Episode 26.4 - I Make Them Good Games Go Bad
February 7

Gordon: This is Gordon Pepper, and on Superbowl Sunday, we all have the things we root for.
Chico: PACKERS!
Joe: STEELERS
Chico: I SAID PACKERS! =p
Joe: And I didn't.
Gordon: I'm rooting for the Budweiser commercial to destroy the Hyundai commercial.
Chico: ... BUDWEISER!
Joe: Mike's Hard Lemonade is better
Chico: True, but they haven't had a commercial in the GoDaddy age.
Joe: And yet, I keep buying their products.
Chico: Smirnoff apple, baby. Anyways, we've got a lot to root for... and against... as we do every week, because from somewhere in America... WLTI... is... ON!
Gordon: Yay!
Chico: Chico Alexander alongside Gordon Pepper with you, thank you for being a part of our week and allowing our week to be a part of you.
Gordon: Chico Alexander is the Wolf-Packer Fan. Our Steeler Fan is our guest this week, Mr. Joe Mello.
Joe: I have Verizon HD, but it doesn't matter when you live in a town that runs on football
Gordon: And since this is the weekend of the big game, let's start big. Real big.



Gordon: We start with Minute to Win It, and the family episode.
Chico: Million dollars, eh? MTWI? Must be time for Supercoin again.
Gordon: How could you possibly guess?
Chico: Call it intuition. :) Special two-hour episode with the Bishop kids. Amy, Drew, Holly, Cullen, and Brad have three lives left.
Gordon: And the kids are all right. They get up to $500,000 with only one obstacle in front of them. However, said obstacle...SUPRCOIN!
Joe: Natch
Gordon: And what we get is 20 minutes of Supercoin. Chico just loooooves 20 minutes of Supercoin. Don't, you, Chico?
Chico: Dude, it's like a band-aid, just grip it, rip it, get it over with. But that would be TOO MUCH for the "okay, how do we pad this out into a full two hours?"
Gordon: That would be no.
Chico: Apparently. anyhoo, the biggest task is going to fall on the most able bodied person to do it. So first up, 10-year-old Brad Bishop. And he's the youngest person on this show to experience... FAILURE. "You have TWO lives remaining." Next up, 11-year-old Cullen Bishop, who ALSO goes nowhere with it. Brad had better aim than him, and he's 10.
Gordon: And here's where I think they made their mistake. I would have had the same person play all 3 times.
Chico: I also would've played the same guy all three times. And it's clear at least to me that Brad was dead on accurate. He just needed to finesse it in.
Gordon: I agree. And here's why: In this event, it's all about tossing a coin and adjusting. When you have a new person in there, you waste 20 seconds getting the hang of what you're doing. If you have the same person in there, they start here they had to leave off. I think if you had Brad play all 3 minutes, he would have gotten one of the coins to go in.
Chico: Obviously. So one life on the sure shot, and two on the not-so-much. That ends up with the Bishop family winning $500,000 LESS than what they could've come up with. Not a good strategy. You just have to know how CLOSE Brad was to nailing it. He was hitting plastic all day. It was only a matter of time.
Gordon: And they should have won a lot less. If you try the million and fail, where do you end up at, usually?
Joe: $250,000, as of the 2nd tree
Gordon: They should have lost $250,000
Chico: But the Bishops do leave with $500,000, thanks to the graciousness of the studio. I believe that Part 2 was the highest-rated episode for the modest hit, and so, guess who gives chase... to "Chase"...



