Your thoughts - GSN's "Big Saturday Night" and the two new shows

[gshowguy]

Well, since no one's started a topic on it, I guess I have to now, don't I? 

Anyway, the Big Saturday Night segments were kind of enjoyable to watch, especially with the games (including one stunt that kinda rips off "Powerball" from American Gladiators) but I found some of the hosts to be quite annoying, especially "Ross the Intern" from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Keegan Michael-Key did a surprisingly good job, though. (I just wish real hosts like Chuck Woolery and Wink Martindale could be involved)

For 20Q, Cat Deeley did a pretty decent job of hosting (coming off as guest host of WWTBAM, you'd expect that), and I loved the quirky one-liners from Hal Sparks as Mr. Q, especially when that one contestant thought Florence Henderson was born in 1897 (and I ROMAOTFL!  ). Gameplay was basically the same thing as standard Twenty Questions, and it had a good play-along factor. The prize of $20,000 in the final round isn't too shabby, either.

Money List wasn't bad either. Fred Roggin does a decent hosting job, even with him still doing GSN Live, and the gameplay was pretty good, too. And $50,000 is a nice payday for a cable show, IMHO.

The only gripes I had with both-- both of their sets are way too dark. (Do we really need another game show with a dark set in this era?) And some of the contestants on both shows were a little odd.

All in all, I'm going to continue watching them. A+ on both!

Now, what did you guys think?

[Jnelson09]

"Ross the Intern" from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Well, that's enough to keep me from watching. He already ruined 1 vs. 100 for me.

[Drewfan2008]

The shows were great. Big Saturday night itself, was awful. And what was the point of the skits? All they did was make fun of the Game Show genre. The hosts were terrible, and the games were bad. How is a show that is supposed to be more for at home players going to give more money to the studio audience than the viewers at home. GSN better sharpen up with this, or they are going to ruin the ratings to two great shows.

[UniquePerspective]

The actual Big Saturday Night segments were enough to make me head desk. I probably really could have if I had a desk near by. None of the hosts were likeable, none of them seemed in control of their segments...it was just a hot mess.

20Q has potential, I see it, and I think Cat Deely is sort of a different kind of host that may work here. I love Hal Sparks, and his voice sort of fits this kind of thing, but...I want Mr. Q to be funnier, because he has a lot of corny stuff, but especially if Hal got in on the writing Mr. Q could be a funny character. Game play works pretty well except I would possibly shorten it to just the three instead of six, possibly full fledged half hour instead of hour. But, this has potential.

I did not see most of Money List, but honestly, in the first 15 minutes or so that I DID see, it was enough to call it my favorite. Everything seems natural, Fred Roggin is happy to be there and knows what he's doing, the concept is great and I think everything just flows well. This is the one that's probably going to last out of all of these.

[priceaddict]

20Q was ok but the money list was very enjoyable but i didn't like the egos going on between the contestants and big saturday night was really bad, the hosts were ok but i didn't know a dolphin could host a tv show. I was talking about ross the annoying intern from the tonight show.

[88JRFAN]

I still can't believe that Keegan Michael Key is one of the hosts of Big Saturday night. I'm so used to seeing him on Mad TV.

The shows were pretty cool. I checked out 20Q after the NASCAR Nationwide race ended. I was laughing when I saw Cat Deely as host. When watching the commercials, I thought the host was Mel Peachey. Cat Deeley?! The fantastic looking SYTYCD host hosting a game show?! Never saw that coming 

[Drewfan2008]

I thought the host was Mel Peachey. Cat Deeley?!

That's what I thought when I was just listening to the show. She sounds just like Mel. I was waiting for her to say "Ello, I'm Mel Peachy!"

[jzion12345]

That's what I thought when I was just listening to the show. She sounds just like Mel. I was waiting for her to say "Ello, I'm Mel Peachy!"

Brilliant!

[JayC]

Money List was excellent.  Even with the lower stakes it was much better than Rich List. 

20Q was good but could use some changes.  The big thing I would change is to let every audience member be part of the play-in round and not just a certain section.  I would also not allow contestants to use passed over questions in round 2.

Big Saturday Night is just about awful IMO.  It dragged out the shows way too much and everyone on it is really annoying.  I hope they decide to ditch this format and either don't do anything at all or make it the same way GSN Live is but with bigger prizes and games for primetime.

[Rlotpir1972]

'Money List' is basically the US version of 'Rich List'.  Same game show.

'20Q', the scenery resembles the unsold 1971 pilot, 'Simon Says'.  Cat Deeley, she looks and sounds like the same hostess from 'Battle of the Bods'.

[Flerbert419]

Ross the Intern ruined the Game Show Awards for me.  Now he has brought himself over to Big Saturday Night, and has ruined that too.  Joy.

20Q was my least favorite of the two actual game shows, but the second round and final round were both pretty enjoyable.  The first round could use some work, especially since we have to see it twice.

I didn't think Roggin was going to do well, mostly because he seemed a bit too happy all the time on GSN Live.  But he seemed to control the show overall, and it is definitely the strongest out of the three offerings.  I know I was yelling out loud to finish the lists. (How could they miss KFC?)

I think next week I'll just tape Money List and fast forward through the pink suit.

[tpir]

Big Saturday Night was ok but needs some changes the news sketch was the best sketch and the others was corny.
20q was better than I thought and so was Cat.
The Money List was the best show GSN has done in a while and Fred did an excellent job hosting.

[heelsrule1988]

Big Saturday Night: Boring. Leave the prize-giving to GSN Live... they do it the right way. They've got Carlton (automatic win) and Heidi Bohay (who is pretty good-looking for her age), and (as many here have already said) I'd definitely rather see them than that incredibly annoying Ross character.

20Q: Although I wish they made the show more about you beating the computer (the way the actual 20Q game works) and not the other way around, the play-along factor is great. Plus, I believe I posted here that I liked Cat on Millionaire, and she did just as well here. It's a solid show.

The Money List: I really enjoyed The Rich List and was pretty bummed out when it got canned after only one show, so I was definitely happy to see it come back on GSN. It's another great play-along show, and I like how there is no limit to how many times a team can win, since that could potentially spawn long runs. Everyone knows that I like that rule on Jeopardy, so of course I like it on this show.

[BRB_TheFireball]

Is it wrong that I'm still calling it "The Rich List"?

But I love both of the new game shows.

"20Q" requires a lot of thinking and logical deduction, but the concept is still simple:  guess the subject from a series of clues.  Kinda like a modern day "CBS Double Dare".  Just add a wisecracking computer vioced by the great Hal Sparks and you do indeed have intelligent fun, as Cat Deeley calls it in the promos.

I like both "The Rich List" and "The Money List".  But I'd say I like "The Money List" better because Fred Roggin is a better host than Eamonn Holmes.

I hope that both of these shows have long, successful runs.

[PriceFanArmadillo]

Man, I must just be too jaded these days, because I just couldn't get past the fact that Fred was trying to tease out a dramatic moment by stalling over revealing whether or not Iraq is actually a country in Asia.

Also, all I could see in the final round of 20Q is "hope whichever possibility the contestant sees for the answer (out of the dozen or so viable answers remaining that the computer is still choosing from) is actually the one the writers chose".  Like I said, though, I'm just a huge cynic (but trying to get better about it), so if you guys say these shows are actually good, I must be way off base.