OK, if we could stick to discussion about 101 Ways To Leave a Gameshow US on this post, if you have any misc. discussion put it in the Amateur Adventure Hour post for the moment because I’m not going to get to watch this until late Wednesday and don’t want it spoiled as far as possible.
You can also discuss Summer Wipeout here, if you’d like.
We’ve already got somebody angry about the show’s perceived danger. Sucks about that. I really like this version. Even compared to the original it’s pretty dang good.
I got about half way before my internet slowed to a point where streaming was no longer possible. Didn’t mind it though, whilst the pacing isn’t perfect (rather than endless counting it seemed to involve endless recaps) it’s certainly an improvement over the UK version.
Also, the Wipeout Zone for the newest iteration of the Wipeout course is brilliant.
The American version of “101 Ways To Leave A Gameshow” has some features that make it am improvement over the UK version of last year. There are other factors that could prove troubling to some viewers.
The “exits” are more inventive than those seen on the Brit version, which seemed to be theme and variation off “throw him into the water from a height”. On the other hand, only some of these exits seemed to take the safety of the exiting party into account. The flaming car crash and the exploding ejector seat left the viewer wondering how badly bunged up the departing guest was once he or she got “sped”.
Let somebody get really hurt on this show, and you’ll have another “Wetten Dass” on your hands. It doesn’t matter how many release forms the contestant has to sign–there are athletic lawyers who will try to find loopholes to get a goodly settlement for their clients (and a goodly percentage for themselves!)
Endemol seems to have borrowed from “Wipeout!” the idea of having the climactic round staged at night, with the other rounds in broad daylight. And they seemed to borrow their commercial-break style from “Minute To Win It”: right at the climactic moment!
Five “big” questions (plus five “little” questions to determine in which order the players would play) in a sixty-minute show, less the copious commercials, doesn’t make for a rapid fire pace. But then, this is not “Jeopardy!” nor “The Chase”. If this catches on, folks aren’t going to watch it for the scintillating game play, or for the sparkling repartee. They will watch it to see how the losing contestants make their exit from the show, and for no other reason than that!
Just watched it. I’m still baffled by how this game feels like it has a faster pace than its UK counterpart, despite the fact that it doesn’t… Maybe those mini-questions helped? I guess I also had the advantage of less commercials on Hulu, so take it for what it’s worth.
I genuinely can’t say whether this is better or worse than the UK version. I think they both had different goals, in terms of the tone of the show. The way I see it, UK had a more comedic, slapstick approach, US has the dramatic, horror approach. I think the exits worked for each respective version (even if it was always a drop into water in UK), but it was the annoying reveals that dragged the UK version down. I think the US version handles the reveals better, and the rest sort of falls into place. That all said, I’m still not sure this would be something I’d tune into regularly. Like before, I’d probably tune in for the exits, and that’s it. I can’t help but feel like on the whole, the format is still missing… something.
I really want to like Sutphen, I really do. I think he was a great match for BrainSurge, and some of his personality comes through here, but I just feel like this “evil” host role doesn’t fit him here. Not with something intended to be this dramatic, at least. Put him back on an absurdist game show and I think he’d be fine, but it just doesn’t fly here. I really do want to like him though.
101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow debuted successfully in the US last night with a 1.9 A18-49 demo, ABC’s top show of the night and the third most popular programme on any channel, only behind The Voice and America’s Got Talent. It was even more popular than Gordon Ramsey’s MasterChef.
Looks like the 101 finale platform has been set up on the Wipeout course – http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/brekkieboy2001/DM_110617_sport_science_wipeoutmp4_000048048.jpg
5.5m watched last night, beating Wipeout which got 5.33m an hour earlier.
As for Wipeout – a bit of a mixed bag really. The qualifier once again ruined by the producers need to control the Wipeouts – if they’d let the Jigglelators just sway back and forth they’d be much better. Driver’s Ed and Double Barrel not bad though, and certainly a better course than the Spring.
Round 2 was Illusionator – basically think the Sweeper, but there are 3 rotating hoops (in a line) coming around and a long thin platform to stand on. Four were Wipeout in the first round – so it’s a good round, but a bit too good really.
The Wipeout Playset is round 3. It’s a Swing onto a roundabout onto a Sweeper arm then down a slide and through a windmill. Quite impressive on it’s first outing, but I suspect we’ll see it multiple times this summer with little if any variation.
The Zone though is undoubtedly the best this year. The 70ft Flume of Doom is truly impressive as the entrance to the Zone, and Iron Mazen (a vertical rotating maze) and Axes of Evil (a spinning three-pin plug on the end of a spinning arm) are both very good, and then the Sucker Punch is supersized into the Giant Wall of Fall for the finale.
Will watch Wipeout in a bit, I thought 101 Ways… was OK, although they’ve just replaced tedious pauses and countdowns with tedious repetition for thick people which amounts to basically the same sort of thing. But yes, very impressed by the exits so far at least on first appearance although as ever the suggestion tends to be worse than the actual thing – wingwalking has been going on for donkey’s years, someone is pretended to have been thrown off the side of a truck for no discernable reason (this one was a bit weak, they moved on very quickly). The pilot chair bit was the best bit.
I liked Sutphen (note to self: stop trying to write Stephen) right up until the tower where he overplayed his role a bit.
Will tune in next week.
So 101 Ways US is waaaay more psychotic than the UK version. Yes, this does make for a much better show. The host’s demented joy in the contestants fear is glorious.
And the tower is a thing of beauty. I love it really.
For the record, one of the writers on 101 Ways US, under the job title “producer”, is one Aaron Solomon, a presence among the Internet game show fandom since… before Tim Halbert was born. (Well, nearly, probably.)
Wahey!