What’s going on, then?
I’d suggest that NBC have probably made Minute to Win It just different enough to The Cube avoid infringement. The genius of The Cube lies in the set and camera work in the main. People doing tasks for money is as old as the hills, it’s how you dress it up that matters.
From Hollywood Junket:
Some tasks that were given to game competitors on Friday’s show included the following: Pulling tissues out of a box with one hand; hitting three soda cans off of another one with a ball of yarn; sucking M&Ms candy up with a drinking straw and placing them atop other straws; riding a bath rug around an obstacle of bath instruments one of which was a toilette plunger; pulling-up M&Ms candy placed on top of a pencil with two strings; and one contestant’s feat was to move cookies into her mouth using only her face muscles.
Riding a bath rug? These tasks sound much more Double Dare-ish than Cube-ish, really. On first glance, at least. It also doesn’t sound like it’s going to be as good as The Cube, but that goes without saying. And I still can’t quite picture “move cookies into her mouth using only her face muscles” as a task.
I saw something like that on Beat the Clock. Except it was a mint, not a cookie. Basically by squinting, it moves down towards your eyes. By twitching your nose, it moves further along towards the mouth. Yeah.
this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6i5FdfO48&feature=related
Speaking of, I’m incredibly sad that GSN doesn’t air old B&W BTC episodes any longer.
And also sad that all attempts to remake it have both a) been terrible and b) made the format couples vs. couples instead of simply having each couple compete individually.
(I’m a Beat the Clock fanboy, yes.)
Oh I getcha. Thanks.
See also the recent After Eight advert.
In Schlag Den Raab, does the losing contestant get any form of consolation prize – such as 1000 euro(s?!) per point they won?
Or do they go away empty handed?
Empty handed, I think.
OUCH.
DO NOT LOSE then.
Yes, the challenger does go home with nowt if Stefan beats them. However, they are invited to appear on his chat show the following Monday, regardless if they win or not.
Unrelatedly, Rufus Hound is amazing as a guest on the Pyramid Game, getting one contestant to the top of the Winner’s Circle and getting the other contestant £550 on an unduly hard sixsome.
It’s a classic format and Challenge’s effort was a fine implementation, but the show does lose something when one celebrity is so much better than the other that the result becomes highly predictable. If the show had got more series, they would have come back more frequently to the most talented, and best-practiced, celebrities. (This, conversely to Only Connect, really is a show that’s better to watch the better it’s played.)
Lionel Blair’s clue for “privates” was funny (he gestured to his groin) . Then the bloke he was playing with topped it with his description of “screwdriver”. (“You do this to a girl” while he was poking a couple of his fingers through a hole he made with 2 other fingers.)
Yes, it sounds like “A Minute To Win It” managed to avoid infringing on “The Cube”, only to look like an infringement on “Beat The Clock”. Wonder if Goodson-Todman will sue!
As one who has been watching “The Crystal Maze” on the Internet, and enjoying it immensely, I can say that I will probably not be watching “A Minute To Win It”