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Celebrity Name Game Review
Celebrity Name Game is everything a game show should be nowadays. The show is hardly original, but all the good game show ideas are taken. All we can really expect from new game show concepts is that they don’t execute old concepts badly. Based on that criteria, Celebrity Name Game and it’s host, Craig Ferguson, excel.
Like most game shows, Celebrity Name Game combines elements from classic game shows and adds two, likable, but B-list celebrities. In this case, the show is a mix of Pyramid and Family Feud with teams of three people: one celebrity and two civilians.
The first two rounds and the bonus game are ripped straight from Pyramid. The first round has one team pick from semi-cleverly named categories, such as “Kicked to the ‘Curb,'”which features celebrities who had appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm. The other team is left with the remaining category. In this round, the celebrity team member provides clues to the two civilians, who take turns guessing the answer. Each correct answer is worth $100. The celebrities swap teams. The last team to go chooses the category for another round like the first. Now, correct answers are worth $200 each.
‘Trust Me, I’m a Game Show’ Host Review
TBS’s Trust Me, I’m a Game Show Host is everything a modern game show should be. It has the bawdiness and banter of Match Game with a side of Hollywood Squares “is this person telling the truth.”
Unlike most game shows, there are two hosts: D.L. Hughley and Michael Ian Black. It’s an unusual setup that works because it seems like the producers will be casting meek contestants, who aren’t entirely comfortable with the jokes and subject matters. The producers are picking people that blush when you mention boobs, so of course they’re not going to be comfortable when D.L. Hughley gives a fact about the first patent for vibrators. While it would be nice to see a contestant hold their own against two comedians, the contestants aren’t the star of the show.
The facade of a game show only serves to allow D.L. and Michael to banter, which gets a little dirty because the show is aired at 10:30 pm on cable. The fact that the Trust Me, I’m a Game Show Host isn’t on network television allows both hosts to curse, tell questionable jokes, and D.L. to crack all the jokes he wants about being a black man. For some reason, that is something D.L. likes to remind the audience. He constantly calls himself “the dark side.” It’s funny the first time. By the five hundredth time, it’s been run into the ground.
‘The Million Second Quiz’: All Hype, No Substance
NBC is attempting to make game shows an event again, which isn’t going to happen with The Million Second Quiz. That’s because the show is boring. While Ryan Seacrest is likeable, he talks too much. To make matters worse, most of this chatter is about contestants that viewers only watching the hour in primetime will never get to see play the game or about how line jumpers became contestants. Clearly, NBC didn’t think through the fact that no one will be sitting at home watching the live stream for the remaining 23 hours a day.
When Ryan isn’t talking, the show is the lovechild of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Twenty One with NBC’s version of the Prize Patrol surprising line jumpers, who are contestants that have been playing from the comfort of their own home and now will be flown to New York City to play the game for money, thrown in for good measure. Like daytime Millionaire, every questions has four possible answers. The elements taken from Twenty One are the fact that two contestants answer the questions at the same time and the “doubler,” which is explained in the rules below.
David Letterman Plays the Joker in “The Riddlers”
In 1977, David Letterman was still a struggling standup comedian trying to break into television, which is the only way to explain why Letterman would ever take part in the mess of a pilot that is The Riddlers. Unless you’re a fan of David Letterman, perpetual b-list game show guests from the 70s, or things that are so bad, they’re good, The Riddlers is not worth watching.
The Riddlers‘s pilot has many things wrong with it. The most obvious are several format flaws. First, there’s the fact that Letterman is almost useless. The contestants are reading the riddles to other members of their team. The Riddler‘s doesn’t need a host and it doesn’t deserve on as good as Letterman. He exists solely to read the rules and repeat questions that have already been read. While it is necessary to repeat questions every now and then, no game show needs a dedicated echoer.
