500 Questions [POSSIBLE SPOILERS]

[Rackme32]

I agree that 500 Questions is far from perfect and that the host is rather lame...

BUT... It's a quiz show on network television, and that by itself is a good thing.

I'll take a flawed game over some lame unreality show about a family of left-handed bigoted midgets with bad breath, or "The Bachelorette Goes to Madagascar And Marries A Lemur And Tupac Shakur Appears In A Hologram During The Ceremony And Sings "Close To You", Rap Style", or whatever other crap a network might otherwise come up with...

Go get 'em Megan!

[rouquinne]

Socksygen is the name of my Sock Hop Tom Lehrer cover band.

I don't know why this popped into my head, but I heard something else...

Love is like socksygen
You get too much you get knee-high
Not enough and you're gonna sigh
Love gets you high

Poetry is obviously NOT my forte!

[Lampy]

I also liked the "very learned" bit.

I was hoping she'd follow it up with "He's in a league of his own." or some such.

Darn it, why didn't I think of that! They did edit out the little "I see what you did there!" move Steve did after I said it.

They have really edited out so much, but they did a great job keeping the kernels of what made Megan such a fun person to be up there with.

[harrumph]

So we had two boardies looking at the answers and seeing the name of another boardie.

[Rex Kramer]

I also liked the "very learned" bit.

I was hoping she'd follow it up with "He's in a league of his own." or some such.

Darn it, why didn't I think of that! They did edit out the little "I see what you did there!" move Steve did after I said it.

They have really edited out so much, but they did a great job keeping the kernels of what made Megan such a fun person to be up there with.

Except America does not get to see Megan "Shake It Off", which was the highlight of the entire taping week.

Rex

[Rafferty Barnes]

Except America does not get to see Megan "Shake It Off", which was the highlight of the entire taping week. Rex

It will just have to live on in your memory forever, Rexy! Meeting Rex Kramer after so many years of enjoying his posts here was definitely a highlight of MY week. There's not many people who can be as witty off the cuff as they are online, but he sounds exactly the same in person.

I was so sleep-deprived on this show. My body never reset to Pacific time, so I woke up at 3:30 a.m. every day. But I wasn't as exhausted as Lampy, who by this point has been up there for the equivalent of a 7-day champion on Jeopardy!

[Lampy]

Except America does not get to see Megan "Shake It Off", which was the highlight of the entire taping week. Rex

This was indeed amazing. I was worried she would single handedly take the crowd away from me.

[bengland]

I was so sleep-deprived on this show. My body never reset to Pacific time, so I woke up at 3:30 a.m. every day. But I wasn't as exhausted as Lampy, who by this point has been up there for the equivalent of a 7-day champion on Jeopardy!

I thought he was looking rather punchy toward the end of last night's show.

[MarkBarrett]

From Marc Berman's "Media Insider" mailing:

ABC led this Memorial Day Monday with a first-place finish in the household overnights in each of the six half-hours care of another telecast of game show “500 Questions” (3.7 rating/6 share from 8-9 p.m.) and summer mainstay “The Bachelorette” (3.8/ 6 from 9-11 p.m.). Comparably, “500 Questions” matched its series-opener on Wednesday, May 20th, and that translated into a respectable 5.06 million viewers and a 1.2 rating/5 share among adults 18-49, based on the Live + Same Day data. Chances are we will be seeing more of “500 Questions” past the initial seven consecutive episodes (nine nights in total, including two repeats).

[OrangeSAM]

Nailed stumpers: ...Vitava River > Prague...

Complicating the Vltava River (note spelling) > Prague question just a little is that the river is also known by its German name, the Moldau.

[nosnivel]

Long time lurker (on and off over the years), long time watcher (yes, since the earliest Art Fleming days).

Claims to fame -

1. Took the in person text (same time as Doug Molitor) in 1979. Did not pass. Very sad.
2. Did get on the call list for a different show. Show was cancelled before I was called.
3. Helped Alex buy a computer when he was shopping at my favorite independent computer store and I happened to be there at the same time.
4. I am related to somebody who is in the over $100,000 winnings club.
5. I don't know a lot, but when I do know something, I am always surprised that "everybody doesn't know that."

Just popping my head up to say that I watched this show and while I find parts of it enjoyable my complaints echo many of those stated here (number of questions, too much forced unfunny banter, trying to create a catch phrase that is simply not working, etc.)

But then I came here to see what y'all thought, and now I have to watch the show so I can enjoy the Forum commentary!

[Lampy]

Nailed stumpers: ...Vitava River > Prague...

Complicating the Vltava River (note spelling) > Prague question just a little is that the river is also known by its German name, the Moldau.

Or for me, knowing the Vltava river and thinking it says Vistula and never rereading. Guh.

[VoluptuousLoser]

From Marc Berman's "Media Insider" mailing:

ABC led this Memorial Day Monday with a first-place finish in the household overnights in each of the six half-hours care of another telecast of game show “500 Questions” (3.7 rating/6 share from 8-9 p.m.) and summer mainstay “The Bachelorette” (3.8/ 6 from 9-11 p.m.). Comparably, “500 Questions” matched its series-opener on Wednesday, May 20th, and that translated into a respectable 5.06 million viewers and a 1.2 rating/5 share among adults 18-49, based on the Live + Same Day data. Chances are we will be seeing more of “500 Questions” past the initial seven consecutive episodes (nine nights in total, including two repeats).

