The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => Game Show Channels & Networks => Topic started by: Don Howard on June 14, 2009, 04:06:47 PM
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Issue 1: The live humor-free wrap-around portion of the three-hour non-Univision Sabado Gigante.
* KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY: Not funny. Too loud.
* ROSS MATTHEWS: Glad he was enjoying himself. But too over the top.
* CHARISSA THOMPSON: The only one who seemed take it seriously. Didn't shout; just talked. SHE should be the main host.
Issue 2: 20Q
* CAT DEELEY: I have no problem with her at all. Very good hosting job.
* THE TALKING COMPUTER: Shut him the hell up. Not one amusing syllable was uttered by Malcolm In The Mainframe.
* THE GAME: So it's possible to have nothing but NO answers on the screen during parts of the head to head to head game?
Issue 3: The Money List
* FRED ROGGIN: I give him good marks, but, please, find something other than "well done" to say for a correct answer.
* THE $$$: It's possible to win a game or games and have no money to show for it? Not even $500 for each list won? While audience members for BSN are awarded thousands for doing precious little?
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[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'218046\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 04:06 PM\']Issue 2: 20Q
* CAT DEELEY: I have no problem with her at all. Very good hosting job.
* THE TALKING COMPUTER: Shut him the hell up. Not one amusing syllable was uttered by Malcolm In The Mainframe.
* THE GAME: So it's possible to have nothing but NO answers on the screen during parts of the head to head to head game?[/quote]
I watched the rerun today. There's some game there, but I was completely turned off by the Endemol elements: overcaffinated contestants, constant audience shots, etc. I could've done without the constant computer comments as well.
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I really, really, don't like the games in-studio. They're not intriguing and they come off very poorly. I mean, someone won $10,000 cash for 30 seconds of playing with refrigerator letters. Just keep doing call-ins. If you're going to do extra giveaways, they might as well be call-in giveaways so viewers can be lured in. "Ooh! I wanna win!" The call-ins are the best, most fun and best executed games on the program.
And the skits are really not funny. If we learned anything from the Game Show Awards, it's that making fun of game shows on a network that game show fans will be watching isn't the brightest idea. Sure, it was done back in the day with Faux Pause, but look how that was perceived and how long it lasted.
I really, really like the Money List. Great concept and Fred Roggin hosts it very well. The only thing I don't like is that it's like he's asking himself questions. "Is it up there?....Yes it is!" 20Q could easily be a half hour show. As an hour show stretched to an hour and a half, it isn't that enjoyable. I feel like it's stretched a bit too much, but both shows definitely have a great play along element.
I think next week, I might skip the Big Saturday Night portion and just watch the shows uninterrupted. The worst part about Big Saturday Night just so happens to be the Big Saturday Night portion.
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[quote name=\'chad1m\' post=\'218048\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 04:27 PM\']I think next week, I might skip the Big Saturday Night portion and just watch the shows uninterrupted.[/quote]
Wave of the future, that.
For that matter, is there any reason 20Q couldn't be a half-hour show? Perhaps without mid-round cutaways?
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Just curious - did anyone get a callback regarding the at-home contestants? I got two or three within about ten minutes for the first game.
Ryan
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GSN might've just been over-compensating for the previous lack of Canadian participation. ;)
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[quote name=\'Don Howard\' post=\'218046\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 01:06 PM\']Issue 2: 20Q
* CAT DEELEY: I have no problem with her at all. Very good hosting job.[/quote]
Even if she did say "Haitch-DTV" at one point. (Then again, Cat is known to have a sense of humor about her accent; ask anybody who watches So You Think You Can Dance? about "judges".)
Issue 3: The Money List
* FRED ROGGIN: I give him good marks, but, please, find something other than "well done" to say for a correct answer.
I think they oversell the drama a little in this game.
-- Don
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I feel automatically obliged to comment after there was a live caller from my hometown playing with Tom Green last night.
THE LIVE SHOW:
> Yes, oh dear Lord, I was hanging my head in shame about that Whammy bit.
> The games are all right, but yes, they pay out way too much for them. Lob a 0 off of them and it's fine.
> Of any sketch they did, the Wide World of Games caught my attention the most. Came off as a GS Weekend Update. Not bad, but I couldn't help but think they're sort of stealing our "Smash or Trash" bit from Game Show Talk & Fun. (We have our way of ripping into things, too.) But I digress.
