Anticipation

Once upon a time Heinz ran ketchup ads with Carly Simon belting out her fulsome Anticipation as the ketchup emerged ever so slowly from the bottle. Now that I've dated myself, I'm getting something of the same feeling right now as a game show fan.

No, this doesn't mean I feel like ketchup. It does mean I'm really looking forward to Monday's man-vs.-machine showdown on Jeopardy. We may be teetering right at the tipping-point when genuine machine intelligence overtakes mere human brainpower. And besides this more esoteric interest, there's that most basic instinct which drives an audience to a game show. I want to see who (or what) wins.

It's easy for me to forget that fundamental appeal when I get bogged down in the minutia of day-to-day game show blogging. If there isn't an honest contest with an uncertain outcome, nobody gives a rodent's behind about a game show (see scandals, fifties).

And I also want to see how Beth Melewski does on Cash Cab. Like it or not, she's in a contest of her own...with that other taxi driver in New York.