Game Show Basics

I was planning to audition for ABC's Show Me The Money. From what I could tell, I probably would have won a few hundreds thousand dollars. Alas, the show has been canceled.

But there are a couple new game shows on NBC worth considering, 1 vs. 100 and Identity. If you want to see a clueless appraisal of these shows, check out Troy Patterson's piece in Slate.

Troy complains they're not challenging enough and gives some examples. Maybe he just hasn't seen that many game shows. The questions start at a simple level and get trickier as more and more money is at stake. It's called building suspense.

Most contestants stop short of the highest money level because it gets too hard. How far do you think you'd go, Troy? Remember, sneering doesn't help.