20Q:
I genuinely thought they did a nice job here. Cat made the game flow VERY nicely, although she should have a little more faith in us remembering that the green boxes are yes's and red boxes are no's. Every round of the game takes a slightly different spin on the 20Q concept while staying true to it the whole time. Exactly how it should be done. And as for Hal Sparks, he's fine. Remember, he's a comedian playing the voice of an "unbeatable" supercomputer. For this computer to come off as snarky is expected in this day and age, whether you welcome it or not. So it helps then that Hal's easy enough to listen to.
THE MONEY LIST:
I never thought it was a bad game the first time around, so I'm still fine with it now. That said, it feels weird watching Fred try to be dramatic. In a lot of cases, it sounded very forced, and it shouldn't be that way. Drama and tension have to flow naturally, otherwise you look like you're trying too hard. I hope he can find that in time.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
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Quick questions about Money List - I don't have the episode in front of me, but I'm going from memory: the "unfinished list" bit for Countries of Asia... did it include the UK? Am I missing something - is that to do with territorial possessions outside Europe?
Ryan;.
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[quote name=\'vtown7\' post=\'218059\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 09:47 PM\']Quick questions about Money List - I don't have the episode in front of me, but I'm going from memory: the "unfinished list" bit for Countries of Asia... did it include the UK? Am I missing something - is that to do with territorial possessions outside Europe?
Ryan;.[/quote]
From the Official Money List Website (http://\"http://www.gsn.com/cgi/shows/BSN/moneylist/lists.html?episode_list=1#show_list\") (click to expand), the UK is indeed on this list. I had to do some digging, but the British has some land interest in the Indian Ocean (per Wikipedia).
My thoughts on GSN's BSN:
20Q: Much better than I thought it would be, but I can't help but feel that it's 1 vs. 100 lite, with all the cues and audience reactions and such...waaaayyy too thin for 90 minutes however.
The Money List: Can we have that set? In my opinion, the strongest show in the lot by far. This show can work in an hour, and Roggin is definitely able to step up his game. I won't criticize because (per Buzzerblog) these shows were taped just as Fred was beginning to dig his heels in GSN Live. He will certainly improve.
Big Saturday Night: An unfinished list is unfinished business, and apparently an unfinished segment is much needed business for GSN. The live wraparounds (which cut off nice sized portions of the main shows) were very, very bad. Mad TV rejects, overtly festive interns, lame parodies, and disproportionate cash prizes made the biggest feature of the show the most painful to watch. Unscrambling words in 30 seconds shouldn't have as much jack as Getting 6 of 15 Dr. Seuss Books, I'm sorry.
The two studio games are good on their own...dump the live segments, and you have the best crop of GSN homebrew since 2002...hopefully, they will have much more mileage.
The Inquisitive One
/The Grinch Who Stole Christmas? Really?
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"BSN" should be cancelled after one telecast like the original "The Rich List" was in 2006 by Fox. No improvements to the game at all other than Fred Roggin:
[list=1]
1. No reward for winning a game, how about $1,000 for getting that far?
2. All or nothing bonus round, no safe haven level(s).
3. Annoying computer graphics and music
[/list]
Why was this brought back? Some "unfinished business" we didn't need.
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I didn't see the shows, but is it irony or coincidence that the American host taped his show in Britain and the Britsh host taped her show in America.
I don't mind home viewers winning more than studio contestants. Gives the folks at home more of an incentive to watch.
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Looks like they are rerunning the Saturday night shows on Sunday afternoon without the BSN elements. Just two one hour shows. 20Q was on for an hour (3pm?) followed by The Money List an hour after that (at 5pm?). Is this going to be the usual routine? Much easier to digest then watching the rest of the filler on Saturday night.
Thanks,
Don
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Both shows were very good, although 20Q should be a half-hour show, and I'll agree with most on Money List on a reward for winning the match ($1,000). The way Money List closed out to black was weird (but strangely cool)--its saying as if "they'll be back on the next show, then the boom."
About the live segments--I ended up switching to Kill Bill because the skits were annoying, and I didn't care about it. If they switched to something GSN Live-esque, maybe it'll have some level of redemption. I'll just watch the shows in reruns.
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[quote name=\'Strikerz04\' post=\'218071\' date=\'Jun 15 2009, 11:58 AM\']Both shows were very good, although 20Q should be a half-hour show, and I'll agree with most on Money List on a reward for winning the match ($1,000). The way Money List closed out to black was weird (but strangely cool)--its saying as if "they'll be back on the next show, then the boom."
