The Line - seen on GSN 12/23

[Matt Ottinger]

At the end of the two hours the claim was made that they gave away over $150k at this one location.

I didn't follow along with a calculator to see how much money was given out on the air, but since both the "big" wins that they saved for the end of each hour were less than $20K, I'm still led to believe that not nearly every win was televised.

[TLEberle]

It's a little like the escalating payouts on Super Password and other shows of that type.  To a large degree, the amount you win isn't really dependent on your own abilities, but rather on what happened (or failed to happen) before you got there.

But at least on those shows back then if somebody takes down the jackpot the next day is still worth a significant enough amount of money that you can be interested in the outcome, or in the case of Scrabble/Super Password, the end game is good enough to stand on its own. Two grand is great if you win it but as a game show prize I really can't be arsed to emote over it.

Hooray, they'er doing actual game shows which is nice, but they could have just licensed an American version of Avanti un Altro! and gotten a real deal game show. Plus you don't have the spectacle of watching people queue up for a thing.

[Marc412]

Well, on a typical show, you have to audition.  Here, you could just come and have a go if you think you're smart enough and patient enough.  Even if you do drive hundreds of miles up and back and spend all day in line to win the minimum jackpot of $2,000, you've probably made more that weekend than in two days at work.

[TLEberle]

Well, on a typical show, you have to audition.  Here, you could just come and have a go if you think you're smart enough and patient enough.  Even if you do drive hundreds of miles up and back and spend all day in line to win the minimum jackpot of $2,000, you've probably made more that weekend than in two days at work.

And Matt's point is that most of the people in the line weren't near smart enough.

[Matt Ottinger]

Well, on a typical show, you have to audition.  Here, you could just come and have a go if you think you're smart enough and patient enough. 

While that's certainly what we're led to believe, and may actually be true, I don't think we were told explicitly that absolutely anyone who showed up and got in line got the chance to play.

[Thunder]

Wasn't "Come on down and everybody can win some money" the same hook for that Million Second Quiz game last year?

... Two grand is great if you win it but as a game show prize I really can't be arsed to emote over it.

"Arsed to emote"? Seriously?

[BrandonFG]

Caught some of tonight's episode. From what I saw, it's a harmless way to spend an hour (would prolly make it a half-hour show, though), but the typical game/reality show elements (pregnant pauses, whoosh SFX, overediting) are kinda annoying. However, the format itself is fun, the questions are decent enough and I enjoyed playing along.

Not a fan of the showing bits and pieces of contestants who apparently didn't make it through a full game. Either show his or her full game or don't.

ETA: I noticed High Noon Entertainment produces this show, which I believe is Marc Summers' company. I know I've seen the name on various Food Network shows. Kinda explains all the reality show elements...I see them all over the place on FN's shows.

[clemon79]

ETA: I noticed High Noon Entertainment produces this show, which I believe is Marc Summers' company. I know I've seen the name on various Food Network shows. Kinda explains all the reality show elements...I see them all over the place on FN's shows.

Summers' company is self-named. I would guess he prolly does a lot of work with High Noon though, especially since they have an office out of Denver, which is where I believe Summers does Unwrapped.

[TLEberle]

Caught some of tonight's episode. From what I saw, it's a harmless way to spend an hour

I like to make this point every once in a while; but I want the hurdle for entertainment to be higher than merely harmless.

[BrandonFG]

I would too, but I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that with a few exceptions, not too many current producers put a lot of stock into making a well-oiled game show. For every Jeopardy!, you get a ton of Fremantle or Endemol USA projects that emphasize on too many of the wrong elements. And those are the ones I don't watch.

Would I like more than harmless? Absolutely. But if I can find an inoffensive way to spend an hour, I'll still take it. YMMV.

[BillCullen1]

There were questions that were obviously false (to me, anyway), but contestants answered TRUE and thus were eliminated. Some questions that I remember (maybe not exact wording but you get the idea):

There's an old expression - Home is where the TV is.

Before he married Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony was married to Susan B. Anthony

Loud music doesn't affect your hearing, so you can turn up your MP3 player as loud as you want

The contestant answering the last one hit the true button faster than you can snap your fingers. The people answering these were all on the young side.

[TLEberle]

Are there clips of this? Was a host asking the questions such that some humor could be wrung from the clunkers?

[BillCullen1]

The "host" was a robotic female voice that was heard but not seen. Questions appeared on a large screen in large print. So the contestants were basically alone during the questioning. Not sure if clips are available, but the robotic voice read the questions straight forward.

[TLEberle]

That's too bad; having someone reading from a tablet could have at least reacted. And I wonder how many of the jackpot winning questions were that easy.

[Matt Ottinger]

The amusingly wrong answers were packaged as a group, culled (presumably) from the entire pool of people who played.  So from 12+ hours and dozens, maybe hundreds of man-on-the-street players, they found a few stupid ones to showcase.  Not all questions were that easy, and not all contestants were that dumb.  But yeah, the only way to make it funny was to put them together as a montage, since all the female voice would say is "That answer is...incorrect."