According to two different sources I looked at, ABC was actually third in total viewers from 8 to 9 p.m., and second among viewers age 18-49. NBC's "American Ninja Warrior" led the time slot with 5.89 million viewers, CBS's repeats of "2 Broke Girls" and "Mike and Molly" were second with 5.25 million, and "500 Questions" was just behind in third with 5.22 million. Among viewers age 18-49, ABC (1.1) was second behind NBC (1.6).

Here are the night-by-night ratings, and some information for comparison:

Night 4 ratings:

Total audience: 5.22 million viewers (3rd in time period)
18-49 rating/share: 1.1/4 (2nd in time period)

Total audience:

Night 1 (Wed.): 5.06M
Night 2 (Thu.): 4.59M
Night 3 (Fri.): 4.02M
Night 4 (Mon.): 5.22M

MSQ audience (for comparison):

Night 1 (Mon.): 6.52M
Night 2 (Tue.): 5.83M
Night 3 (Wed.): 5.17M
Night 4 (Thu.): 4.16M

[OrangeSAM]

Nailed stumpers: ...Vitava River > Prague...

Complicating the Vltava River (note spelling) > Prague question just a little is that the river is also known by its German name, the Moldau.

Or for me, knowing the Vltava river and thinking it says Vistula and never rereading. Guh.

Ouch!

Mrs OS and I high-fived when that question came up, having visited Prague two years ago.

[alietr]

Or for me, knowing the Vltava river and thinking it says Vistula and never rereading. Guh.

Misreading it was more costly for than it was for me. (I did say Bratislava with a backup answer of Prague.)

[legendneverdies]

-

1. Took the in person text (same time as Doug Molitor) in 1979. Did not pass. Very sad.
2. Did get on the call list for a different show. Show was cancelled before I was called.

I guess you auditioned for the short lived J! revival, which taped its last show sometime in early-mid February 1979(aired on 3/2, but there were references to late Jan 1979 events in a few clues). WHat show would you have gotten on the call list for around this time that ended in 1979 or 1980? $20K Pyramid? Whew? Mindreaders? High Rollers? CHain Reaction?

[nosnivel]

-

1. Took the in person text (same time as Doug Molitor) in 1979. Did not pass. Very sad.
2. Did get on the call list for a different show. Show was cancelled before I was called.

I guess you auditioned for the short lived J! revival, which taped its last show sometime in early-mid February 1979(aired on 3/2, but there were references to late Jan 1979 events in a few clues). WHat show would you have gotten on the call list for around this time that ended in 1979 or 1980? $20K Pyramid? Whew? Mindreaders? High Rollers? CHain Reaction?

---------------------

Wow. That was a very long time ago. for years I remembered the name of the show. My recollection, now that I think about it some more, is that the show never made it to air. I was asked/told to try out when I was attending a Tic Tac Dough / Jokers Wild interview.

The show, if I remember correctly, had some form of increasing values for each correct response. I wish I remembered more about it. I was so excited when I got the call, and so disappointed when I heard the show was never going to happen.

I was young. I was fairly well educated, but only 19 so how much could I really know? More then about some things, but far less than I do now about other things.

I had the "game show bug" for awhile, but wanted only to do shows where one could win cash. Had no interest in paying taxes on prizes I didn't want or need.

Had an uncle who got a group of us together to try out for "Family Feud." He fed me a "backstory" he felt would sell well and he chose an odd group of folks from our family. I am REALLY glad we didn't make it on that show, I have to admit!

[triviawayne]

-

1. Took the in person text (same time as Doug Molitor) in 1979. Did not pass. Very sad.
2. Did get on the call list for a different show. Show was cancelled before I was called.

I guess you auditioned for the short lived J! revival, which taped its last show sometime in early-mid February 1979(aired on 3/2, but there were references to late Jan 1979 events in a few clues). WHat show would you have gotten on the call list for around this time that ended in 1979 or 1980? $20K Pyramid? Whew? Mindreaders? High Rollers? CHain Reaction?

Bowling for Dollars? :p

[legendneverdies]

Wow. That was a very long time ago. for years I remembered the name of the show. My recollection, now that I think about it some more, is that the show never made it to air. I was asked/told to try out when I was attending a Tic Tac Dough / Jokers Wild interview.

Barry and Enright had Play the Percentages and Bullseye make it to air around the late 70s-early 80s timeframe. Decisions Decisions was one unsold pilot they did that is on Youtube. Assuming this was a Barry and Enright show.

[legendneverdies]

TOnights 500Q will be up against the return of 5th Grader on FOX at 8PM EST. If it's like the original FOx run, as BUzzerblog's Twitter warns, it will be 11 questions for the whole hour. THursday's two hour 8-10PM EST finale of 500Q will be up against ESPN's coverage of the National SPelling Bee finals.