GSN Acquires “Minute to Win It”; Series Debuts July 24th
GSN has a big name modern acquisition coming very soon. The network has just acquired the rights to the two-season long game Minute to Win It. GSN will begin airing the Guy Fieri-hosted game starting Tuesday, July 24th, at 7:00PM ET. This stack of episodes will replace the nightly marathon of The Newlywed Game. Each episode sees one person (or a team in the second series) attempt to beat ten stunts using household items for $1,000,000. The show is an American adaptation of ITV’s popular game show The Cube. Minute to Win It ran for two seasons and 69 episodes on NBC from 2010 to 2011. A Spanish-American revival, hosted by Marco Antonio Regil (who we have an interview with which is coming this Monday) begins this August on MundoFox.
I think it’s well established that we aren’t the biggest fans of the show, but it did moderately well by NBC’s standards and this is the type of show GSN’s core audience eats up, so great pickup by them. Anyone else excited to see it back? It should be interesting to see the show’s evolution from (let’s be honest) a massive Cube ripoff in tone during the first few episodes to the party-like atmosphere it gained towards the end. In case you forget, here’s a preview of the show courtesy of NBC. Also, just for the sake of proof, here’s a screenshot of the commercial announcing the pickup courtesy our Twitter follower @gaston1991. Be sure to follow us @buzzerblog for more exclusive news like this.
Didn’t watch it on NBC, won’t watch it on GSN, but I still think this is a good move for them. In that time slot, it’s 23 weeks of new-to-them programming.
When I first saw this I kinda shrugged and said “Well, at least it’s a game show and we could use some variety on the schedule.” Then I read the article and said “They’re gonna premiere it *sigh* as a marathon well of course they are…” *shakes head* Another boneheaded move by the (br)ass at GSN. I really hate to talk about them like that- I love GSN and hope nothing but the best for it, but if it continues to be run this way then that will not happen. Enough said.
well at least it’s a game show unlike dancing with stars witch it is’nt
Wasn’t a big fan of the show either…even after it became more of the “party” atmosphere game later. However, a LOT of my non-hardcore game show fan friends were IN LOVE with the show. With that fact and the fact that it really is a valid American game show, this is a GREAT acquisition by GSN. I agree, however, running it in marathon form is probably a bad idea. It DEFINITELY should be once a week. Or maybe two episodes a week or something like that. But…whatever.
Good move on GSN’s part, I say. They’re, at least, sometimes TRYING to make good decisions (to some extent.)
I’ll put it this way: I’d rather watch a July 4th marathon of this ANY time rather than a “Dancing” marathon.
Me too. I would take Minute to Win It on GSN ANY DAY over Dancing with the Stars! Minute to Win It is a GAME SHOW unlike Dancing with the Stars which is a REALITY SHOW!
to me the issue is that it’s beat the clock…but it was a solid show…if they tried not to millionaire it i think it would have lasted longer…Better than any of the BTC branded Beat the Clock reboots lol
This is because of the Viacom dispute between DirecTV. DirecTV partially owns GSN, and are chomping at the bit to revitalize programming to make up for the lost Viacom channels. This is just one of many tactics that DirecTV, and apparently GSN are doing.
This has nothing to do with Viacom. It was in the works long before the dispute and will be part of GSN’s schedule long after that dispute is settled. GSN acquired the show because they need it. They’ve had no original programming in months and only one successful series in years. Almost every cable net fills their schedule with acquired programming to offset the cost of originals. After the Dancing With the Stars mess, at least GSN found a show that will help their schedule. But it’s not going to put pressure on Viacom one bit.
I actually liked the first couple episodes of Minute to Win It, when the game show ACTUALLY HAD A GOOD THEME SONG.
After Episode #10, NBC started adding lousy party music to it, and kept getting girls in bikinis as contestants, to attract a male audience I’m guessing. Now, I don’t mind the eye-candy, but come on. That, combined with the fact NBC only created 1 game for the Million Dollar Level, was what led to it being cancelled. We didn’t even get to see the $2 Million or $3 Million games in the special 2010 Christmas episodes, because no team even got that far.
All in all, I’m glad GSN is picking up a game show, but I’m not a big fan of Minute to Win It. Next thing GSN will probably acquire will be Wipeout, and Wipeout’s the type of game show where you really only want to watch each episode once, and that’s it.
Or, at this rate, why not pick up NBC’s other short-lived, recently-cancelled game shows, such as It’s Worth What!? and Who’s Still Standing?…
And don’t forget about Howie Mandel’s White Elephant, which will premiere this Christmas, probably in a weeklong holiday event just like Who’s Still Standing last year…
For now, GSN doesn’t have Ballsy to worry about. truTV beat them to the Wipeout Zone.
That said, how it fits in with Bait Car and Hardcore Pawn is a mystery to me. It’s not a reality (or in tru’s terms, “actuality”) show, rather it’s a competition show.
The first or most of the 1st season was good. The show got bad after that because most of the time the show became 1 person or 1 team for an hour or two hour hours. Because of all the slow play and constant rehashing of the video clips that introduced the contestant(s), after I while I was needing just 19 minutes to watch an hour episode. I think the slow play led to the show’s demise. I hope it doesn’t lead to bad ratings for GSN. I know they’ve been airing Deal or no Deal for some time, and that show had a lot of slow play too. It often took me 28 minutes to watch that show with the one contestant or team/ one hour format.
That, and the drama aspect, showing contestants constantly crying, in desperation of winning some money to save their lives…
I liked the first few episodes of Minute it could of been a good show but its NBC were talking about (Nothing But Crap). All NBC shows starts out good and them ruin it look at Weakest Link it started out well until they have Celebrity specials same with Deal or No deal and Minute to win it. I hated the one contestant per show it gets boring seeing a hyper annoying contestant for an hour.
I am glad GSN picked this up hopefully breaks up the family feud airings. I wish Bob Boden would come back imo