GSN Upfront News: Chase, Church, Idiot Test, Slate

[PYLdude]

The Chase is up 8 percent in total viewers. Last night's new episode scored 534,000 total viewers.

Source: SonoftheBronx Twitter

Can we just permanently link to these info sources? That way we can just bypass him altogether.

[Thunder]

SingAlong: Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show message board, I should really just relax."

[clemon79]

[TLEberle]

Ooh, edgy!

[Matt Ottinger]

A reminder-bump that Idiotest premieres tonight.  I was surprised to find an ad on the USA TODAY homepage this morning.  Obviously played for laughs, but it's got a very traditional (well, Millionaire shiny-floor traditional) look to it.

[BillCullen1]

I saw Idiotest. It uses visuals and cleverly worded questions, but overall I liked it. Clearly it's not a hard quizzer like Jeopardy or The Chase, but the questions do make you think, something that I personally like. Host Ben Gleib is a bit of a wise guy, but not a total asshat about it. The format of the show allows for it. I would watch the show again. I believe GSN did the standard 40 episodes. Each show is a half-hour, so they're airing two episodes a week.

[TLEberle]

How is the game played?

[BillCullen1]

How is the game played?

I'll try to explain. A question is asked with the picture being shown, like "Which of these highway signs has subliminal sex in it?" One of the signs had THIS EXIT in it. That was the right answer. Spot the right answer and you win money. Wrong answers score nothing, but no money is taken away for them. The value of each question goes down with each second. The longer you take, the less money you win. Two teams of two players compete. Winning team plays for $10,000.

[clemon79]

How is the game played?

It's basically a series of lateral-thinking visual puzzles with dopey twists played on a massive touchscreen. For example, last night one of the questions had a picture of a row of houses with flags on them, and the question was to choose the flag that did not display national pride, and the correct answer was to tap the upraised flag on the mailbox.

Watch it soon if you want to see it, because if they were putting their best foot forward on the premiere episode with Teh Chase as a lead-in, they're screwed, as three of the four contestants were in fact abject idiots and their stupidity actually made the show unpleasant to watch.

/didn't help that it was led into by possibly the worst Chase team ever to play the game

[TLEberle]

And we're supposed to laugh "haw, what a dumbass!" because the contestant didn't make the proper logical leap, as opposed to a similar British game show that actually respects its contestants and audience that wouldn't ever set their players up to fail like that.

[JasonA1]

And we're supposed to laugh "haw, what a dumbass!"

That's certainly what I thought the tone of the show would be based on the promos, but in watching last night (episode 2), they didn't do that at all, which surprised me. FYI, when your money meter reaches $0, it doesn't say $0, it says "IDIOT." Wonder if they backed off those jokes in the studio, or some (all?) got edited out.

-Jason

[Matt Ottinger]

I was pleasantly entertained.  No, it's not a companion piece to The Chase, but neither is it vacuous.  It rewards good, smart play, and leaves open the chance for some gentle teasing when the player screws up.  Which, with the pressure of the clock, happens quite a lot.  I found it notable how often a player realized his or her mistake too late, but still long before it was pointed out.  If you're just interested in the content, it's an easy show to DVR through.  There's a lot of down time.  Still, if you accept it as a humor program, it's worth catching this Ben Glieb fellow's improvisational flair. 

I didn't know much about him, but I was amused to find that his Wikipedia page is one of those low-level celebrity offerings that's written (possibly by the subject) more as a promotional piece.  Many VERY tiny credits are included, including the header, which says he was named as a comic on the rise -- in 2007.