About the live segments--I ended up switching to Kill Bill because the skits were annoying, and I didn't care about it. If they switched to something GSN Live-esque, maybe it'll have some level of redemption. I'll just watch the shows in reruns.[/quote]
The Whammy! skit was painful. No mention of the 2002-2004 "Whammy!: The All New Press Your Luck" in it either.
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[quote name=\'Offshored2007\' post=\'218077\' date=\'Jun 15 2009, 10:16 AM\']The Whammy! skit was painful. No mention of the 2002-2004 "Whammy!: The All New Press Your Luck" in it either.[/quote]
So they got one thing right, then. :)
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[quote name=\'vtown7\' post=\'218051\' date=\'Jun 14 2009, 05:59 PM\']Just curious - did anyone get a callback regarding the at-home contestants? I got two or three within about ten minutes for the first game.
Ryan[/quote]
I got a callback around 10:20 ET to hear a recording tell me that I might be selected to play a game, but after a few "please stand by" (or something like that), the recording told me that I was not selected but to try again soon.
/Tom Green? Really??
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The less said about the BSN interstitials, the better. It's as if GSN wanted to create an English-language version of "Sabado Gigante," but failed miserably at it.
As for the two new shows...
20Q -- not bad as feared, but I agree with the peanut gallery that this is a 30-minute show stretched to a 60/90-minute affair.
THE MONEY LIST -- I liked the one-and-done Fox version, and I enjoyed the remake just the same. However, I noticed that, if this show returns for a second season, the fact checkers need to do a better job when it comes to acceptable answers. Two examples...
-- On the Will & Grace query, the question specifically asked for celebrities playing themselves on the show, with each celebrity one part of the list. When the "rest of the list" was revealed, one of the acceptable answers was "Hall and Oates". Does this mean that if I answered Daryl Hall, John Oates is also off the board?
-- The "Countries in Asia" question listed Taiwan as an acceptable answer. The question asked for countries recognized according to the CIA World Factbook and, IIRC, the United States does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, switching diplomatic relations from the island to mainland China in the 1970s (although the U.S. has quasi-diplomatic relations with the island via the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act).
JD
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[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' post=\'218062\' date=\'Jun 15 2009, 12:38 AM\']Big Saturday Night: The live wraparounds (which cut off nice sized portions of the main shows) were very, very bad. Mad TV rejects, overtly festive interns, lame parodies, and disproportionate cash prizes made the biggest feature of the show the most painful to watch.[/quote]
(emphasis mine)
How bad do you have to be ...?
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All righty, my take on it all:
BSN - I liked Tom Green, he seemed to be actually trying to help the phone players and gave good clues most of the time. The segments with two in-studio players behind podiums and the "Pizza Hut" letters game were OK. It did seem like an awful lot of money to award for simple games though. I don't remember most of anything else that happened - maybe there's a reason for that!!
20Q - Cat Deeley surprised me as a decent host and Hal Sparks is perfect as the wise-cracking computer. Since this is a game based on trying to beat the computer, he has to get some good jibes in, but it's not like he talks every five seconds, so it's not annoying, IMO. The game itself is simple and trying to beat the computer for the 20K grand prize is a nice touch. I wonder what would've happened if the guy had just said "bear" instead of "polar bear" for the 20K answer. Would they have asked him to be more specific, or would they have declared it wrong? Just wondering. Other than that, an enjoyable show.
The Money List - fantastic play-along factor, with a website to see the entire lists of answers. Fred Roggin is very good as a host, the suspense is drawn out, but at least they didn't do a DoND and say "we'll see if that answer is on the list - after these messages." Shame they lost on that Dr. Seuss category, but I understand they need the exact titles of the books (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, NOT The Grinch That Stole Christmas). I like the idea of giving a team a grand for winning the game, or maybe a grand for each list they get in the main game. I will definitely be taping this show on Sundays, when it's BSN free.
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Both 20Q and The Money List are pretty good GSN originals, but I believe at first they could each work much better if they were half-hour episodes instead (not 60-minutes forced to be padded into 90). Each of the respective hosts do a very good job in emceeing their shows.
Ok, I will admit that I am smitten by the alluring prescence of the very pretty Cat Deeley while on 20Q for her in able to host with a lighthearted, fun demeanor. The computer voiced by Hal Sparks can have some witty, funny zingers, and I am sure they will more amusing as more episodes of the shows are aired. The game format can be challenging at times, and it does have a good play-along at home factor.
