Pacemaker

Happened to be watching an episode of 5th Grader with my wife today. She finally said: "This is a cute show with the kids and all, but the questions are too slow."

Ah yes, that pace issue again. I've blogged about it before. All things being equal (which they never are) I like a fast pace on game shows. And I can't deny that 5th Grader doesn't exactly set the land speed record in the pace department.

When Millionaire brought game shows back to broadcast prime time, the format proved that a downright slow pace was not necessarily a killer. Regis and friends took their own sweet time climbing up the money tree. But nobody seemed to mind, at least at first. The show still kept viewers glued through lots of long pauses with ominous music and puzzled contestants.

5th Grader and all the other money tree quizzers followed suit. The idea was to build tension slowly...sometimes really, really slowly. With a show like Money Drop the pace turned so ridiculously glacial that viewers tuned out.

How can you identify the magic point when a show's pace lolligags too much? Wish I could tell you. I'd make pretty good money as a game show producer.