Joe: *le sigh*
Gordon: Chase gets Yanked, thanks to Augustus and the ratings.
Chico: Now if you're not going to build a family audience on Friday or Sunday, this is probably the best thing you can do, since 9p Wednesday is soft with the probable exception of Modern Family on ABC and Criminal Minds on CBS.
Gordon: Well yes and no. It's good for the next month, until Idol shows up with their 2 hour performance shows.
Chico: Oh dear.
Joe: So it's a decent short-term plan
Chico: Decent short term, yes. But not a permanent fix.
Gordon: Right
Chico: Don't get us wrong, if a show shows signs of life, we want it to succeed, but done PROPERLY.
Joe: Indeed. If you're watching this and thinking "man, do they need more content", this announcement should not make you feel good.
Gordon: Nope. But let's go back to Idol. We had more auditions that came out. Anyone impress?
Chico: Well, I like that Justin Carter guy. But then again, I went to school with the dude, so I guess that shouldn't count for much.
Gordon: That means he's doomed to fail.
Chico: Sorry, J. But seriously, LA didn't really do it for me. I want to blame the MySpace crowd.
Gordon: As Jason Block has said on more than one occasion - this is less about singing and more about storylines right now.
Chico: Thank you. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if this was about the music, it would be on the radio. It's not about making good music, it's about making good television, and yet they fail miserably at both.
Gordon: I don't have a problem with it, but keep in mind that we don't see the good singers here yet. They show up later.
Chico: Of course, but do we have to go through the Victoria Garretts of the world before we get to the Kelly Clarksons?
Gordon: Isn't that how the show works?
Chico: ...Yes.
Gordon: And I was thinking more like the Normal Gentiles of the world.
Chico: Said another thing before... here you'll see TWO brands audition: 1) the truly horrible, and 2) the people who are just good enough to make TV, but four weeks from now you're going to be like... who?
Gordon: Pretty much. Until you get to Hollywood week and we see...wait for it...DRAMA!
Chico: Dun Dun DUUUUUUUUN! How about you, G? Any standouts?
Gordon: Standouts? no. Sob stories? Yes, but again no one that flags me and goes, 'hey this is the winner'.
Chico: Of course. Would you see any sob stories on Face Off?
Gordon: Of course you do, but I prefer scary monsters.
Chico: Yay! It's very simple, this Face Off show. 12 of the best SFX artists in the business compete to be the best OF the best. To said best of the best, $100,000 and a year's worth of makeup.
Gordon: Let's start with the Good: It's original, and the artists' work is amazing.
Chico: And it's well produced, from the guys behind WCG Ultimate Gamer. And the judges honestly know their stuff: Glenn Hetrick worked on Buffy and Babylon 5, Patrick Tatopoulos worked on I Am Legend, Resident Evil, CSI, and I Robot and Ve Neill worked on Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, and Beetlejuice, She's been nominated for 8 Oscars, and won three of them. Obviously a tough room.
Gordon: The contestants obviously know their stuff. They all deserve to be there.
Chico: So a lot of knowledge to be gleaned. A lot of depth to this show, a lot of believability.
Gordon: Yes, and now I'm going to completely contradict myself for the bad: It's not at all original. The template is a cross between Project Runway and Top Chef.
Chico: I'm going to have to agree on this. It's more Project Runway for the SFX set. If you've seen the "dream job-type" reality series, then you've seen this.
Gordon: I do like that the winner can voice his opinion on who should go home, but it really only feels like it's to add drama, as I don't see how a winner's say will influence the panel.
Chico: So we're basically going through the motions for an hour.
Gordon: Basically. Though the effects are very well done and the editing of the show is solid.
Chico: The thing is... it's original in premise and what is created from the show itself, but it is, from start to finish, just a reality show that aspires to be nothing more.

	FACE OFF Syfy - 10p ET Tuesdays
	GORDON	CHICO	JOE	AVERAGE-O-MATIC
	C+	C+	NO GRADE	C+

Gordon: True. C+ because it's done well and we do get a sneak peek into the world of visual effects - and we do learn a lot from it.
Chico: I'm going to go with that. C+. Good. Should be better, though.
Gordon: I like it. Originality should be warranted though. Now someone who had a lot of originality throughout the years is one Kathy 'Fingers' Greco.
Chico: Yessir. She's had a hand in the Price is Right stew for the last 35 years and last week was her grand ceremonious sendoff And it's clear that a) she had an incredible hand in the feel of the show we've seen for so long, and that 2) Drew obviously thought the world of her. I just think that either the players or the people in charge of picking them would've shown the same regard. Make me bored, man.
Gordon: Again, we're selecting the people that make good TV. If they actually know the history of the show and can play the games, it's a bonus.
Chico: True.
Gordon: I did like the fact that they had the second half of the show all games created by Fingers, and she gets her own showcase at the end.
Chico: You probably want to play a bit, don't you?
Gordon: The thought did cross my mind, yes.
Joe: Ooh, I like games. :D
Chico: Okay, first up, I got a little Pick-a-Pair for you. The items...

Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, Hallmark paper plates, Athenos feta cheese, Breyer's strawberry, Kernel Seasons popcorn seasoning, and Vienna Fingers (get it?) cookies.

