Quiz shows

Did you watch the new quiz show The Power of 10 last night?

In case you missed it, the premise is that the contestant can win up to $10,000,000 by guessing what percentage of people answered silly questions in the given ways. The first time you guess correctly, you win $1,000. The next time they raise it by the power of 10 to $10,000, but the range in which you can be correct is lowered. For example, for $10,000, you have a range of 30%. Say you quess 12% - 42%. You win $10,000 if the correct answer is anywhere in that range.

With each question the range gets smaller and smaller while the amount of money you can win gets larger and larger. To win $1,000,000 you have a range of 10%, pretty narrow, but to win $10,000,000 you have to be exactly correct. (Do you think anybody would be fool enough to risk $1,000,000 with those odds?)

The contestant was a very pleasant, nice looking, likeable, 19 year old man who was trying to get enough money to go to med school. Everybody was rooting for him to win. And he did win - $1,000,000! (Contestant quote: "I didn't have enough money to buy gas, now I can buy a car!")

I swear the host, Drew Carey, seemed more excited than the contestant. (I think he was genuinely pleased for the contestant - I've seen Carey's sitcom so I'm pretty sure he's not that good an actor.)

I don't think the show will be a big hit. It doesn't have any catchy phrases like "Come on down!", "I'd like to buy a vowel.", "I want to use a lifeline." "Good answer!".