i tend to get interested/excited about new night time game shows when they are announced. maybe the premise sounds cool or it looks totally ridiculous - but in a good way. but, inevitably they usually end up disappointing for one reason or another (think: 1 vs 100, Million Dollar Password, The Moment Of Truth, etc...).
well, Minute To Win It has proven itself to be one of the exceptions to the rule (think: Grand Slam - that awesome show that aired on GSN where trivia show winners went head to head).
the show has been on for about 4 weeks or so now and i have to say that i am really enjoying it. it is total fun, and lets just hope NBC doesn't do anything stupid like expand it to more than two days a week (which might already be pushing it - when will networks learn). so, what did they get right with this one?
well there are a few key things i think that make the show work. and the main one for me is pacing. this isn't something that most people think about, but it is a big deal. first off: we want to see people play the game. and second: we want to see them going for the big money.Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was boring till they got to at least the $32,000 question. the first three rounds of Deal Or No Deal are totally tedious (you know they aren't gonna take the deal). The Moment Of Truth (say what you will about the show/premise itself) often took one full hour on just one contestant without even getting to the highest money offered questions.
Also, sure its nice that they have family and friends there to support them, but i don't care to see the host talk to them for 10 minutes and tell us the contestants life story for another 10. i know they do it so that we as the audience can know them better and therefore have more of an investment into whether they win or lose, but Minute To Win It goes from one challenge to the next with minimal time wasted in between and i still totally feel like the contestants personality and story are told to us without it feeling piled on and dragged out.
that pacing, along with the challenges which are great, the good show design (the circle game play area, the colors, the great challenge blueprints with the british ladies voice describing the challenge and the rules of said challenge) and a good host in mr. Diners, Drive-ins and Dives himself, guy fieri makes for a fun hour of viewing on sunday nights - and now wednesdays also - on NBC.
SIDE NOTE: the show has only been on the air for about a month or so and last nights episode was a repeat. what is up with that? to break out a repeat less than two months into a shows premier is just wrong. i guess the expanding to wednesdays maybe caught them off guard and they didn't have enough episodes in the can, but really?
Friday, June 11, 2010 at 4:55PM 
The Good Guys premiered on fox a few weeks ago and i checked it out. i really liked the pilot, but wanted to get a look at episode 2 before i mentioned it here. Well, having just watched the second episode (had it tivo'd) i gotta say... still liking it.
