Ten easy comments

Hello, 2013! The previous post mentioned bloggers who uncork top ten lists at the end of the year. One of those guys is Alex Davis at BuzzerBlog. He asked his readers to pick the top ten new game shows of the year. The picks and my lazy reactions to each of them:

#1 Let's Ask America. Okay survey show. Cheap as hell. Got good enough numbers to please penny-pinching Scripps execs. They replaced the much better Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on their stations with this low-rent Skype project.

#2 The Exit List. Brit show. Don't know much about it.

#3 Pyramid. My personal fave of the new shows. But it was so much like the Dick Clark version that viewers yawned. The format is still rock-solid but needs a few tweaks to make it work again with the Nielsen Company.

#4 Figure It Out. The literally slimy I've Got a Secret for kids returned to Nick. Not a bad revival if you're into kid shows.

#5 Blockbusters. Brit show. Don't know much about this particular version. Heard that it had the same problem as Pyramid. Too slavishly imitative of the old version.

#6 The Bank Job. Brit show. Don't know much about it.

#7 Breakaway. Brit show. Don't know much about it.

#8 Hip Hop Squares. Deserves a higher place on the list, I think. The contestants were kind of clueless and the hip hoppers were drunk as skunks. My kind of show.

#9 Match Game. Canadian show and predictably cheap. Pretty close to the original and the panel was more or less bearable.

#10 American Bible Challenge. Deserves a much higher place on the list but wasn't going to get it from Alex's bunch. A really quirky and innovative idea paid off huge for GSN.