Based on the results from the UK version, this is yet another entry in the 'and you will never actually keep any of it' game show field. Here's a million dollars. It's the network's million dollars. They're just going to let people look at it for a while.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Money_Drop

A full week of this? Did NBC buy FOX and we all missed it? This is filler in its purest form: low cost, (presumably) no action, and the only pennies paid out are to the crew, with a possible add-on expense for the lighting bill. (A heated studio is too much to ask for.) We torture a few people and then we rerun it on GSN. There's no other purpose.

If they'd really wanted to make it fun, they would have handed out the cash in pennies.

And then it's a six-hour show!

• Sad.,Estee, 11:12 AM, 12-21-10
  • Million Dollar Money Drop,Molaholic, 11:19 PM, 12-28-10
• $800,000 mistake,Puffy, 12:38 PM, 12-27-10
• RE: Million Dollar Money Drop,kidflash212, 11:18 AM, 07-10-16

LAST EDITED ON 12-27-10 AT 05:25 PM (EST)

Conclusion from the premiere: we need a title change. I favor How to lose a million dollars in one hour.

Not that it was ever theirs. To rephrase the host, 'This is not, has never been, and never will be your million dollars. But we will let you look at it for a few minutes.' The game is designed around questions virtually no one will be able to answer from direct knowledge or baseline logic -- which means you're always guessing, and if you're always guessing, you're always losing. The slow removal of drop zones and need to always leave one answer empty turns the last question into a fifty-fifty shot. And all the money goes down the hole. Plucky Duck would be proud.

Two hours, two games, and zero dollars given away. I knew the second couple was about to go bankrupt just from looking at the clock: there wasn't enough time to reach the last question, but they had more than enough seconds remaining to weep in.

So far, this is arguably worse than Deal Or No Deal. At least players on that one always knew that at the absolute worse, they were getting a penny.

And the most painful part, at least for the premiere? They cast likable contestants. Hey, let's watch people you can actually feel for as all their hopes and dreams die!

You must risk everything you have on every question: so say the rules. It loses something when you realize no one had anything to begin with.

Except sorrow. That's the lovely parting gift.

Besides hiring a new set of fact finders, I'd offer this tweak:

For the last question, give the couple the option of going for it (with whatever they have left and risking getting bubkis) or taking half (or some other percentage) of the pile without answering the question.

Of course, most couples would probably take that option...

Oops...and they're invited back to try again.

Post-It Notes was introduced before the Walkman, you blockheads.

http://newsone.com/entertainment/newsonestaff4/fox-game-show-mistake-gabe-okoye-brittany-mayti-post-it-notes/

Six hours!