Game Show NewsNet

July 30, 2004

Gordon: This is Gordon Pepper, and I am bugging Chico in the middle of his vacation.
Chico: It's the end of my vacation, dude. I'm Chico Alexander, and from back home, somewhere in America... WLTI is on. Lots of stuff to get through, but first, Drew has a vacation from his worst half to join the brainy side of things.
Gordon: That would be the braindead one... Oh wait, they are all braindead.
Chico: What do you expect from Big Brother? Rocket scientists? I mean, you watch Big Brother, you have an expectation. An IQ above 152... *raises hand* isn't one of them.
Gordon: No - I am expecting entertaining hamsters - and this year, for once, that is exactly what we are getting. I hate to admit it, but project DNA is actually living up to it's hype. How are you enjoying it?
Chico: Phased out after five seconds. Lame. Once it plays out in its second
part, though, that's when it's gonna start getting interesting.
Gordon: Maybe it's because I'm following it on the internet, but you actually have two solid alliances, and a lot of counter alliances under them.
Chico: His first interesting decision is probably the smartest I've seen since Jase put the Big Lubinski against Nakomis.
Gordon: That makes it interesting - do you get rid of the annoyance, or do you get rid of the strongest threat in the game?
Chico: Hard call. The most annoying can become the strongest in the long run, so you probably want to get rid of them to hide under the radar. Goes back to that old saying: "You shoot the queen, you better kill her."
Gordon: It's a must kill for the other team, as they desperately try to get rid of the Horsemen.
Chico: And speaking of killing, guess how many kills our man Jennings has
under his belt.
Gordon: Well, 76 kills for 38 games.
Chico: But now the question that's being arisen from all this: Is it good for Jeopardy! Some say no. Your thoughts?
Gordon: For the short term yes. In the long run? No. I just saw a shark jump over the program. It's that same time when John Carpenter won his million. You've seen what could happen - what's the point in watching now?
Chico: Exactly. The novelty is only temporary.
Gordon: They better hope that there's a loyal audience who won't mind going back to what it is - but I will say this - this season of Jeopardy coming up will be the best ever, as you probably have the best contestants ever in their quest to take down Jennings.
Chico: We're going to see some fierce competition, and I'm hoping that in that competition, we see what Jeopardy is all about again.
Gordon: One of the biggest gripes is that Jennings is going through a slew
of weak competition - you won't say that this time around in September.
Chico: Now, interesting enough, I've been flipping through this week's TV Guide, and I saw some past big winners giving him some tips, including our good friend Phyllis Harris.
Gordon: Do you think she will be at the Game Show Congress in Los Angeles on August 16?
Chico: Wouldn't surprise me. Anywho, she says "Don't freeze and have
fun."
Gordon: Sounds like good advice.
Chico: David Legler, who won $1.765 million .on Twenty One, says "Don't
invest all your money at once."
Gordon: Anyone want to invest it in an action movie with Joel Silver
directing?
Chico: Umm... No.
Gordon: We now switch gears to The Next Action Star, which is getting such bad ratings that NBC is going right to the final episode. What went wrong?
Chico: Not that much pub. Poor scheduling. The people really suck ass.
Gordon: I thought there was a decent amount of truth to your statements - I think that the scheduling was bad, and the auditions, which was blatantly an American Idol rip-off, let the people feeling that the show was going to suck. It isn't a bad show, but the first episode did way too much damage to the show for it to recover.
Chico: Very much so. I think the casting "special" was a bit much.
Gordon: It was horrendous, and it put the show on an awful start.
Chico: And putting it after a proven property (FLOM), while a good idea on
paper, just proved that segueing into a mismatch.... Not really good eats. But that doesn't mean that the winners will not have a limited supply of potential.
Gordon: Nope - but surprisingly, FLOM is getting nice ratings. Almost all of
the major game shows are getting good ratings. And here we are to tell the winner of the Next Action Star what to do - it's the BIG BOARD!
Chico: First of all: Don't run for public office. I mean, look what it did
for the last guy
Gordon: What happened to the last guy?
Chico: Well, let's just say using the term "Girlie men" in a political speech is not good PR.
Gordon: He's got a nice honey by his side, though.
Chico: Second, if GSN comes calling, don't answer. Not to disrespect the motherland of game action, but Darva Conger... Melana Scantlin...
Gordon: What about Jerri and Zach - and their second season renewal for
Extreme Dodgeball?
Chico: Exceptions to the rule. But it only applies to Zach. Jerri didn't do much.
Gordon: Next rule?
Chico: Don't expect to be famous overnight.
Gordon: Only one reality contestant (Survivor 2's Liz Hasselbeck) actually has a full time TV gig. That's out of 112 wannabe contestants.
Chico: Two gigs. I can't think of anyone who's going to set their TiVos to record "Bet Your Life"
Gordon: I will - but I have to.
Chico: Why's that?
Gordon: I have to cover the movie review for the site.
Chico: Ah. Right. Four: If Tina Malave calls... don't answer. The relative
failures of both NAS and Fake Out make her game show poison. Not as bad as Skyler, but she's the freaking host.
Gordon: So you have someone worse than JD Roberto to rip on?
Chico: ... For once! You have to admit that I have a little bit of credence with that statement.
Gordon: I'm impressed.
Chico: And finally.... When all else fails... Direct! Hollywood's a big town!
Gordon: It worked for Ron Howard.
Chico: And Henry Winkler. And Mel Gibson.
Gordon: and M. Night Shyamalan - speaking of which, are you going to see The Village?
Chico: Oh yeah. That's gonna be good stuff right there. You?
Gordon: Do you want to know the twist?
Chico: Not now, anyway.
Gordon: The twist is that... he's a ghost! Oh wait. Wrong movie.
Chico: I bet that would be more interesting than the twists offered so far
this summer. I mean, can you imagine it: "One of your fellow Houseguests... is dead." "The person you are here to meet... is dead." "Marshall and Lance... You're dead." "Next to sit in the hot seat is a dead guy." I can go on and on.
Gordon: A great book on that point is something called 24/7 by Jim Brown.
Chico: Explain that.
Gordon: 12 Contestants go to a reality show. They find at the beginning of
the taping that the host has been killed and that they have all been infected with a virus, which will kill them if they don't get a dose of antidote every 24 hours. They need to find out who's doing this and how to stop them before they all die. This is an excellent book. I strongly recommend it.
Chico: Sounds interesting. Think I might pick it up. Okay, when we return,
we've got one of the guys of the Certified Public Assassins from Extreme
Dodgeball to play 20 Questions.
Gordon: We got that for you and we fill up an Australian Island - right
after this!

(Brought to you by Ajax Caviar, making Amazing Racers throw up since earlier this year.)

Click the commercial to continue...