NBC is heavily promoting a new Brit import game show, “The Weakest Link.” Claiming it is the show that knocked off “Millionaire” in England (or Europe, not exactly clear).
So, BritDopers and EuroDopers, is it any good?
We get it in Australia too. It’s alright, but personally, I got bored of it very quickly. The tactics, more often than not, remain quite similar and only the people change. But it’s ranked quite well here, so what do I know?
You’ll either love or hate the show’s host - lots of people I know watch it to see her put-downs and acidic remarks. She’s quite an interesting change from your normal gameshow host.
She’s called Anne Robinson, and is basically just rude to the contestants.I think Millionaire is better.
What I dislike about it is that you never get the feeling that Anne R. knew the answer either. It’s all very well her insulting the contestents, but not when you feel like shouting “C’mon Anne, like you had a clue!”
I think Jeremy Paxman would be much better as host.
Absolutely! I think Anne R. sometimes has to work a bit to get that disdainful. Jeremy’s a natural. He can’t help himself sometimes on University Challenge. Of course he’d have a lot more opportunity for the Paxman sneer © on WL.
You are the weakest link…
Yes, I am a mark for TWL. I love it because we no longer have a gameshow host that panders to the idiot contestant. You dont win, you leave with nothing.
While Paxman would be better, Anne Robinson has finally found the niche that suits her bitch personality. Sit back and enjoy.
In Australia we have a different host, but she’s cool. Sister scott.
Anyhoo, the thing I don’t like is that, the contestants are meant to vote of the weakest player in the team, the one who isn’t helping the bankroll increase - but instead they are eliminating the better players so they don’t end up winning ahead of them.
It promotes being evil and cutthroat and selfish. This is just wrong.
One guy did that once - Anne Robinson was ticking him off for getting a few questions wrong and he said something along the lines of ‘yeah, like you could do any better’ It gets pretty nasty sometimes - some people go off in tears; I suppose thats why its so popular. She’s not that bad really its all put on for the show. The funny thing is the questions are quite hard wheras you can get £1000 much more easily on millionaire.
Hmm. I think it’s pretty good tactics. I’m not sure how you can classify the elimination of your strongest opponents by voting to deny them the possibility of a few thousand quid evil or cutthroat. That it is selfish is of course patently true, but so what? If it was purely selfless then you’d vote yourself off in the final playoff, and be pleased when the other guy voted for you too. [sub](And he would)[/sub]
Why? This show isn’t promoting itself as some kind of Morals 101. It’s a gameshow. Everyone wants to win. What’s wrong with that?
Sure, that’s the show. But I don’t like the show, and those are the reasons.
It ceases being entertaining to me when it’s just to see how selfish and cruel some contestants are.
it’s no longer ‘the best person wins’. Instead it’s ‘the most underhanded gets to the top’.
Okay, as an American, I am sick of being bombarded with stupid reality hypes (none of which I watch) and these lame “game shows”.
Pretty much I stick to the good old sitcoms and other shows like Third Watch and lately ER etc…these new shows are nothing but freakin HYPE. I am tired of it. In the meantime all the rest of the shows are broadcasting reruns which really ticks me off.
I am serious, I would rather watch C.O.P.S. or a five year old rerun of some of my favorites than watch these new shows coming out.
Oh and BTW I rarely watch Millionaire only when the other networks fail me – I check PBS first, or those Survivor things, I think I have seen ONE Survivor and that was for about 15 minutes.
I guess I have never been into hype and the hype that NBC is promoting this show really has turned me off, we’re not talking “oh I just wont watch” I am talking “stop trying to up the other guy and give me some programming I want to watch, not what is exciting for about 2 minutes!”
BTW, the hype that I have seen from other new shows also turns me off completely: Survivor, Big Brother, whatever else happens to be in the mix…it’s nausiating! (sp)
I admit I watch a lot of TV but that’s because I work out of my home with a TV in my office but I would like to think I am somewhat selective in my TV viewing. Except for my horrible addiction to Days of Our Lives, I rather would watch a PBS program on the Dead Sea (as I did Tues night) than suffer through the crap.
Of course it’s all IMHO!
Especially when she often screws up the questions and/or the answers. I have only watched the programme half a dozen times, but I have heard her say that All Souls was the only Oxford College which did not admit graduates, that the Lord Chancellor was somebody called Lord Irv-eye-n (rhymes with “swine”) and that QPR played at a place called Loft-house Road. That’s just the ones I have seen for myself: Private Eye usually manages to list another five or six every fortnight (including, recently, that the First World War began in the 19th Century).
Actually (and perhaps in contrast to what you’d think from my previous posts), I cannot stand the show. However I think the reasons I don’t like it (I don’t like the tone - however deliberate - of Anne R; I think it’s degrading, humiliating and mean-spirited) are probably different from you (i.e. in that I don’t see any problem with any voting tactics employed; they’re out there to win).
That said, I suspect Anne R’s persona is the reason a lot of people watch it, so they’ve succeeded in that regard.
It’s quite entertaining to watch just to see the frequency with which Anne Robinson mispronounces words she doesn’t know (which seems to be a lot). Also the number of people who do really badly, get voted off, and then claim that they were only voted off because the others thought their greater intellect was a threat. It’s more fun to play along with at home than WWTBAM as well, just because the questions come at a much greater pace. And once a question is answered, that answer is accepted (none of that “is that your final answer? Are you sure? You’ve still got two lifelines. Is that really your final answer?”
GuanoLad writes:
but that’s actually quite kind. It allows people to go home and boast to their friends and family, “Yeah, they voted me off first because they thought I was a serious threat to Marilyn vos Savant” instead of having to admit, “I got voted off first because I’m a hopeless schlub who can barely speak the language, let alone get any of the answers correct”.