I really want to like the Weakest Link. Jane Lynch does a credible job replacing Anne Robinson.
The pacing of the show is bugging the heck out of me. There’s so little quiz content.
They answer 4 or 5 questions. Then the quiz stops. Each contest votes to eliminate someone. THEN the host screws around getting comments from each contestant. The host has to throw in her zingers about the stupidity of various people. FINALLY they reveal all the votes and the host sternly dismisses the weakest link.
Time to answer 4 or 5 questions and then the time wastting cycle repeats.
It used to mildly bother me. But Anne Robinson talks faster. Jane Lynch seems to drag the bs out even longer.
Tonight I’m going to use the stop watch on my phone. I’m curious to see how much real quiz content there is during this hour program. I’ll post my results later.
Are you watching the revamped Weakest Link? Does the pacing of the questions bother you?
I always feel like I wasted an hour of my life watching this “quiz show”.
I don’t think I’ve watched it since Anne was the host so I can’t speak to current pacing. However, if you’re going to time it, you also need to time an Anne Robinson episode. Or even a couple of each and get an average. If you only look at the SNR for Jane, but not Anne, you’ll be setting yourself up for textbook example of confirmation bias.
Research both hosts using the same methodology and look at your data from an objective point of view.
I forgot that the rounds are a predetermined variable length. Each successive round is roughly 12 seconds shorter and questions are worth more money. (Jane says how many seconds are removed for the next round)
Jane says, “start the clock” and “times up” for each round. I’m sure the games rules are posted somewhere with the exact length of the rounds.
I timed the rounds at 17:51. That included a tie breaker in the final round.
That’s a little better than I expected. Most hour shows have about 42 mins of content without commercials. 18/42 is 42.8% of actual quiz rounds.
A show like Jeopardy has breaks for host chat too. I’d guess there’s slightly more quiz content in that 30 min show. But I don’t have the energy to pursue it any further.
I think they added more jibber jabber with the contestants. Jane does not have the timing right for her snarky comments nor does she put enough punch into the catch phrase “You are the weakest link!”.
FWIW, when Alex talks (would talk) to the contestants after the first commercial break, each person gets exactly 30 seconds (+/- a second or so, sometimes). I know this because my tivo has a 30 second skip button and hitting it 3 times gets me back to regular game play, with each press advancing to him moving on to the next person. But I have no idea how much of the rest of the game is or isn’t strictly clues and questions, close to most of it, I’d guess.