# "Duel" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419 "2007-12-18T02:48:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/1 "2007-12-18T02:48:24Z")
Did anyone else see this? I liked it – the questions were’nt too easy, and the strategy is interesting. I’ll keep watching. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/2 "2007-12-18T02:51:33Z")
Dennis Weaver pwned. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/3 "2007-12-18T02:53:06Z")
I like that you never see the truck driver. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/4 "2007-12-18T03:30:57Z")
Marco said he was “born ready” two too many times. People who say that should be automatically disqualified. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/5 "2007-12-18T03:39:16Z")
_The Washington Post_ panned “Duel” in this morning’s paper as (IIRC) more lame than Deal/No Deal. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/6 "2007-12-18T03:43:17Z")
[QUOTE=Scuba\_Ben] _The Washington Post_ panned “Duel” in this morning’s paper as (IIRC) more lame than Deal/No Deal. [/QUOTE] Not possible. In Duel you have to attempt to answer questions correctly. In Deal you have to randomly pick a suitcase and then drag out the opening of that suitcase for as long as possible. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/7 "2007-12-18T04:08:09Z")
I watched this first episode for Greeney. I’ll probably watch all 6, though from here on out it’s DVR all the way. It’s easy to forget how padded these shows are, and the commercial breaks get old fast. Ignoring the geek questions most of us would have answered easily that the actual contestants chose all 4 for, (eg: time it takes light to reach earth,) I thought the contestants could have done a much better job in explaining their choices of who to play against. (All of which I agreed with, btw.) Instead of mocking the 'hood guy, she should have said something like “I think she’s sandbagging with the whole left / right thing, and I don’t know anything about the fire school, but I don’t want to face the valedictorian of anything. So Marco it is.” And then for the second one, when she picked the hang-gliding, sky-diving lawyer, I would have cited that somebody like that clearly doesn’t have the time or interest in learning trivial minutia. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/8 "2007-12-18T04:13:07Z")
[QUOTE=Scuba\_Ben] _The Washington Post_ panned “Duel” in this morning’s paper as (IIRC) more lame than Deal/No Deal. [/QUOTE] That’d make it a quadruple amputee with a C2 break. I caught about two minutes of it. Celebrity marriage trivia question, contestants locked in their answers, host said “and we’ll reveal the answer… right after these words,” and I was outta there. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/9 "2007-12-18T11:59:30Z")
It’s a lot better if you’re writing an email at the same time. 😃 I didn’t think it was that bad – significantly less lame than “DoND,” since, as **Wile E** points out, success on that show involves absolutely nothing beyond an ability to dither annoyingly. I _liked_ the mix of geekery and celebrity trivia – and they do a “Duel Math” question each round, where it’s (e.g., and I’m undoubtedly miscombining actual questions here), “Add the number of branches of the U.S. military to the number of hydrogen molecules in an atom of water to the number of Tony Soprano’s kids…” which, fine, most pleople could do two of those three confidently, but have to guess on the third – whichever “the third” was for any individual. I like playing along with a game show, and I found this a good one to play along with. ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/10 "2007-12-18T12:24:39Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] I like that you never see the truck driver. [/QUOTE] I had hoped the thread was about [that](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/), too… ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/11 "2007-12-18T12:43:42Z")
Strange… because _that_ Duel was on last night too. Come to think of it, it was on my windshield on the way to work this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/12 "2007-12-18T13:42:48Z")
The game format isn’t bad but, like all the other recent shows, it’s way too slow. Even the contestants were yelling at the host to get on with it already. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/13 "2007-12-18T13:49:31Z")
I was out before it even started based on a question in the commercial, specifically “what’s the only continent without a desert?” Since every continent has a desert I figured it wasn’t worth my time watching a quiz show that didn’t bother to ask questions that had right answers. ---
**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/14 "2007-12-18T14:16:48Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] I was out before it even started based on a question in the commercial, specifically “what’s the only continent without a desert?” Since every continent has a desert I figured it wasn’t worth my time watching a quiz show that didn’t bother to ask questions that had right answers. [/QUOTE] Europe. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/15 "2007-12-18T14:19:53Z")
Oh, but Europe isn’t a continent, it’s just a peninsula attached to the NW side of the greater Asian landmass. It’s only called a “continent” because Europeans drew all the maps for a few hundred years and they wanted to be special. :d&r: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/16 "2007-12-18T14:36:43Z")
Still too much coyness before revealing answers. I want it more like Jeopardy. Just say immediately what the right answer is and go on to the next question. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/17 "2007-12-18T14:42:12Z")
I watched it. I enjoyed the Dual math questions–I liked the themes, and while I’d have gotten all of them right, I didn’t neccessarily blame people for marking more than one answer. Although, in general, I’d have marked far fewer possible answers than the contestants did–playing a little all or nothing style, I guess, as well as actually knowing some of the answers. The only trivia question that really bugged me was the one about the color of George W. Bush’s eyes–and I ended up decided that while that would have pissed me off as a contestant, it wasn’t a bad tie-breaker question. But yes, it did seem like he said “After this break” a few too many times. And the Pressure button/music got to me. I’ll watch it again, probably, and through most of it’s run. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/18 "2007-12-18T16:40:05Z")
Interesting questions (I had no idea what color W’s eyes are, but I did know there are 5 branches in the military); interesting strategy on the use of chips to hedge your bets. \*Extremely \*annoying pacing – god only knows why every game show that’s debuted recently thinks it’ll be more exciting if they have less actual content. I literally LOL’d when the contestant yelled to get on with it already. So the show is eminently watchable, but only with Tivo. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/19 "2007-12-18T16:47:58Z")
[QUOTE=rayh] Europe. [/QUOTE] [Tabernas Desert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabernas_Desert) in Spain. [Błędów Desert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%82%C4%99d%C3%B3w_Desert) in Poland. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419/20 "2007-12-18T16:59:34Z")
I enjoyed the show, except that it dragged so badly. If I hadn’t been watching it with the DVR remote in hand, I don’t think I could have stuck with it. On the other hand, my DVR recording cut off after one hour, and I don’t recognize the questions about Bush’s eyes or the desert, so I must have missed quite a bit. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duel/430419.md?page=2)