ABC, CBS Duke it out with Dueling Quiz Shows


by Paul William Tenny

A couple of news items this morning that wouldn't warrant much attention on their own caught my eye because they are essentially the same announcement for a new reality quiz show, but for two different networks. Are you Smarter Than.. has done very well for itself thus far as surely as the sun sets and rises, the other networks immediately set the next wave of quiz shows into motion in an act of complete depravity of creativity.

For ABC that little quip stings twice as bad, since their pickup (amusingly called Duel) is a format brought over from France of all places. Seriously, these pathetic saps are so "desperate" for a new idea they can use to whack-a-mole the other networks that they are going to foreign-speaking territories with vastly different entertainment cultures for new material, rather than spend a little time looking at the overflowing landfills of new material that is created domestically every year.

For its part in this, CBS has ordered six more episodes of Power of 10 for the fall/spring season. Drew Carry hosts and according to Variety, CBS is prepping this reality skim-milk as a replacement for one of its own new fall shows that it will inevitably cancel after airing just 5 minutes of the first episode, setting a new record that humiliates even Fox, which holds the current record of murdering off a new production after just a single episode had aired (Anchorwoman.)

Duel is, over course, also based on a foreign show. So there you have it, the networks are already plotting and planning their own future failures this year. Can't feel very good for those hundreds (if not thousands) of people working on these new shows to know that their network is already writing their eulogy.
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3 Comments

So when this show is a huge hit, who's going to point out that you ate a big crap sandwich on this prediction?

DUEL is very likely going to be at least a modest hit, if not in fact a big honkin' deal.

Granted, nobody knows anything, but I was at the taping. What I witnessed was fantastic TV.
Wow...how nice are you!

I wrote that JUST after taping, which meant I had slept about 20 hours in six days. Cranky doesn't begin to cover it.

So, all I'm at liberty to say is that the game mechanics are fantastic; it's not JUST trivia knowledge, there's great strategy involved. Plus, it's not a person against a board or a question...they're against another player.

The personalities, gameplay, and exceptionally large cash prize made for excellent TV.

I'll always cover myself with the Goldman quote (nobody knows anything) but I will be shocked if this show isn't really well received.

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