Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
1 vs. 100
Monday
October 16, 2006
NBC built on its Endemol game show success, as the producers of Deal or No Deal debuted their latest game show, 1 vs. 100, this past Friday night.
I taped the show; my television recording situation had been in flux, as my old VCR broke last year and I had simply used my DVR when I had it in Tampa and St. Petersburg, but with my jacked up cable situation here, I have no such DVR option. Thus I returned to the archaic world of VHS on SLP speed. The upside is that it allowed me to tape Lost, DOND, and 1 vs. 100.
Despite being panned by most all of the print media reviews that I found online, I found the show to be quite enjoyable. The concept is simple: it's a contestant vs. "The Mob", a strangely combined group of 100 people. Many members of The Mob are not identified, though certain celebrities (i.e. Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings) and pseudo-celebrities (i.e. three girls from DOND) receive a little bit of air time. A question from the realm of pop culture or current events is thrown out, and the contestant picks from one of three answers. For every member of The Mob who gets it wrong, the contestant gets a certain amount of money, depending on what level they are on.
My description may be confusing, but once you see it in action, it makes sense. The host is Bob Saget. I used to loathe Saget for his work on Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos, but after being exposed to his real side (where he's a very blue and quite funny comic), I've come around on the guy. He seemed a bit nervous on the first go of it, but as he admitted to Howard Stern, it took him a few shows to get into it.
The good news? According to the wonderful tvgameshows.net website, 1 vs. 100 finished in first place in its timeslot in its debut on Friday night. What's more, viewership went up as the show went along, which is encouraging.
Screw the critics. It's a fun show, and while most of the questions seem "easy" to writers who panned the program, those supposedly easy questions managed to take out large swaths of The Mob at a time.
Will the show work? I sure hope so. The hour flew by fast. To be fair, I did fast-forward through the commercials, thanks to the 1984 Supreme Court Betamax decision that upheld fair use rights for all Americans (well, at least the fair use rights that weren't bastardized by the DMCA.)
Long term, the show seems to have more possibilities for variety than DOND, which requires no skill or knowledge of anything besides the English language. Overall I give 1 vs. 100 a strong recommendation. Even if Friday night isn't your speed, set your recording device of choice and watch it later. You'll be glad you did.
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