No question about it. “Millionaire”, for example–for me, half the fun of watching it is screaming at the yutz who uses a lifeline for a question I knew the answer to in eighth grade!
Sampiro , you make some valid points in your ideas for “Millionaire” (not to mention making soda come out of my nose after reading about Bob’s daughter’s naked boobies–but I digress). I especially like the Google lifeline–it’s certainly better than the short-lived “3 wise men” lifeline (what genius thought that one up?) and would probably work better than phoning your Aunt Sadie regarding a question about thermodynamics. I used to think that the first five questions were a waste, too, but they are there to ease the contestant into the game, and at least they edit it down so it doesn’t take too much time.
Dunno about the frat boys, though. How about on a version of “DOND” for Logo?
Nobody knows everything. It helps if you know a lot, but the statement was not that Jeopardy! is ALL luck, it’s that there is an element of luck.
You might be a bit smarter than me, but if one of the categories is Baseball, I’m going to clear that sucker in thirty seconds, and if it contains a Daily Double I’m gonna double my money. So I would be lucky if Baseball was a category.
Throw in “Canada” and there’s more easy money. There are episodes where I just wipe the board out, and episodes where I feel like an idiot. You just never know.
I’ll add a third reason. Once they started doing a bunch of celebrity shows I lost interest and quit watching. I’d much rather see ordinary folks have a shot at becoming at least semi-rich over seeing celebrities win money for some charity (not that I feel such charities were not deserving of such money). The inter-celebrity banter during the first two tiers (up to the $32,000 question) wasted time and got old quickly.
Here’s a fourth reason. When it was on three nights a week it became a bit too much, proving that you can get too much of a good thing.
to answer the OPs question, I think that having a host like Bob Barker at the helm of the show is a key element in success. I haven’t watched The Price is Right since college until one of my friends began working on the show a couple weeks ago, and I finally realized that there’s a good reason this show has stayed on the air for 34 years, and it is because it has a host who is DAMN GOOD at what he does. Even for being 82 years old, Bob really knows how to interact with people, and just what to say at the right moment.
How many game shows with generic hosts have survived? Well, other than Pat Sajak
There are times I’ve watched jeopardy and see that I could have done extremely well. Other times I see categories like opera and the history of the Papacy and I thank God I wasn’t on those shows to advertise my ignorance.
I think the reason that Millionaire did so well was because of the early questions. Pretty much every home viewer could answer a few of the questions, even kids, and see themselves in the hot seat. Jeopardy caters to a much smaller, better educated audience. With Jeopardy, it’s pretty clear that you have to be quite knowledgable on a broad range of topics to even play. On Millionaire, even if you’re not very well read, thanks to the multiple choice aspect and the lifelines, you could do pretty well. Probably become a thirty-two-thousandaire.
