Howie takes it

NBC has released a promo for Howie Mandel's upcoming Take It All. The promo emphasizes the prisoner's dilemma aspect of the show. "All you have to do is figure out if your opponent is telling the truth." Yeah, Howie, that's always been a problem.

I didn't much like GSN's take on the dilemma with Friend or Foe. Watching people lie to each other for fun and profit got old fast for your humble blogger. But I don't want to prejudge Howie's effort. Especially because I understand the dilemma won't be the central element of the show, which is reportedly based mostly on the white elephant parlor game.

NBC may figure that Howie could catch lightning in a bottle again, as he did with Deal or No Deal. But that show already had a long track record of success in other countries before NBC unleashed the U.S. version. I don't know if Take It All has much of a chance on the suddenly prosperous peacock net. But Howie has proven to be a surprisingly good game show host, so let's see what he can do with this new project.