Million dollar Nielsen bust

BuzzerBlog posted some local market ratings for the October 23 premiere of Million Dollar Mind Game. Nobody should have expected anything except near-invisible numbers, and that's exactly what happened.

My own review was tepid at best and brutal at worst. ABC knew what they were doing when they burned the show off in a throwaway Sunday afternoon slot. Still, I'll admit to a sneaking wish that a few more people would give the show a chance.

I'm not just pleading for game shows in general, though there's a little of that involved. Million Dollar Mind Game is a truly offbeat departure from the usual run of American game shows. Frankly, some of the departures, like the excruciating difficulty of the questions and the lollygagging pace, strike me as anything but favorable.

But it would still be nice to see such a quirky show somehow find a few viewers, at least the famous "cult following." I'm afraid even that may be too much to ask for the import from Russia without love (by Nielsen).