Gordon: Got it.
Chico: Joe, why don't you do the honors.
Joe: hmm, how about the cookies and the dressing?
Chico: The cookies are $4.49. The dressing...$3.49.
Gordon: (BUZZ)
Joe: expensive cookies :(
Chico: One more crack at this...
Joe: Uhhh, cookies and ice cream
Chico: Ice cream... $4.49!
Gordon: (DING DING DING DING DING)
Joe: Can't go wrong with cookies and ice cream
Chico: You really can't. Alright, G... How do you feel about Line'em Up?
Gordon: Sounds good
Chico: Okay, you're playing with a $695 luggage set, a $32 salad spinner, a $635 Wii/Guitar Hero package, and you're playing for a $1___9 2011 Chevrolet Colorado Because I know how much you need a pickup truck in Jersey.
Gordon: Definitely.
Chico: Alright, line'em up, sir.
Gordon: $19,269
Chico: VERY GOOD, Gordon.
Gordon: YAY! Where's my truck?
Chico: Still at the Chevy. I got a salad spinner for you, though.
Gordon: Oh joy.
Chico: Last game was Secret X. Player only had two Xes, very underwhelming.
Joe: lol
Chico: NOW... Showcase time. First up, we rock out with...

a digital jukebox, a 3n stay in NYC with tickets to Bon Jovi at MSG, and a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro coupe. Gordon, bid or pass?

Gordon: I'll bid.
Chico: Whatamibid?
Gordon: $34,567
Chico: No 69?
Joe: That's rather uncharacteristic.
Gordon: This is actually a good showcase, with a Camaro Coupe. No $69 needed here.
Chico: He likes to switch it up a bit.
Gordon: I do.
Chico: Okay, Joe. You get the Fingers Showcase. First of all, one dollar for every show she's done... $6618. Then there's a 54" plasma TV, and a 2011 BMW 328i sedan.
Joe: Mmm sexy
Chico: Very.
Joe: I'll try $46,618
Chico: Okay, Gordon. Your Showcase was... $34,768, for a difference of... $101.
Gordon: Woo hoo!
Joe: but of course >_>
Chico: Joe, your Showcase was... $46...017.
Joe: Oof
Chico: Over by so little. That hurts man. I'm hurting for you.
Joe: At least I have cookies and ice cream
Chico: But Jagruti Patel manages to do most of the hurt for TPIR's budget to the tune of $47,159.
Gordon: So I get my car?
Chico: No, Gordon, no car for you. But you can introduce the next segment.
Gordon: My pleasure.



Chico: There's a thing in Jeopardy! lore called "Clavin's Rule". The rule, to the letter, is that you do not put a lock game in jeopardy by betting all of your winnings no matter how tempting the subject.
Gordon: Right
Chico: Now that's the rule to the letter, but you could apply that to any situation where you had a sizable lead. Enter... Molly Rosenbusch, a night court clerk from Idaho. If you're playing along at home, the 80's sitcom reference count is at two. She has $16,000 to Fred Cofone's $11,200.
Gordon: So the right bet here is $6,401
Chico: PRECISELY. Molly bet EVERYTHING.
Gordon: ...wha?
Joe: *facepalm*
Chico: NO! BAD!
Joe: One of the most important rules in Jeopardy! is that you CANNOT win with $0
Chico: The clue in US Presidents, see if you get this...

Of the 20 presidents elected to a second term, 2 of the 3 who failed to complete that term.

