New Year Brings New Game Shows

A new year brings new game shows, especially when it’s a new year without the Writer’s Guild. I checked in with the guide of the about.com Game Shows site, Carrie Grosvenor, for the news on what we can expect for the new or returning game shows.

Carrie’s been watching game shows a long time with The Price Is Right, the original one with Bob Barker and his beauties, being the first one she remembers watching. “My mom used to work long hours as a single mom, and my brother and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was very young. My grandmother was a huge “Price” fan, so I used to sit with her and watch it. Got pretty good at the pricing games, too!” I can identify with that. This will age me considerably, but I can remember watching The Price Is Right on my summers off of school, and back then the first number guessed for every car was a 3. That would be $3,000, not $30,000.

Lately there seem to be many new, excitingly different game shows out, especially in prime time, with 1 vs. 100, Deal or No Deal, etc. Instead of coming up with more new ones, Carrie would like to see some old favorites brought back, things like Let’s Make a Deal or Match Game. She likens Match Game to the current Deal or No Deal, as they’re both easy enough to follow along at home, as well as being more entertainment than competition. That’s a good point. Who would have thought the funny guy putting a rubber glove on his head would be hosting such a popular game show twenty years later?

Howie Mandel isn’t Carrie’s favorite host, though. She’s got a thing for old Chuck Woolery, believe it or not. Maybe it’s that huge watch. Although, she made a great suggestion for a possible new host, similar in vein to Howie. She suggests Ryan Stiles of Whose Line Is It Anyway and The Drew Carey Show would be a great host, especially of some type of Match Game redeux. I have to admit she’s onto something there. Maybe we could start a petition for that or something.

If people only had time to watch one game show a week, Carrie thinks they should make time for 1 vs. 100, finding it a great concept that you get the chance to beat a whole mob, so great of a concept that it actually hooks you. Once you get the celebrities mixed in with the mob and the multiple choice questions, she thinks it’s a perfect formula. However, if you can squeeze in another half hour every day, Carrie thinks classic Jeopardy is always a good choice.

I’m going to turn the rest of this post over to Carrie herself, as she explains the new and returning game shows that are upcoming in the next few weeks.

There are four game shows starting up this month: Power of 10, 1 vs. 100, American Gladiators, and newcomer The Moment of Truth.

Power of 10, as far as I know, is coming back with the same formula and no new twists. Which, in my opinion, is a good thing. Even if you don’t like Drew Carey on The Price is Right (and I do enjoy him on that show!), he’s very enjoyable to watch in this one. It’s a little edgier than most shows because of the questions that are asked, and the top prize is ten million, so it’s fun to think that someone could actually win that much money on a game show.

1 vs. 100 is my current favorite show, for reasons detailed above. There are a couple of changes this season, including a new prize ladder that may or may not be disturbing to hard core fans. It basically changes the amount of money that the mob stands to win if the “one” gets a question wrong. But they’re also doing a couple of themed episodes and introducing regular mob members (like Oscar the Grouch - seriously!), so it’ll still be great fun to watch.

American Gladiators is making a comeback, which is fantastic news. This one pits “average” contestants against these huge hulking Gladiators in some pretty extreme physical challenges. I’m really excited about this show and can’t wait for the premiere!

Then we have The Moment of Truth, which promises to be controversial if nothing else. I’m taking a “wait and see” stance on this show. Contestants are hooked up to a lie detector, and then asked increasingly personal questions that they must answer honestly in order to advance and win money. It’s got “train wreck” written all over it, but no doubt will draw a huge audience and lots of media coverage. It’s based on a show out of Colombia, and the original version was canceled when a female contestant admitted that she had hired a hit man to kill her husband. So there’s already a swarm of tabloid-style media surrounding the show.

Lots of media outlets are decrying the onslaught of game shows and reality shows that are about to be thrust upon us, but really, there’s some good entertainment going on here. And most of these shows were on the roster anyway, regardless of the current writers strike. So I think viewers should go into this with an open mind. Try a couple of new (or “new to you”) game shows, and see what they’re all about. You might just find some new favorites!

If you want to read more about game shows, visit Carrie’s site at About.com: Game Shows.

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