TV Review: The Million Second Quiz

By Nathan Young on September 10, 2013

Last night, NBC premiered The Million Second Quiz hosted by Ryan Seacrest. The concept of the game is simple, one person gets to sit in the money chair in a giant three-story hourglass in the middle of New York City. This person earns $10 a second just for sitting in the chair. And for the gentlemen sitting in the money chair last night during the show, he was earning a couple thousand dollars for just having Ryan Seacrest talking and for the commercial breaks. Not a bad gig!

First off, the rules were not explained very well and many people were complaining on social media about the show. There were only three battles during the one hour show, if Ryan Seacrest limited his talking, there could have been enough time to do another battle. I mean, each battle only is 300 seconds long. There was enough time to do another battle. I liked how the local NBC station KSL-TV in Salt Lake City surprised a line jumper to be flown to New York City overnight to be on the show which will be seen tonight. But the interviews with the four contestants in winners row lasted way too long, and Ryan Seacrest spent way too much time talking to the contestants instead of revealing the questions.

NBC is putting a lot of money and hope in The Million Second Quiz. It’s been four decades since the last live quiz show aired on broadcast television in the United States. NBC is wanting to copy the successes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on ABC. That show averaged 20-30 million viewers per episode when it was on the air. Last night, the ratings were 1.7 18-49 rating with 6.52 million viewers. That is not even close to Millionaire.

So, the battle rounds were interesting. There are 300 seconds and both contestants answers trivia questions which were way too easy in my opinion. Some of the questions were based off of current events from the last 24 hours, how are the people in the money chair or secluded in winners row going to know them? The most confusing part of the show was the doubler, which doubled the possible points for answering a question. I thought the unlimited use of the doubler was crazy, and there should be a limit to the doubler.

Four people are secluded in winners row where they play the game, get watched by people online, eat, and even sleep until someone earns more in the money chair than they did. The four people still in winners row when the clock hits zero, plus the person in the money chair at that time, are guaranteed to cash in their earnings and they also then compete for a jackpot prize of at least another $2 million. But how can people even qualify if the app to the game is not working correctly? So far, many people on social media have complained about the app not working correctly, that needs to change!

The show featured way too much hoopla in my opinion. For night two of The Million Second Quiz, I hope we can see less talking from Ryan Seacrest and more gameplay! I also think the questions needs to be a little harder. We will get to see The Million Second Quiz on NBC for the next few nights, the question is will we see The Million Second Quiz in 2014 or will the show fade away into the TV graveyard? Only time will tell.

Learn more about The Million Second Quiz and play the game at: http://www.nbc.com/million-second-quiz