I am kind of a game show junkie, so I gave Mike Greenberg and Duel a shot last night. It had a good premise with some strategy in answering with more than one response or betting chips. The pace was a little slow, but overall I thought it was a pretty interesting show and I'll probably keep watching this week. You?
CRZ had to edit my profile and close my table for me before, but I did this one all by myself with Frosty's help!
I despise Greenberg, but the premise looked interesting so I gave it a whirl. I like the concept, but as you said the pace was WAYYYYYYY too slow. There were about 13 or 14 questions in 90 MINUTES. It took the first 7 minutes just to get the first two contestants lined up. I'll probably TiVo the rest of the week's shows and FF through them because the filler crap is just unbelievably annoying.
I kinda like the equality of the competition, too. That attorney seemed a lot smarter than the cute student, but just one mistake can cost you the whole game.
I thought Greenberg did a really good job. He didn't make himself a character on the show like so many game show hosts to do now. He was just the "host" and let the players be the personalities. That's what the great ones do like Barker, Trebec, Eubanks, etc. It made the show that much more enjoyable not having Howie Mandel jumping around or Regis yelling randomly.
I do agree that it could be sped up a little, but we will be watching it all week. Maybe if it gets a regular slot they can do some sort of time limit on making your bets to help things move along. This one won the seal of approval in Ffej Household. The Little Ffejlings thought it was cool. Although my oldest son did ask me when Golic was going to be on. He likes watching Mike Golic because he thinks he looks like Shrek.
Ffej- The 2005 NCAA "W" Tourney Pick 'Em Champion modernmythpress.com
I haven't seen the show, but to me that guy seems to want to hate it by devoting a large chunk of his "review" to bashing the networks for the writers strike. Kinda like he was going to bash it no matter what.
Then again, Mike may just not be cut out for this type of thing. His book was highly entertaining though. The wife, who really isn't into sports, enjoyed it more than me I think.
I only watched a small portion of the show, but Greenie didn't seem to have the same personality that he does in the morning radio show. He did strike me as a bit stiff on the game show, and his interaction with the contestants was almost a little too formal. He just needs to relax and maybe muss up his hair a bit.
The only other thing that struck me was that there were a few too many bells and whistles on the set and in game play.
Tom Shales has invented what I call the "soapbox review" with this. He uses the show to rail against what's going on.
And if Tom is going to bitch (big surprise), does he want to take the Wayback Machine awhile back to ABC's "The Chair" and Fox' "The Chamber?" That was much, much worse than this.
Having now watched most of the five episodes that have aired, it seemed to improve as the week went along. The duels seemed a little quicker, they got to more questions.
Rob is also correct in that they need to let Greenie loosen up a little bit. It could be that without Golic as his foil, he's more formal and less entertaining.
At the end of the day (tm Greenie), I would watch this on a regular basis and will watch the finals on Sunday.
CRZ had to edit my profile and close my table for me before, but I did this one all by myself with Frosty's help!
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"I know for sure that 99% of viewers can't relate." Seeing as there target demo is these spoiled teenage suburban punks, I'd say less then zero. Remember now, the viewers of MTV these days, are the second generation.