Million Dollar Money Drop

"Million Dollar Money Drop" was a disappointment. They made a lot of common mistakes. I like good game shows. Lousy game shows are offensive.

One mistake is "Edit the show so it fits in an hour." Suppose it's 9:58. You know that the players get that question wrong, because there isn't enough time to play another question. Suppose it's 9:50. You know that the players get the question right, because there's time for another question. Really, they should "wrap" the episodes. An unfinished game carries over to the next show.

If they always edit the show to fit in an hour, that ruins it, when there's only a few minutes left. "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" wraps games. The first season of "Deal or no Deal" wrapped games, but later versions didn't.

Another mistake is "too much talking and not enough game". They play less than 7 questions per hour. That's way too slow. Most modern game shows have too much dead time. Do you really need to tease the contestants on *EVERY* question with a slow reveal? I'd like to see a show that's mostly focused on the game.

Another mistake is "player vs. house" and not "player vs. player". Most "classic" game shows featured mostly "player vs. player" competition, with "player vs. house" only occurring in the bonus game. I'd like to see more player vs. player competition.

Another mistake is "The grand prize must always be $1 million." In 1999, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" had a grand prize of $1M. Since then, it seems mandatory for every show to have a grand prize of $1M. If you adjust for inflation, $1M in 2010 is a lot less than $1M in 1999.

I'd much rather see a good game, than have a $1M grand prize. For example, they could have played "The $100k Money Drop" and made the show move 4x faster. That would have been a better show. There's no point having a $1M grand prize if the game is boring.

I wonder if they adjust the difficulty of the questions, based on how well you're doing? Do they give you easy questions if you already lost most of your money? Do they give a hard question if you still have a lot of money left?

"Million Dollar Money Drop" is mediocre execution of a decent idea. They shouldn't always edit the game to fit in an hour. They should move the game faster. I'd rather see a good game, than a $1M grand prize.

"Million Dollar Money Drop" illustrates a defect in State media programming. Everyone's trying to copy "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" I'd rather see something really original, than a clone of an already-successful show. If you're a clueless media executive, a clone of an already-successful show is less risky than doing something original. Nobody gets fired for copying. If you try something original and it flops, then you do risk being fired. Therefore, every executive is copying past successes rather than trying something original.