World Series of Pop Culture

[Clay Zambo]

10 PM.

I've no idea which episode comes up first, but I'm very much looking forward to seeing if Davies & Co. have made compelling TV out of what we saw being taped.

[FOXSportsFan]

[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'123837\' date=\'Jul 10 2006, 09:45 PM\']
10 PM.

I've no idea which episode comes up first, but I'm very much looking forward to seeing if Davies & Co. have made compelling TV out of what we saw being taped.
[/quote]

Technically it debuted Sunday morning around 11ish.  VH1 for some reason likes to air things the morning before the legit premiere, they're dumb like that.  It was...interesting...Kiernan is dry, as you might expect, and acts akin to the Spelling Bee emcee giving folks the word and such.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'FOXSportsFan\' post=\'123838\' date=\'Jul 10 2006, 09:47 PM\']


Technically it debuted Sunday morning around 11ish.  VH1 for some reason likes to air things the morning before the legit premiere, they're dumb like that.  

[/quote]

GSN did that on 8/5/02 with the Lingo premiere. They said it would premiere in the evening at 7PM EST or whatever time it had then, but they aired an episode at 2PM EST that day.

[Clay Zambo]

[quote name=\'FOXSportsFan\' post=\'123838\' date=\'Jul 10 2006, 09:47 PM\']
[quote name=\'Clay Zambo\' post=\'123837\' date=\'Jul 10 2006, 09:45 PM\']
I'm very much looking forward to seeing if Davies & Co. have made compelling TV out of what we saw being taped.
[/quote]

Technically it debuted Sunday morning around 11ish. [/quote]

How bizarre.

Well, it's certainly a better tv show than it was live; the audio edits of Pat's lines (dismissing players who've lost, etc.) clean up the clumsiness a fair amount.

[dzinkin]

Fair warning for West Coast viewers: at least during the just-completed airing here in the East, VH1 ran a promo for the next episode.  Said promo contained the outcome of the second game played tonight... and was shown BEFORE the game was complete.

[rebelwrest]

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'123845\' date=\'Jul 10 2006, 11:03 PM\']
Fair warning for West Coast viewers: at least during the just-completed airing here in the East, VH1 ran a promo for the next episode.  Said promo contained the outcome of the second game played tonight... and was shown BEFORE the game was complete.
[/quote]

Sorry for bumping an old thread

I think that mistake may have been topped.  On tonight's episode, they held a contest in which you text message an answer to a question that will be asked later in the show.  Sounds like a great contest, except the question they asked was ALREADY ANSWERED.  Is it me, or does television treat us like we are all mentally challenged or is it how TV executives are?

[TLEberle]

I saw one episode on a flyer last week, and I'm hooked. The game is nothing to scream at, and the material is certainly easier than what you'd expect for a "World Series," but that's OK, because we dummies have to play along too.

Why he wasn't offered the "Chain Reaction" gig, I'll never know.

[J.R.]

I caught a few minutes of this show a couple weeks ago and it's pretty good. It's rather refreshing to see a game show that doesn't feel it has to have millions of bright lights, a foreboding set and multimillion dollar jackpots in order to be engaging.

OT: I haven't watched VH1 for a long time, can someone tell me when it became the "Snarky Lets Make Fun of Has-been Celebrities Network"?

-Joe R.

[Jeremy Nelson]

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'123845\' date=\'Jul 10 2006, 10:03 PM\']
Said promo contained the outcome of the second game played tonight... and was shown BEFORE the game was complete.
[/quote]
It happened again last night.

The second semifinal match between Almost Perfect Strangers and El Chupacabra only made it through Round 1 before the hour was up. The conclusion will be played on next week's finale, but VH1 threw in yet another spoiler: as the credits were rolling, VH1 showed a promo for next week's finale, telling which team won the match!

