1 vs. 100

A few days ago over on Donna's blog I commented on what I saw as the problem (scroll down to Oct. 17 and read Comment #4) of the new game show "1 vs. 100." The easy questions are one thing, but the big issue is that there's little incentive for the contestant to do anything other than just build up to about $100,000 and then walk away from the game. I had originally criticized "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" for being too easy on the contestants before letting them see the question before deciding if they wanted to answer it, but I can see in 1 vs. 100 that if they have to decide before they see the question, contestants will just become very risk-averse, which makes for a boring finish. This problem is especially true when they may very well be risking their $100,000 in the bank just to get the chance to see the pot go up to, say, $148,000 or something. It's just not worth it to risk that amount.

Anyway, my nemesis Ken Jennings has the behind-the-scenes scoop on that show, and has the same issues with the format as I do. It's got potential, but they'll need to fix it or else viewers will just tune out.

(For those of you interested, the link under "my nemesis" is a full report on my Jeopardy! game against Ken.)