Joe: I'm thinking "Who are Nixon and Lincoln?"
Gordon: Who are Jimmy Hoffa and Ray Lavender?
Chico: Okay, Gordon, you're gonna have to explain that one before I can give you style points.
Gordon: Jimmy Hoffa is president of the Teamsters Union.
Chico: Right.
Gordon: Ray Lavender is president of the Tiffany 'New York' Pollard fanclub. That's one of your favorite shows, if I remember correctly.
Chico: You don't :P Okay, I'll give you two points, but Joe was right on. The third: McKinley. Molly said Lincoln & FDR. And, as stated before... she bet EVERYTHING.
Gordon: So this was the episode of 'Molly's Folly'
Chico: Yes. BAD MOLLY!
Gordon: Terrible bet. Cost her the Jeopardy title.
Chico: And then Fred would go on to win two games and over $26,000.
Joe: Fred should be sending Molly flowers or something.
Chico: 'Thank you for what you did Wednesday. You made me a lot of money.'
Gordon: We can't send the readers flowers, but we can send them Syndication Ratings.
Chico: Yes we can. Now last year we ran down what we thought of each of the offerings, and now we're going to see how well we've done up to this point. Starting with Wheel of Fortune. Last year, Wheel socred a 7.4 and was #1. Last summer, we had it at 7.6. So far this year... a 7.0 even.
Gordon: Still very good for the show. Not a surprise
Chico: Nope. Very potent, very much a top draw.
Joe: The shows themselves are still quite enjoyable
Chico: We move onto Jeopardy!. Last year, it was 7.2. We had it at 7.1 So far... a 5.8. Now I can attribute this to two things. So far, we've only had one superchamp and one tournament. You can only imagine what will happen with Watson and the three tournaments to follow.
Joe: You think Watson's gonna bring a bump?
Gordon: I definitely do.
Chico: I think Watson's going to bring the eyes. It can't not. I mean, the story's just been EVERYWHERE.
Gordon: Agreed. The numbers will bump once Watson shows up.
Chico: So we'll see on that. Jeopardy!'s not going anywhere any time soon. Millionaire. Jason Block had it thrown to the wolves, but he wasn't inaccurate here. Last year... 2.9. Our guess: 2.0. So far this year... 2.2 Pretty accurate there. And as we also guessed, people do not like the new format.
Joe: Or the bunches of celebs
Chico: Or the standing. But like the other two, it's been going steadily up, so expect the average to increase. It'll still be a drop off from last year, but not that big of one.
Gordon: I don't know about that. I think it will stay there, and that's going to be trouble if the ratings keep eroding.
Chico: We'll see. Next is the Feud. I was the only one having the ratings go up. Last year... 1.5 Our guess... 1.3. This year... a 1.7. The only show to go UP. People love Steve Harvey.
Joe: Good for them.
Chico: And Family Feud has always been a viral show. So having that advantage helps.
Gordon: And the budget is cheap. Steve Harvey may have given the show new life.
Chico: Next... Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Last year, 1.8. Our take was 1.6. This year... 1.0.
Joe: Ruh Roh
Gordon: Lose almost 50% of the audience = See ya.
Chico: Reminds me of a little show called Deal or No Deal that did well for itself only to become a shell of itself... that didn't last a third season EITHER. If I may quote Alice Cooper... School's out... forever.
Gordon: And again, if its not broke, why are you tinkering with it? They should have left 5th Grader alone.
Chico: They really should've. But they needed to fit it in the half hour. My thing, better to overdo it than to underdo it. You can always chop out the show to fit, but if you stretch it... that's just terrible.
Gordon: Speaking of terrible, how's Don't Forget the Lyrics doing?
Chico: Well, we had it at a 0.4. The last show that had a 0.4 didn't make it to the end of the season - Temptation.
Gordon: I expect this show to join Temptation as they play shuffleboard on the top level of the Titanic.
Chico: Well, it is at the top level, but the show actually averages a 0.9. It's bad... but not terrible.
Gordon: The ratings make it worse.
Chico: I didn't say it was good. I said it was bad.
Joe: At least they'll have that SNL skit to remember them by
Chico: I wanted to find LMAD and TPIR... but I couldn't. Tear.
Gordon: Aw. Did you ask Drew the Bookworm? He's got a nose for these things
Chico: I ought to. And if anyone out there can ask Drew the Bookworm and get back to us, that'd be great as well.
Gordon: While that's going on, I'll tell the rest to roll that beautiful brain footage.

(Doug: Live, local, and latebreaking... From the four corners of the globe to your frontal lobe, this is WLTI Brainvision News, and now here's Gordon Pepper, Chico Alexander, and the award-winning Brainvision News Team)

Chico: Thank you. Okay, we've been all kind of civil so far, so let's talk about guns. Datebook, Mr. Gordon?
Gordon: Got it.

February 8 has season 2 of Top Shot. If you didn't see Season 1, check it out.

Joe: Indeed. I'm watching it as we record this, and it's compelling viewing
Chico: Not only that. They're so confident on Tuesday night success that they're casting for season 3.
Gordon: Hopefully the ratings will justify that
Chico: Go to history.com/topshot for more info on that. I can't wait to see the action. Quisla can't wait to see Colby.
Gordon: She may brain you with this (Hands Chico the bat)
Chico: Nah, she likes it. Anyway...

Let's talk renewals. Top Chef Just Desserts is up for season 2. Go to BravoTV.com/casting if you want to be a part of that. Newlywed Game is being prepped for a new mega-season of 130 shows starting April. And filed away under "next week's news", Cash Cab returns for a new season on Valentine's Day, coupled with... Cash Cab Chicago.

