Fox just debuted the American version of a popular British game show. Here, it's called The Million Dollar Money Drop and the rules are pretty simple. A couple comes on. They're presented with a million bucks in cash in chunks of $20,000. It's theirs to keep minus as much of it as they lose by wagering on seven multiple-choice questions. For each question, they have to bet the whole kaboodle. There may be four answers, three or two…and they can spread the bet out over various answers as long as they leave one choice empty. So on every question, they could lose the whole wad.
And like I said, whatever they don't lose (whatever doesn't "drop") they get to take home. This is another show that apes the Deal or No Deal ambiance of a high-tech set with the audience all around…lots of neon-like lighting, roving spotlights, big computer screens, suspenseful music, pregnant pauses before the reveals, etc. And at some point, somebody behind it probably said, "Okay, we need a comedian like Howie Mandel to host" and they wound up with Kevin Pollak. I usually like Pollak but the format here doesn't allow him to do much of anything he does well. Mandel got to interact with The Banker, the Models, the contestants' helpers, et al. Pollak just has to keep explaining the rules and reading questions. How many episodes before he starts reading them in William Shatner's voice?
The first few of the seven questions are usually softballs so the game doesn't end too quickly, plus they want to build up the possibility that the couple may depart with most of the million. Then things get tougher…and here, I'm going to toss in a SPOILER ALERT in case someone reading this recorded it but hasn't watched yet.
The first couple was ideal for this game: A young, attractive black couple that needs the money to get married and start their lives together. You almost ached for them to take home six figures…and they kept most of it for a while. As they got to Question #5, they had $880,000 because the first four questions were eminently guessable. As they got into tougher questions, it became wild-guessing time and they started losing. By Question #7, they had but twenty grand left and here was the question: "According to Time, who did people say was the most trusted newscaster in America in 2009?" Possible answers were Brian Williams and Jon Stewart. They bet their last $20,000 on Brian Williams and lost it. The correct answer was Jon Stewart.
There was something a bit fishy about that question. Its wording would lead you to assume they were being asked about a scientific poll. In truth, it was an online poll — the kind that can easily be rigged by a couple of folks figuring out how to vote repeatedly or getting everyone on some forum to go click and vote. If you look at the results Time posted, they noted, "Poll results are not scientific and reflect the opinions of only those users who chose to participate." I'm not sure what they mean by "users" but clearly, Time is saying of these online polls that they don't stand too firmly behind them. It strikes me that if the couple had known it was an online poll, they might have at least asked the question, "Well, since it's an online poll, what if Jon Stewart asked all his viewers to go click?" Or they might have noted that among Brian Williams watchers, there's probably a lower percentage of folks who are active on the Internet.
The second couple in the two-hour debut went home with zip, as well. They didn't even make it to Question #7. So what you had was two hours of a TV giveaway show that didn't give away a cent. I don't think this program is going to get a lot of my patronage just because it looks to be repetitive and I lose patience with all the stalling and drawing-out of a contest that could be played in a third the time. But I'm sure not going to watch if it looks impossible for anyone to win.