Set Report from NBC’s “Take It All”
NBC’s upcoming pure luck game show Take It All started taping in Los Angeles this week. The game, hosted by Howie Mandel, is based on the popular holiday game “white elephant,” which was this show’s former name. It basically involves deciding to pick a new prize or steal one from someone who already opened one, and you are trying to get the highest value you can. The show is co-hosted by Donna Ruko. Hollywood Junket was on set for the show and gave a preview of the rules. Here’s what you need to know.
For the game they saw five contestants start. The first picks a question mark box from the “Dream Screen”, a large screen which holds the identity of the prizes. After selecting a box they are told what they have won. The next in line can either steal what that person just revealed or choose another box. Each player has one “Freeze” they can use each game to make sure no one takes their prize. The person with the lowest value after each round is gone.
When only two remain each chooses an envelope that could contain up to $250,000, but they don’t know what’s in it yet. Each player has to choose to either keep what they have or “Take It All” in a Prisoner’s Dilemma end game. If both choose to keep, they both keep what they’ve won plus the envelopes. If one chooses to Take It All and the other Keeps, the person who chose Take It All gets everything, including both cash envelopes. If both choose to Take It All they both get nothing.
I think we’re going to, yet again, get an example that Prisoner’s Dilemma does not work well in game shows, especially one that’s being basically set up for a holiday run. Nothing says Christmas like people stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. There was seriously no other creative idea? Beyond that, the show seems a little bit boring. Not broken, but boring. It’s even fewer decisions than Deal or No Deal. We get to watch an hour of people staring at a screen and being told what they won. This is, obviously, just based on what we were written. Games always come across different on television so, hopefully, this is a bit more exciting to watch than I’m imagining.
Speaking of the screen, I am really, really hoping that they at least put some prizes on stage. Despite that, was there a reason they couldn’t have boxes on stage with the names of prizes in there, and then go to the screen for a reveal if necessary? If you have a pure luck show you have to have physical representation of the results on set. Of course we know stuff can’t be rigged, but that thought is still there. It looks cheap to have the game’s only big focal point be a giant television. The Price is Right manages to have dozens of giant prizes on per show, live-to-tape, and they have a far smaller budget. There’s no excuse for a big primetime spectacle to not do this, so I’m hoping details of that were left off the report.
Beyond that, though, it certainly seems much better than some of NBC’s other holiday efforts like Identity or the beyond-awful Who’s Still Standing. However, it’s still missing something that brings it to the next level. We’re hoping to get some more reports and get some other perspectives.
Source : Hollywood Junket
Was I one of the few people who liked Identity? I thought it was an interesting show, seeing if people could use stereotypes to identify the professions/quirks of random people.
That being said, I’m very skeptical of this show… why not just bring back the proven format of Deal? Maybe blow it up for a very limited run – $2M or $3M prize, like Super Millionaire?
I also liked Identity. To me that was a winning show, but i agree that this just does cut it. I agree that if your gonna do the whole everything on screen just to do some physical prizes like TPiR. I really would like to see a newer run of DorND, but for the love of everything get a new host. I love Howie i grew up watching Bobby’s World, but i mostly over his new found popularity. I am not saying he is a bad host, but when even the contestant is expecting a commercial then it is time to mix things up. I will watch the first episode of it, but then the game will have to speak for itself. overall not impressed.
I meant to say does not cut it.
This show sounds pretty corny imo
A new version of Deal or no Deal would be nice if they have 2 contestants per show. The show drags when they have one contestant and gimmicks and everything
“Of course we know stuff can’t be rigged…”
Don’t tell that to the G-R/TPIR Superfans.
Why do I get the feeling that this game is going to be slow to watch? I don’t know how they’re going to stretch out 5 people picking 1 prize each per round, through only 4 rounds, to fit a full 1-hour primetime episode. Unless each contestant takes 2 minutes to choose a prize…
Hopefully I’m wrong about this, but we’ll see what happens…
The “Prisoner’s Dilemma” round sounds a lot like the final round of Friend Or Foe. Don’t like it.
From what I’ve read here, this show is a “must miss,” like “Diving With the Stars.” In a way, I’m amazed that the U.S. major networks can’t do any better than this; there are good, creative game shows in Britain — “The Cube” and “The Chase” are two — and clueless network executives in the States relentlessly give them no chance. ABC killed “Million Dollar Mind Game” a year ago by hiding it on Sunday afternoons against NFL games. I’ve become really cynical about a genre of TV that I’ve loved ever since the days of “Tic Tac Dough,” “Concentration” and — yes — even “Video Village.” Now we’re left with “Survivor”-like reality shows and “TPIR” and “Let’s Make a Deal,” which require no thought at all, or games that play off greed or sexual tawdriness.
OK, maybe “The Pyramid’s” time truly has come and gone. Even a jazzed-up “Million-Dollar Password” lasted only a few episodes. But the “Anti-Family Feud” game in Britain — “Pointless” — and “The Bank Job” (the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” aside in their so-called grand finales) show that new ideas are being hatched all the time. Of course, getting the network executives to give them a chance is something else again.
feh screw this show. Just give me DoND any day.
I’d MUCH rather watch “Identity” (which I liked, just bad execution, I think) than this. Even “Who’s Still Standing?” sounds better to me. At least the game behind the horrific execution was solid enough. This sounds just terrible. Prisoner’s Dilemma only belongs on “Friend or Foe,” where I believe it worked. This….
I’ll say this: I was genuinely interested in trying to watch and like “Who’s Still Standing?” I have no desire to watch this at all, whatsoever.
I have great ideas for the next hit gameshow and they are way better than what I’ve seen the last few years. Whos’ Still Standing could have been executed a lot better. Identity was solid I just wasn’t in love with it but it wasn’t bad. I personally wish 1 VS 100 and Deal Or No Deal were still on NBC. Maybe this will look better than it sounds but this does sound terrible. I almost also wish NBC would picked up Million Dollar Money Drop from FOX which was a fun show.
I watched the first show, and won’t watch another one. This is nothing but a celebration of greed. Just what America needs!
Most of the prizes are expensive, but useless — a beer cave, a mechanical bull, a stock (race car) simulator that costs $60,000, but is USELESS. A guy who looked like Santa Claus won a $26,500 prize — a 25 year membership to a fitness club. One contestant said she’d been out of work for a year. Why doesn’t the show give away groceries or clothing or more cash?
The show’s climax was “Santa” and a school teacher lady facing off against each other. Howie told the two to discuss their strategy. Huh? What are they suppose to say to each other? (I figured out after the show that contestants are suppose to convince each other that their intentions are honorable, and then they’re suppose to screw each other.)
Santa said he and his wife were both retired teachers, and he felt a kinship with his competitor, the teacher. Santa said he felt that God had put them in this situation and to be greedy and steal the other person’s prizes would be a slap in God’s face. The teacher lady said, “I don’t know if I can trust you. You’ve been stealing from me all night.”
So Santa chose the Keep What I’ve Got option ($60,000 cash plus some prizes), and Teacher chose “Take It All” and stole all Santa’s stuff, plus she got $200,000 cash and her prizes. Santa told Howie, “That’s the way the game is played.” Then Santa and the teacher hugged each other. I wouldn’t have hugged her. I was mad!!!
Teacher said she wanted to win money to buy books for her classroom. What an example she set for her students.
I’m still mad.