Gordon: Sheri has been doing a very good job with the Newlywed Gane, The renewal is well-deserved. It'll be interesting to see how that plays Vs. Cash Cab NYC
Chico: And finally in "Seriously... You Greenlit THAT?"

Spike has given the go-head to "Repo Games", in which real repo men Josh Lewis & Tom Detone give debtors one last chance to keep their cars if they can answer a few trivia quesstions. They bill it as "Cops meets Jeopardy!".

Gordon: Sort of like Trashed. I'm not sure I'm a fan of this premise. Only time will tell. But we all like stupid people.
Chico: Of course. Joe, the whiteboard, please.
Joe: one whiteboard, coming up

Are YOU Smarter than...Molly Rosenbusch. Sorry, but that was a pretty stupid error.

Chico: Yeah, it really was.
Gordon: And Molly can have some Haterade.
Chico: Serve me up while you're at it.
Gordon: Will do.

Remember Ian Bernardo? He's not going to sue American Idol. Again. For Time #3. This time, it's about how he was depicted during the finale of Season 9.

Chico: *now?
Chico: AGAIN?
Gordon: Yes. Keep in mind he agreed to do the piece.
Chico: I like how he's lowered the amount from $300 million to $5 million. Because it's not about the money... it's about increasing the awareness of Ian Bernardo.
Joe: Can he sue himself for defamation? Because he's getting to that point
Gordon: He's defaming his own character. Or Proving Idol's point. Either way, he probably needs to get Fully Loaded.

This week, you won't believe who got outed as an insider to our friends at SurvivorSucks.com. Stop at... Russell Hantz.

Gordon: ..oops
Chico: Big oops. Key word: alleged.
Gordon: That, if proven correctly, can cost him a whole lot of coin.
Joe: Presuming there's a lot of coin to be lost.
Chico: SurvivorSucks.com proprietor Jim Early says that he gave up Hantz because "of his attitude about the whole thing, and because Russell tried to implicate an innocent player who wasn't giving information".
Gordon: 5 million dollar penalty in the contract upon the disseminaiton of info illegally?
Chico: $5 million if CBS can prove BSRD that Hantz was involved.
Gordon: That seems to be what this is - and a lot of coin.
Joe: O_O Yes. Yes it does.
Chico: So there you go.
Gordon: And then he'd have to audition a lot to be a new media ho.
Chico: (plays "Pimpin'")

In this week's Media Ho Report, Sherri Shepherd helps out former American Gladiator 'Storm', Steve Austin will host the new Tough Enough, Derek Hough will not be in next season's DWTS...Carson Daly will host The Voice, Nick Cannon 'blessed' to be having kids, and Jesse Csincsak is continuing the Bachelor Tradition of having a baby right after the wedding, which means he was conceived before that union of two souls thing.

Chico: Nice
Gordon: But none of them are the Ho of the Week. This week, your ho is Regis Philbin, who gets a Lifetime Achievement award from TV Land. Expect more of these awards to be going Regis's way over the upcoming months.
Chico: And he's very much deserved of them.
Joe: So who'd you place your bets on, since there are now odds out on the Regis Replacement.
Chico: Mark Consuelos... Jeff Probst... Ryan Seacrest.... Neil Patrick Harris...
Joe: http://i52.tinypic.com/ioi0if.jpg for reference
Gordon: And those...are your hoes.
Chico: Finally, let's go global.

If you're ever in England and you want to watch Challenge, but don't have satellite... don't worry. Now it's available on Freeview.

Chico: Freeview is their analog for cable I'm guessing But yeah, free is better than not-free.
Gordon: True. And that's BrainVision. Shut it down.
Chico: Still to come on the show, playing with flying numbers, but first... it's a wall... that's cool... but it's not THAT wall.
Joe: So I shouldn't wonder about this wall?
Chico: No you shouldn't.
Joe: Shame
Chico: You're going to want to grab your announcer gear for this one. This is WLTI. You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you 22 fingers...
Joe: *ahem*
Gordon: Someone been hanging out by the Plutonium plant?
Chico: Look at all my fingers.
Gordon: ...ew.

(BrainVision has been brought to you by Million Dollar Weather Report. Can you predict the weather? If you can guess correctly, you can win a million dollars...or at least a year's pay for a meteorologist, because the ones we have out here blow. And I'm not talking about blow like a hurricane, either.)

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