NBC’s recent struggles have been well documented by everyone from us to Jay Leno, so it’s not exactly surprising that they’d try to do something big and splashy to pull people’s eyeballs away from the zombie murder and glorified high school talent competitions that currently dominate the ratings. But this… this is something. The network announced today that it has ordered The Million Second Quiz, a live, 12-day, interactive quiz show that sounds like something Jack Donaghy would have paired with Bitch Hunter.
The competition will center on contestants as they battle each other over trivia questions for 12 consecutive days and nights. The show will exist online, as well as on live primetime episodes that will take place from a “gigantic hourglass-shaped structure” somewhere in Manhattan. It’s there that the four players who have remained in the game the longest will actually live and continue to play — 24 hours a day, or risk being eliminated from the primetime show. […]
“The Million Second Quiz is a genre-redefining spectacle,” he says. “It embraces technology’s ability to allow everyone in America to actively participate and compete in a way that has never been done.”
Viewers will be able to play along at home and win a chance at appearing on the primetime show. Local NBC stations will also sync to the game, live throughout the day. [TV Guide]
Okay, two things:
1) That thing I just said about this sounding like a fake show from 30 Rock? Strike that. Staging a two week battle of wits that culminates with four finalists being forced to live in a giant hourglass in the middle of Manhattan sounds more like something a psychotic billionaire would do in a movie set 200 years in the future. Like, one that starts with people lining up for miles to earn a spot on the show and ends with a leather-jacket-wearing hero named Max Colorado driving his motorcycle through the hourglass to free the imprisoned contestants. (The billionaire is named Victor Von Mercury and will be played by Christopher Walken.)
Point being, I’m not saying NBC is going to wait until the contestants are locked inside the hourglass to announce that home viewers will be allowed to vote on whether they’re thrown into a pool filled with sharks upon being eliminated, I’m just saying it’s too soon to rule it out.
2) This is going to be a huge hit and I am going to be furious about it.
Image via Shutterstock