As if a built in redundancy isn’t bad enough, the starting team is almost guaranteed to win. The problem isn’t that the object of the game is to answer 9 riddles correctly. It’s that the losing team from the previous game starts the new one and keeps control of the game until they get an incorrect answer. It’s entirely possible for a really good team to win the game without the other team ever answering a question. The only reason that doesn’t happen in the pilot is because Joyce Bulifant isn’t too bright, which she has also demonstrated multiple times on Match Game, so it’s not like she was having a bad day.
‘Perfect Score’ Doesn’t Deserve One
After the new Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The CW airs Perfect Score. It is an extremely odd pairing. While Whose Line? appeals equally to both men and women, Perfect Score goes directly for The CW’s female demographic.
Perfect Score, hosted by Arielle Kebbel, is a slightly classier version of GSN’s Baggage, which is appropriately hosted by Jerry Springer. Baggage has people reveal unsettling secrets, such as collecting an ex-lovers toenail clippings in an urn, whereas Perfect Score settles for using cheesy pickup lines and other gimmicks, such as having men dress up as superheroes and sharing their superpower. Unlike Baggage, contestants can win money on Perfect Score, but they have to compete for a date against their best friend.
Not Everyone Can ‘Deal With It’
Howie Mandel is a prankster. He also likes to produce Candid Camera inspired shows, which is why Howie Do It, Mobbed, and now Deal With It exist. The former two shows both lasted less than 20 episodes. If TBS is smart, Deal With It will meet the same fate. In other words, the show isn’t good. To make matters worse, it is an exact copy of a short-lived Food Network show that even the Internet doesn’t remember.
Deal With It ambushes a random restaurant patron, who is then asked to participate in a game where they can win up to $5,000. Of course, all the people agree to go along with whatever crazy thing host Theo Von and his celebrity guest tell them to do. There are five rounds, which are worth $250, $500, $1,000, $2,500, respectively. If a contestant does not feel comfortable continuing the game, he or she can end the game by saying “I can’t deal with it.” Unlike many shows in this genre, the contestant then gets to keep the money won up to that point.
‘Hollywood Game Night’: Fun Show, Obnoxious Host
Hollywood Game Night combines elements from all of the classic game shows, specifically Password and Body Language, and makes them modern. It may also be the first new game show that allows the viewer to participate at home, which is something that Minute to Win It and The Winner Is lack. Watching people make fools of themselves on television is only fun for so long.
Television is usually a passive experience, but the reason why Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and The Price is Right have been around for over 30 years is because people love to feel like they are participating at home in a way that doesn’t involve consuming large amounts of alcohol. Hollywood Game Night‘s producers understand that. Although, host Jane Lynch did recommend a Hollywood Game Night drinking game five minutes into the show; it was tongue in cheek.
If You’re Male, You Could Be the Next Model on The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right is looking for its first ever male model. On August 30, the process of finding a male model will start with an open casting call. The casting call will take place at KCBS Studios, 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, CA 91604 from 10am to 2pm. At the casting call, The Price is Right‘s producers and current female models interview and judge hopefuls on “verbal skills, posing and ability to properly showcase a product.”
The model search competition will be posted on The Price is Right‘s YouTube channel and priceisright.com in five installments starting on September 28, which is also the day the finalists will be announced on the show. During the competition, potential models will demonstrate their modeling skills and on-camera presences in multiple challenges. At the end of each challenge, a contest will be eliminated. However, some of the eliminated contestants will be able to get back into the game.
Viewers will chose the winner, who will receive a one-week modeling gig on the show. Voting will take place online from September 28 to October 4. The winning male model will make his debut on October 15.
Cool TV Video of the Day: Celebrity Double Dare
If you thought the worst show Bruce Jenner has been on was Keeping Up with the Kardashians, you would be wrong. In 1987, someone decided to make a spin-off of the Nickelodeon game show Double Dare with Bruce Jenner as the host because nothing says acting like an adult more than the Sundae Slide. Fortunately, the show never made it passed the pilot stage.
Scott Baio and Heidi Bohay are the celebrity guests in the pilot.
Part 2 is after the jump.
Wait! What's A Dial? 