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'rollercoaster87\' post=\'125504\' date=\'Jul 28 2006, 11:05 AM\']
The second semifinal match between Almost Perfect Strangers and El Chupacabra only made it through Round 1 before the hour was up. The conclusion will be played on next week's finale, but VH1 threw in yet another spoiler: as the credits were rolling, VH1 showed a promo for next week's finale, telling which team won the match!
[/quote]
It's a good thing I wasn't paying attention, and flip through that stuff with the Tivo, anyhow.

(Also, very smart of them. I was wondering if they were going to try to drag the final out over the full hour, when they were fitting two games a show in through the rest of the series.)

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'rollercoaster87\' post=\'125504\' date=\'Jul 28 2006, 01:05 PM\']
[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'123845\' date=\'Jul 10 2006, 10:03 PM\']
Said promo contained the outcome of the second game played tonight... and was shown BEFORE the game was complete.
[/quote]
It happened again last night.

The second semifinal match between Almost Perfect Strangers and El Chupacabra only made it through Round 1 before the hour was up. The conclusion will be played on next week's finale, but VH1 threw in yet another spoiler: as the credits were rolling, VH1 showed a promo for next week's finale, telling which team won the match!
[/quote]

Which they didn't do on the first airing at 11 a.m. ET.  The DVR with a series setting is your friend.  

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'125510\' date=\'Jul 28 2006, 02:37 PM\'](Also, very smart of them. I was wondering if they were going to try to drag the final out over the full hour, when they were fitting two games a show in through the rest of the series.)[/quote]
I was pleased to see the second semifinal "to be continued".  Frankly, if they do this again, I'd like to see more of the contests straddle.  One of the problems of knowing for sure that they're going to complete two games in an hour is seeing the writing on the wall when it's late in the show and a team is down one player to three.

Of course, another way to fix that is to give us the blowout as the first game of the hour, followed by one that goes all the way to the fifth match.  Of course, this is a network that's spoiling the game you're watching with previews, so it doesn't look like they're all that concerned with preserving your competitive interest.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'125515\' date=\'Jul 28 2006, 12:06 PM\']
One of the problems of knowing for sure that they're going to complete two games in an hour is seeing the writing on the wall when it's late in the show and a team is down one player to three.
[/quote]
But isn't this a problem across all episodic television? When the clock hits 9:50, I know Dr. House or one of his Cottages is gonna come across the ultimate cure for the guy with chronic hemorrhoids, or that something is gonna happen pretty soon that is gonna completely twist everything around for the victims of Flight 815.

[curtking]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'125527\' date=\'Jul 28 2006, 02:35 PM\']
But isn't this a problem across all episodic television? When the clock hits 9:50, I know Dr. House or one of his Cottages is gonna come across the ultimate cure for the guy with chronic hemorrhoids, or that something is gonna happen pretty soon that is gonna completely twist everything around for the victims of Flight 815.
[/quote]
I think the key phrase is "something is gonna happen."  On Lost, you often don't know what that "something" is.  But on WSoPC, like Matt said, if one team is down 3-to-1 and there's two minutes left, you pretty much know what that "something" is.

I've had the same thought about the World Poker Tour.  I enjoy watching it, but when Johnny Chan has the chip lead and there's two minutes left in the show, there's not much suspense as to the outcome.

That having been said, I don't think there's much you can do about it on most shows, but it is an annoyance.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'curtking\' post=\'125541\' date=\'Jul 28 2006, 03:09 PM\']
I think the key phrase is "something is gonna happen."  On Lost, you often don't know what that "something" is.  
[/quote]
Well, yeah, Lost has the cliffhanger down to a science, for sure. The House thing was the better example. You know the patient on the table isn't gonna croak, no matter how many times they tease it during the episode, and you know some out-of-left-field cure is gonna be discovered with about ten minutes to go, because that's how it happens pretty much every week.

I mean, you guys have a point, too, but I'm saying that VH-1 probably didn't worry much about it simply because it's a function of episodic television.