March 16, 2007

Regis the Genius

Many argue that Regis Philbin is one of the most talented television show hosts that has stepped in front of a camera, and not many of us will contest I certainly won't. He began, not unlike many young broadcasters, taking all the jobs he could get. He started out as he has ended up, as a morning talk show host in Los Angeles, California. However, many of my generation remember Regis vividly as host of (along with Live With Regis and Kelly) Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

This show was a hit when it first hit the air. The prospect of a John Doe winning a million dollars was entertaining for all the regular John Doe's out there in TV-land watching and aspiring to be the next millionaire. The show - which aired weekly in prime time - selected participants through a grueling screening process because it only want the best of the best. The question on the show began with easy, warm-up type questions and were followed by extremely difficult question which made the participant earn his million dollars. When a participant was eliminated (or in the rare cases, won) the next participant (out of those invited after being screened) was selected by answer the skill testing question live in the shortest amount of time. The process to become a participant did in fact seem grueling, that's more that I can say for the new Regis-less Who Wants to be a Millionaire that airs daily on day-time television, which I saw today.

Now hosted by Emmy-award winning television personality and journalist, Meridith Vierra, the show - in my opinion - definitely depicts through its contestant selection and contestants that it really does not compare at all to what it used to be. The quality of the contests has severely diminished, there are no longer several contestants around the "hot seat" waiting to answer the skill-testing question the fastest to get in the hot seat. This is probably because since Regis left and the show was no longer watched, the 'best' contestants stopped applying. I think that they probably don't get enough 'smart' contestants who apply to the show, so they take who they can get. In the new show once one contestant leaves, the other just walks on to the show after being pre-selected before the show.

Fine, I may be jumping to conclusion when I say that the quality of contests may be lower and that the number of applicants has also diminished, just because the format has changed. But what else could explain the following? While I was watching the show today, a contestant was posed the following question: What is the total number of wheels/tires in the following group of vehicles: 3 unicycles, 2 bicycles, 3 tricycles?

The contestant was baffled. She had no idea what the answer could be, so she asked the audience. 99% of the audience answered C: 16 wheels.

Are you kidding me? That is ridiculous. Who doesn't know how many wheels a unicycle has? Or a bicycle? Or a tricycle? Besides it being common sense, it is also stated blatantly in the names of the vehicles! I don't think anyone should sit there and tell me that the contestants are as bright as they used to be, because obviously they aren't. Credit to this lady, she won $1000. It's just sad to see a show that used to be so good, now be so bad.

I guess all you who contest that Regis Philbin is one of the most skilled at what he does can be proud, because without Regis Who Wants to be a Millionaire - in less than millionaire language - sucks.

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