Howie chats

Lots of Howie Mandel posts lately, it seems. But NBC is rolling out his new game show, Take It All, and Howie has been chatting up the project. Carrie Grosvenor at About.com brings us highlights from one of his interviews.

One thing I've noticed about Howie-speak is the emphasis on "social experiment." That phrase crops up again in this interview, and I think it refers to putting people in odd situations and seeing how they react. Frankly, any TV game show is odd enough to begin with, as lots of contestants use "surreal" to describe the experience.

Howie also disdains trivia, probably because (as he admits) he's not very good at it. This new version of white elephant plus the prisoner's dilemma certainly won't test anybody's trivial knowledge. A questioner asks if the show is like Let's Make a Deal meets the Showcase Showdown. Howie replies that it's like Deal or No Deal, a show he should be familiar with.

In fact, Howie sounds quite proud of the suitcase epic, which is refreshing in a way. At least he doesn't try to run away from the show as some kind of brainless exercise in number-picking. We'll see if he enjoys anything like the same level of success with Take It All.