Ahead
of Its Time - April 14
The results are in for the online Jeopardy! test, and
they sure are impressive. Over 100,000 people showed up
online to try out for the test, an over 400 percent
increase from the 25,000 people who usually show up
throughout the year. The benefits are immediate – by
getting different people who would usually not show up
at the contestant searches for whatever reason, you will
have a smarter, more diverse and more eclectic
contestant pool to pick out of, and therefore a greater
chance of getting more dynamic personalities on the
show.
Jeopardy, however, is not the only show that has cashed
in on the interactive craze. Deal or No Deal gives you a
chance to win $10,000 by texting in who has the lucky
case. Spin your way to $50,000 and a car on Wheel of
Fortune by registering for a SPIN ID. You can vote to
bring back someone in the house on Big Brother. And
don’t forget Idol, of course, where your votes shape the
face of the show.
As ‘interactivity’ has now become the new buzz word in
game shows, can I make a suggestion to bring back one of
the first interactive game shows around – and no doubt,
one that would be incredibly popular now if it was
produced and aired the right way. The game show?
Paranoia.
Introduced by FOX Family, Paranoia was a neat little gem
of a game. The player started with a pot of $15,000, and
had to defeat three opponents from around the country in
order to keep the money. Beware, however – for every
question that was asked, the bank dwindled with each
correct answer given by not only the opponents, but by
people playing on-line and via the phone as well. Should
the opponents win, they, and the highest scoring people
playing at home, would have an opportunity to be the
next player, and it would be their turn to defend their
$15,000.
Maybe the learning curve was a bit too steep when the
game was introduced in 2000, but the technology has
caught up to the rest of the masses enough to try again.
If you could put the show on FOX, on a Friday Night time
slot (you know, that place where Greed used to get
fairly decent ratings), and hype up the money to a
possible 10 million dollar payout, you now not only have
a competitor to Deal Or No Deal, but a new cult show
that could excite the masses and generate a lot of
revenue, if just from the internet sector.
And look at it this way. It has to do better than The
Chamber, doesn’t it?
While
the Chaos Theory remains steady as she goes with the
departure of Bucky, we see a
surprise on not only the staying power of certain idols,
but the lack of staying power with other idols. That
sort of throws a monkey wrench as to who is leaving, but
we go back to one statistic that has never been wrong to
show us the way. Confused? You won’t be…
 Chico,
on Wednesday, said to lock Kellie into the Final Four. I
think you can lock her even higher than that. Not only
does she not have any signs of slowdown, but she will
almost be the sole beneficiary of
Bucky’s votes. As long as she doesn’t do anything
stupid to show the world that she is as much acting as
singing, then she is by far the safest this week.
 I
think Simon was absolutely wrong. Taylor’s performance
was not ridiculous. What you saw instead was an
excellent well-rounded performance. Taylor’s choice to
switch songs was a great move, because he went from a
song of self-indulgence to an easily recognizable song
that will not only satisfy his fans, but will be a great
magnet to attract more people into his Soul Patrol.
 Chris,
on the other hand, completely went into self-indulgence.
Not only does he pick a song that is
obscure )and a crappy song at that), but he also
fails to have any shot of collecting votes AND he may
not have even satisfied his own clientele. Sure he sang
the song beautifully, but he could have had a moment if
he picked ANY recognizable Queen
song. I hope he learns his lesson with Rod
Stewart, or he’s going to be overtaken by…
 Katharine...
Like
Taylor, Katharine’s decision to switch songs was
perfect, as she also sang a well-recognizable song and
did a remarkable job with it. I can’t wait to see what
she does with Rod Stewart – and I think that her
selection next week could get herself into the Top 3.
 Your
wardrobe manager ought to be
punished by having to wear what you wore on
Tuesday night for the whole week. What? Was? That?
That’s too bad, because you had a decent performance.
However, decent next week is not going to be good enough
to rescue you from the bottom three, so you better
perform well enough so that we don’t really care what
you are wearing.
 What
are sore to the eyes for Paris was sore to the ears for
you. That was more like We Will Schlock You than We Will
Rock You. You should be very happy that the Chaos Theory
worked in overdrive for you this week, but one more
rotten effort from you will send you packing. You MUST
sing better than Elliott to ensure your survival…
 …but
even if he doesn’t, and you sing lights out, I’m not
sure if it will be enough to rescue you from
elimination. We go back to the very handy stat – no
person who has been in the bottom three for 2 straight
weeks survives the third week. What’s even more damning
is that the best that your group could do was the bottom
three – and you couldn’t even displace Ace, who was
awful. You need a momentous performance and a royal
screw-up from someone, and I don’t know how you will get
either.
So my
bottom is actually a little of a surprise this week –
maybe not on the bottom three (Ace, Paris, Elliott), but
who may be leaving (Elliott), based on past statistics.
We’ll see if I can get the statistic of being 5-1 in my
Idol selections next week.
Gordon Pepper needs to stop being so darn paranoid.
E-mail him at
gordon@gameshownewsnet.com.
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