarks of a primetime game:
the constant music, the million-dollar top prize, etc., although Kay is more low-key than
some I've seen (like Howie Mandel and Bob Saget). Merv Griffin's company is producing it.
In a way this show is the answer to my dream, a game show tougher than "Jeopardy!".
But with its emphasis on logic, and with the contestants and viewers forced to stay
focused on the many details contained in the questions, some viewers may throw up their
hands in frustration. (The Edison answer came to me right away; a couple of correct answers
dawned on me after I heard the contestants reasoning it out; some didn't come to me at all).
I don't predict a long life for this show; in fact, if ABC wants to do game shows on Sunday
afternoons, I'd prefer they bring back "GE College Bowl."
Did anyone else catch this show?