That could be said for the same towards The Money List, and I think that Fred Roggin is having some real fun in hosting that program, and it shows while on the air. The game format, with trying to list names or titles, is pretty clever, as I was playing along thinking of some items to fit in a certain category. My own quibble is that the winning team does not get any prize or cash money if they win the front game.
As for GSN's Big Saturday Night, which sounds like as if the cable network is capitalizing on the success that Univision has had with Sabado Gigante for so many years, some of the comedy skits presented (such as an actor playing a young Alex Trebek in grammar school or another as the Whammy in jail) are just not that funny to begin with. The games played during the breaks seemed to be done at times in a hyper, rushed, rambled manner, such as the two Tom Green Pyramid-type rounds shown.
I might tuned again at times, but I will have to remind myself to put the mute button on my remote during the playbreaks, and restore the sound back when 20Q and The Money List are back on. If not, then I will instead concentrate on continuing in listening to WABC-AM Radio's Saturday Night Oldies, where host Mark Simone sometimes has interviews with former game show hosts on occasion.
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20Q and The Money List air uninterrupted on Sunday, no playbreaks. I'd suggest watching it then.
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[quote name=\'William A. Padron\' post=\'218355\' date=\'Jun 18 2009, 01:54 PM\']As for GSN's Big Saturday Night, which sounds like as if the cable network is capitalizing on the success that Univision has had with Sabado Gigante for so many years, some of the comedy skits presented (such as an actor playing a young Alex Trebek in grammar school or another as the Whammy in jail) are just not that funny to begin with.[/quote]
Those skits were supposed to be comedy?
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[quote name=\'Mr. Armadillo\' post=\'218436\' date=\'Jun 19 2009, 10:29 AM\']Those skits were supposed to be comedy?[/quote]
Pretty lame, weak attempt in that department. All I can say that if this level of alleged entertainment is kept up that way at BSN, I sure hope that GSN, Sony and Liberty Media will then soon disown any responsibilty and disavow any knowledge of those very feeble comedy bits, but then blame the writers...LOL!
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Finally caught the "fun" at Big Saturday Night. All three wraparound hosts were terrible. The woman was reading a story in their Weekend Update bit about the expansion of Oscar nominees from 5 to 10 movies. She proudly proclaimed that her favorite movies "Paul Blart" and "Mall Cop" could now be nominated. That read was so botched, Keegan Michael-Key called her out on the air. Speaking of Keegan, on tonight's show, he talked back to the producers in his IFB. Very amateurish. "She has 20 points? Say it again. 22 points." At one point in a game with stick-up-on-a-board letters, some letter cards were flipped to their blank side. Keegan was told in his IFB to "flip over that card" or words to that effect, and again argued with the people in his ear as he turned a letter O upside down that was located right next to a blank letter card. "Wonder why they had me do that..." he crowed to the contestants.
Watching The Rich List now, but 20Q was both good and bad. The general concept of the game was implemented in some neat ways for TV. I just didn't like how it came together as a whole. I'd like a more streamlined format. Start with the same qualifying game, but make it more like the Password All-Stars qualifier. Have four or five players answer a number of those Cat-asked 20Qs until two players get a certain number (I'd say 2). Those two play the current "semi-final" game (i.e. the "guess, pick one of the questions in black..."). The first to a certain goal (2 or 3) wins a sum of cash and plays the bonus game.
I'd make the bonus game something against the clock, where the contestant plays the classic 20 Questions (host: "it's a mode of transportation!" contestant: "does it have wheels?" Q: "Yes!") trying to get so many subjects before time is up. Or, use their current "bank of questions" format against the clock. You can still frame it as "man vs. machine" with Q administering the questions. On the air show, I didn't like game where one player went in isolation. On the show I watched tonight, it boiled down to "who knows Dolly Parton better?" Having it come down to one subject didn't feel fair. My streamlined format could straddle, or just take a half hour.
The attempts at humor on 20Q were forgivable because they were brief. Big Saturday Night itself was too applause happy.
-Jason
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[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'219100\' date=\'Jun 27 2009, 11:56 PM\']She proudly proclaimed that her favorite movies "Paul Blart" and "Mall Cop" could now be nominated.[/quote]
David Letterman told essentially the exact same joke earlier this week. Way for the writers to come up with something original.
