'You Deserve It,'
no you don't
New ABC short-run game show has a few novel twists
By Tom Conroy
Nov 17, 2011
Summer isn’t the only dead zone in network TV programming. As the November sweeps wind down, the broadcasters turn to reruns, old Christmas specials and, in recent years, unpromising reality shows. When the midseason replacement series finally debut in January, they feel like the flowers of spring.
In that holiday tradition, ABC is premiering a six-episode game show called “You Deserve It.” While not quite a turkey, it seems unlikely to replicate the surprise success of “Deal or No Deal” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” The format is novel but not involving, and the main twist — that the contestants are actually playing on behalf of someone else — actually reduces the suspense.
In the premiere episode, airing in a choice time slot, Monday, Nov. 21, at 9:01 p.m., right after the final performance episode of this season of “Dancing With the Stars,” a woman named Stacey plays on behalf of her best friend, Michelle, a recently widowed mother of two. A brief but moving segment discusses the women’s friendship and how Michelle’s husband died.
Having given us such an emotional stake in the outcome, the producers might have considered making the show’s rules simpler. Of course, after more than six decades of TV quiz shows, it’s not easy to come up with a new format.
The contestants go through five rounds, which have payoffs that rise from $10,000 to $250,000. But after getting one free clue to the answer, they have to “buy” clues, which have been randomly assigned a different cash value. Each purchase reduces the prize by the equivalent amount.
In the first round, Stacey goes through $7,400 of the possible $10,000 before guessing correctly. Most viewers will probably have figured out the answer long before she does, but since she’s playing for someone else, it’s hard to be too critical.
The producers probably decided it would seem cruel to take back winnings from a person in need, so the contestants get to keep and pass on to their beneficiary whatever cash they gain per round. This kindhearted rule removes one of the biggest sources of suspense on most game shows: the possibility that even as the total earnings rise, the contestant can go bust.
The host, Chris Harrison of “Bachelor” fame, keeps things moving smoothly and blandly. The show could probably stand a little sarcasm when Stacey is being particularly slow on the uptake.
In her defense, the clues are deliberately misleading, in the manner of hard crossword-puzzle clues. In the first round, the first two clues are “made up” and “noble name,” which probably won’t lead anyone to guess Lady Gaga. A couple of the clues will remain mysterious to many viewers even after the answer is revealed. The host could help explain what, for example, “meat dress” means.
It might have been fun to observe Michelle watching the action in the studio, perhaps in a traditional isolation booth so she couldn’t shout out the answers. But “You Deserve It” tries to make us believe that as the game is being played, Michelle is sitting in a movie theater with her children, completely unaware that something is up.
The actress and TV hostess Brooke Burns (to be confused with Brooke Burke, the hostess of “Dancing With the Stars”) is supposedly standing by in the theater lobby with Michelle’s friends and family members. After Stacey has finished playing, Brooke and company walk into the theater and tell Michelle to look at the screen, where she sees a message from Stacey that is meant to seem live but was evidently prerecorded.
If a show is going to mess with our emotions, the details shouldn’t be faked. Don’t we deserve that?
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