Duel - 12/17/07

Concept was OK, but the teaser thing and just the general slow pace made it unwatchable for me. I like Mike Greenberg, but the whole bit about analyzing every decision as it was happening was ridiculous: "I see you pressed. Why did you do that?", "Why did you do ____" Arrgh!

 

One "trend" that disturbs me:

This is a stand-there-and-answer-questions game show, not Survivor. The contestants do have last names. (Yes, they do show them when they appear on the winners board, but what does that say about the contestants who don't win a duel?)

I'm surprised nobody has put into the audition contracts a clause saying that if selected, the person has to change their name legally to (identifier of the show/season) (first name) - for example, Judd Winick would be "Real World San Francisco Judd", and Richard Hatch would be "Survivor Borneo Richard".
(Meanwhile, the one show where you expect most of the contestants to end up being known by just their first name still uses last names - American Idol.)

-- Don

 

I was entertained, and I'm really not into gameshows. I agree, the teasers have got to go, even the studio audience and contestants were getting pissed off by it. I missed the first 40 minutes or so, do they only play for the real money on the last day of the week or something? How come that Monica girl didn't get any money from winning her duel?

 

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I don't mean this the wrong way - but I have NO idea what you are getting at with this entire post.

 

I read it three times and still have no clue.

 

Add me to the list.

 

Thanks for the explanation.

I watched it live so I couldn't skip, but I'm thinking of recording it from now on.

 

This was the kind of show that Tivo was designed for. I made it through the 90 minute show in about 30. Thanks Tivo!

 

Yeah I watched this at my friend's house, they complained that they didn't like it because it was so slow...but we fast forwarded through all the bs so I don't see the complaint. Yeah if we watched it live it would suck, but in FF it's a pretty decent 30 minute show.

 

Seriously, I think you could watch it in 15.

We'll be right back after this! You're watching Duel on a TiVo® DVR!

 

Yet another that has no idea what he's saying. Is it a crime to only call people by their first names?

 

Seriously every game show that has come out since WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire has had the exact same complaints that it starts out too slow. 1vs100 immediately comes to mind, and they fixed that after a few weeks. I think a lot of this is that the production team gets much better at flow, cameras, etc and the game starts to move along.

For what it's worth, I thought this was a very good effort. The game seems solid and will be fun to watch all week. I think it's great that there is a big jackpot at the end....and that there will be an end in sight. Making it a 1-week event makes this much more appealing than a once-a-week show.

 

I found it boring and already canceled my season pass.

 

I'm glad I can watch this at 1.25x speed on my MythTV box and skip the commercials. Otherwise I don't think it would be worth it.

I was quite annoyed when the contenders randomly came up a second time to be considered for a duel, yet they STILL had them 'introduce' themselves as if the previous parts of the show hadn't happened. One introduction per episode per person will suffice. By the way, are any of the contestants real? They all seem like actors to me. Especially the "author" and the "used car salesman." Nobody seems to act like a 'normal' person like I see on "The Price is Right."

The host is doing what seems to be a lousy Peter Coyote impression. It's rather hilarious!

 

As I understand it, they were producing the show with the impression that it was going to be an hour per episode -- and then when ABC decided the episodes should be 90 minutes, they ended up having to not edit out some of the things that they would have otherwise edited out (and should have edited out).

They're in pre-production for a new prime-time version of "Password" that's supposed to air next year. I think I can already predict how that's going to go...

Announcer: The password is "white."
Host: All right, the people at home have heard the password. You may give your first clue.
Contestant: Uh..."black."
Host: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Now, why did you give that clue?
Contestant: Um...because it's the opposite of the word.
Host: I see. Now, do you have any idea what it is?
D-List Celebrity: I think - I think I can take a guess.
Host: All right, well, then you can go ahead and take your guess...right after this commercial break.

 

I really like to listen to Mike Greenberg in the morning on the way to work but I found him stiff and his interactions with the contestants seemed strained. He just did not seem to act natural up on stage like I thought he would have based upon previous work.

 

Good "ancient" reference, Dennis Miller.

(just kidding)

 

Yeah, I watched it on my Toshiba XS32 with 1.5x speed, and STILL started fast forwarding through chunks of it later on. I still think I watched (at higher speed) most of it.
Even with that seeming complaint, it was fairly interesting, and I'll keep watching it this week.

I admittedly didn't really pay attention at the very beginning so hadn't figured out the rules early on. There were a lot of them that I am amazed at least one contestant didn't know (the Scoville one)... I was amazed people were using more than one of the tiles very often.