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Slight change, no BSN for 7/4(at least according to my listings and the GSN site), so the contest is now extended to 8/15. I don't know if 20q and ML will be new episodes or not. More Howie at 10pm that night also, the pdf's don't have this. Evidently the GSN staff forgot that 7/4 is a holiday. lol.
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[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'219100\' date=\'Jun 28 2009, 12:56 AM\']I'd make the bonus game something against the clock, where the contestant plays the classic 20 Questions (host: "it's a mode of transportation!" contestant: "does it have wheels?" Q: "Yes!") trying to get so many subjects before time is up.[/quote]
I think having their contestant play an actual game of Twenty Questions would be problematic on many levels. The producers and writers and judges, for example, couldn't anticipate every possible question a contestant might ask. Questions themselves might not be well thought-out or precise, and answers might not be as simple as "yes" and "no". And honestly, doing that kind of Q&A is something of a lost art. When it's done well, it's impressive, but (far more commonly) when it's done badly, it's painful to watch.
I caught the entire show for the first time Saturday as well. Yes, the girl and the weird-voiced intern are terrible, but Keegan Michael-Key seemed pretty good. I don't really have a problem with stuff happening that reminds us that it's live, so if he wants to talk back to his producers and director now and then, I can take it.
The Money List didn't appear to have any badly flawed questions this time around, so I'm hoping that the Warner Brothers Cartoon Stars thing was an anomaly. Felt bad for the girl on the Elton John Top-40 Hits question who named the one well-known song that peaked at #41, but that's the danger when a question has some sort of limiting qualifier, and "Top-40 Hits" is a fair, well-documented cut-off point.
More importantly, both the new shows offer real playalong, and that's always nice to see.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'219164\' date=\'Jun 29 2009, 12:58 PM\']I don't really have a problem with stuff happening that reminds us that it's live, so if he wants to talk back to his producers and director now and then, I can take it.[/quote]
It wasn't so much the reminder we were live, it was how lost he seemed, and how short he was being with the people in his ear. I have no problem with Richard Dawson confirming a ruling with Howard Felsher on air, or Dick Clark being reminded from off stage he's calling it a "1958 Chevrolet," but this was a different animal IMO.
You're right about "classic" 20 Questions. My main gripe with their bonus round was the one subject thing.
-Jason
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[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'219100\' date=\'Jun 28 2009, 12:56 AM\']I'd make the bonus game something against the clock, where the contestant plays the classic 20 Questions (host: "it's a mode of transportation!" contestant: "does it have wheels?" Q: "Yes!") trying to get so many subjects before time is up. Or, use their current "bank of questions" format against the clock. You can still frame it as "man vs. machine" with Q administering the questions. On the air show, I didn't like game where one player went in isolation. On the show I watched tonight, it boiled down to "who knows Dolly Parton better?" Having it come down to one subject didn't feel fair. My streamlined format could straddle, or just take a half hour.
The attempts at humor on 20Q were forgivable because they were brief. Big Saturday Night itself was too applause happy.
-Jason[/quote]
For 20Q, I think the contestants should win more money if they use less clues in the bonus game to get the answer. As it stands now, you get 20K no matter how many clues you use. I think it should be something like 1 - 3 clues, $20K, 4 - 6 clues, $15K, 7 - 9 clues, $12.5K, 10 clues or more - $10K. that way, someone is rewarded for using less clues. They may have to give them more allowable answers to give though, like three strikes and you're out.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'219164\' date=\'Jun 29 2009, 12:58 PM\']The Money List didn't appear to have any badly flawed questions this time around, so I'm hoping that the Warner Brothers Cartoon Stars thing was an anomaly. Felt bad for the girl on the Elton John Top-40 Hits question who named the one well-known song that peaked at #41, but that's the danger when a question has some sort of limiting qualifier, and "Top-40 Hits" is a fair, well-documented cut-off point.
More importantly, both the new shows offer real playalong, and that's always nice to see.[/quote]
The song in question was "Tiny Dancer." Yeah, that was painful, but a fair ruling.
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The song in question was "Tiny Dancer." Yeah, that was painful, but a fair ruling.
I didn't see the show but being a chart fanatic, I figured that must have been the answer. Sometimes chart placements can be surprising - until I first looked it up a couple of decades ago, I would have sworn that song had charted higher. It still gets played frequently on the radio.
One pet peeve I've had over the years is when promos for CDs claim that all the songs on it hit No. 1, then when you look at the track list, they might have all gone top 10 but only a couple actually hit No. 1. Sometimes there's a difference between well-known songs and No. 1 songs.