Power of 10 Premiering This Summer on CBS.

[TimK2003]

Along with the announcement of the CBS 2007-2008 Primetime lineup this morning,  CBS has officially announced that the Michael Davies' quizzer, "Power Of 10" will premiere soon as a summer replacement series.

No mention of what day or time it will air, but the show will be hosted by Drew Carey.

The official description of the show, per the CBS Press Release to the local affiliates (thus unlinkable):

 
POWER OF 10 is a high-stakes game that challenges contestants to guess the behaviors, opinions and lifestyle choices of the American public for the chance to win $10 million. POWER OF 10 polls thousands of people across the U.S. asking them, well, just about everything — from "What percentage of married Americans said they were virgins the day they got married?" to "What percentage of American's believe they are smarter than the president?" Each week, contestants must decide if they have their finger on the pulse of the American majority and can accurately predict the results of these nationwide surveys.   With the first question worth $1,000 and only five questions to answer, each one increasing 10 times in value, contestants participate in a potentially lucrative game where they just might walk away with $10 million. The higher they are on the money ladder, the closer they must be to the actual statistic. The studio audience and a friend can help them, but the final answer is theirs.

[chris319]

Card Sharks meets Grand Game (the title "Play the Percentages" has already been used).

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'152423\' date=\'May 16 2007, 11:38 AM\']
Card Sharks meets Grand Game (the title "Play the Percentages" has already been used).
[/quote]

For some reason, the first thing I thought of was Mindreaders (the end game), and Millionaire (the 2 lifelines).  But the reference of the Grand Game is right on the money.

[chris319]

Also, five questions seems like a rather short path to $10 million.

"For ten million dollars, what percentage of those surveyed said they scratch their ass more than three times a day (and you must get the answer right on the nose)?"

[clemon79]

Actually, the appropriate reference is to "Greed", as in "idiotic opinion poll questions that nobody in their right mind would risk assloads of money on."

[chris319]

Most players will walk away with $100,000 or less. A show's budget can easily absorb that. DOND gives away around $130,000 per show on average.

[Matt Ottinger]

Pretty clever of them to be able to tout a $10M grand prize given how few people are likely to go for it.  The big question is how they'll set it up to make people want to risk the $100K for a million.

Of course, the other (though less likely) possibility is that they don't introduce the risk element and just make it really, really hard to get the answer right on the last two steps.

[Sodboy13]

A 5-question run for $10,000,000.

That potentially means 5 questions stretched to cover an entire hour.  I don't see any bean-counter in their right mind giving 3 or 4 legitimate cracks at 10 mil in a 60-minute slot.

That means there either better be a lot - and I mean a lot - of preliminary gameplay leading up to the big-money 5 questions, or this show's going to make the pacing of NBC's games look like Jeopardy and Temptation by comparison.

[chris319]

Pretty clever of them to be able to tout a $10M grand prize given how few people are likely to go for it. The big question is how they'll set it up to make people want to risk the $100K for a million.

People might risk $100,000 for $1 million, but (speaking in the abstract) who in their right mind would risk $1 million for anything?

Of course, the other (though less likely) possibility is that they don't introduce the risk element and just make it really, really hard to get the answer right on the last two steps.

They might do both. As in my example, they might ask something ridiculously obscure and require that the player get it right on the nose. If they use whole numbers, the contestant has a 1 in 100 chance of winning just by pulling a number out of thin air.

[Neumms]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'152442\' date=\'May 16 2007, 12:01 PM\']
Of course, the other (though less likely) possibility is that they don't introduce the risk element. . .
[/quote]

If "1 vs. 100" had gone this way, they might have an interesting game.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'Sodboy13\' post=\'152444\' date=\'May 16 2007, 01:11 PM\']
A 5-question run for $10,000,000.

That potentially means 5 questions stretched to cover an entire hour.  I don't see any bean-counter in their right mind giving 3 or 4 legitimate cracks at 10 mil in a 60-minute slot.
[/quote]
I can't remember where I saw it, but i kinda got the impression that Davies was going to straddle players climbing the tree from week to week, a la The 64K Question.

"Do you want to risk your $100K for a Million dollars? We'll get your answer next week!"

That would certainly speed things up a bit, allowing for multiple players per week...

[chris319]

I can't remember where I saw it, but i kinda got the impression that Davies was going to straddle players climbing the tree from week to week, a la The 64K Question.

Seems to me that Davies owes the Lou Cowan estate a great, big royalty check.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'152442\' date=\'May 16 2007, 01:01 PM\']
Pretty clever of them to be able to tout a $10M grand prize given how few people are likely to go for it.  The big question is how they'll set it up to make people want to risk the $100K for a million.
[/quote]

How about this:

Player starts out on the first question, and has to be within 75 percentage points.  Player misses the answer by 20 percentage points.  Take 20 % points away, and the $10K question needs to be within 55 % points.  Player misses by 32 % points, the $100K question needs to be within 23 points, and so on.

The better you do in the early questions, the more leeway you have later on and the more tempting the offer of risking what you have for the larger prizes.

[Ian Wallis]

Card Sharks meets Grand Game (the title "Play the Percentages" has already been used).

The description kind of made me think of the kinds of questions they used on Wizard of Odds (...boy, I'd love to see an episode of that again...)

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'152481\' date=\'May 16 2007, 05:41 PM\']Player starts out on the first question, and has to be within 75 percentage points.  Player misses the answer by 20 percentage points.  Take 20 % points away, and the $10K question needs to be within 55 % points.  Player misses by 32 % points, the $100K question needs to be within 23 points, and so on.[/quote]
Neat idea, but way too complicated for the average viewer in the DoND era.