Treasure Hunters on NBC

[Robot_Arm]

I only saw one preview for this show, and then just stumbled across it with about 20 minutes left. If anyone could fill in some more of what I missed, I’d appreciate it. Especially comments like:

@psychobunny

I lovelovelove that any team could have gotten Mount Rushmore from the animorphic drawing at any time.

What were they all missing, what clues did people get (one team headed for the wrong mountain, yes?) and were they all really stuck on buses all the way from Lincoln, Nebraska to Mount Rushmore?

I looked this up on wikipedia (here) and it has links to webpages for three of the teams. Not little hacked-together, home-grown jobs either; they look professional (too professional). Team Miss USA even has their own logo and slogan. WTF, is this a real game for real people or some sort of synergistic, multi-media, brand-building, personality-as-product, guerilla-marketing spree?

[lorene]

Caught most of a rerun which was on tonight. I don’t at all find this an acceptable substitute for TAR, but will likely keep watching to see if I get into it. Hate the host, though, and he just made me miss Phil that much more.

@Robot Arm

I looked this up on wikipedia (here) and it has links to webpages for three of the teams. Not little hacked-together, home-grown jobs either; they look professional (too professional). Team Miss USA even has their own logo and slogan. WTF, is this a real game for real people or some sort of synergistic, multi-media, brand-building, personality-as-product, guerilla-marketing spree?

Good question. I couldn’t get Team Miss USA’s page to load, but the Ex-CIAs have their own logo as well. I did notice enough similarities between CIA’s website and the Brown website to wonder if they were given templates and/or technical assistance to have their websites up and running by the time the show aired.

[Otto]

@Robot Arm

What were they all missing, what clues did people get (one team headed for the wrong mountain, yes?) and were they all really stuck on buses all the way from Lincoln, Nebraska to Mount Rushmore?

Yep, they were really (as far as we know) stuck on buses from Lincoln to Mount Rushmore.

As for the painting, did you happen to see the bit at Mount Roosevelt where the YPs and the “Geniuses” were standing at a pedestal with a silver cyllinder on it? The pedestal had an anamorphous painting of Teddy Roosevelt, which by looking at the reflection in the cyllinder was visible and recognizable. When the teams were collecting the various clues in Alaska and Hawaii, one team got a coded map with a painting on the reverse and the other team got a reflective cyllinder with a code engraved on it. Had they combined the two the painting woud have been revealed as an anamorphous painting of Mount Rushmore.

[ElvisL1ves]

Hmm, somehow I’ve missed this show too. But did it come before or after Carolyn Parkhurst’s new novel Lost and Found, which I have just read and now heartily recommend to you all?

FROM THE PUBLISHER

New from the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Dogs of Babel, seven unlikely couples scour the globe searching for love, treasure, fame, family–and themselves–in an astonishing new novel.

Seven oddly matched pairs–a mother and daughter, two business partners, two flight attendants, a born-again Christian couple, two former child stars, and other unlikely couples–are thrown together to compete in a high-stakes, televised contest. It is the new reality show, Lost and Found, a global scavenger hunt whose initial purpose is entertainment, but with each challenge, the drama builds as the number of players is whittled down.

Laura signed on to try to reconnect with her recalcitrant teenage daughter, Cassie. But Cassie knows they were only selected because of a secret she hides, one the show’s producers hope will be revealed as the pressures of the competition mount. Justin and Abby aim to use the million-dollar prize to spread their message of faith, but they soon find the game putting their marriage to the test. Juliet and Dallas, deep in the “where-are-they-now” stage of stardom, just hope to spark some life back into their flagging careers.

But as the game escalates, tensions mount, temptations beckon, and the bonds between teammates begin to fray. The question is not only who will capture the final prize, but at what cost?

Author Biography: Carolyn Parkhurst is the author of the bestseller The Dogs of Babel. She holds an MFA in creative writing from American University. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and their son.

[ivylass]

Otto, heads up, the networks have no control if a live sports event run long. They have to air all of it.

I agree, they should have run a crawl indicating how the rest of the night’s lineup was going to run. But don’t blame them for running all of the golf tournament. Their agreement with the Tour means they have to air it to the end.