Television's Downfall Review

The other day, Tuesday I think, was the series premiere of the new evening game show Downfall.  Hosted by wrestling superstar (and, as far as I am concerned legend) Chris Jericho, the premise is that the contestants must answer a series of trivia questions in an allotted time to ensure that they win the cash and prizes.  Seems like a typical concept, right?  Well, the difference that this show tries to have is that it takes place on top of a building, and the prizes and cash are on a conveyor belt that will drop the goods over the edge if the contestant doesn't answer in time.  Here is a trailer of the show:



After watching an hour of this show, I came to a few conclusions.  1.  There is really no originality in shows anymore. This show is really no different from Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, The Weakest Link, Dog Eat Dog, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader, or Deal or No Deal.  2. Can't people do things to win prizes other than answering pointless trivia?  3.  Holy Crap!  Does America live in that much excess that it needs to develop a show where prizes (fake or not) need to be dropped of a building and destroyed, just for shear pleasure?  I don't care if the cash is fake, or the cars aren't really the actual car, there is a lot of money that is pumped into these fake prizes just to destroy them.  It is really disgusting.

Now, why did I want to watch this show in the first place?  Well, to tell you the truth, I got really excited for this show one I found out that Chris Jericho was the host.  I am a big Jericho fan.  I loved him when he said things like "Welcome to Monday Night Jericho."  I loved him when he became J2J, the "Ayatollah of Rock n' Rolla" when "Raw was Jericho."  The man is/was great on the mic, he knew how to get a crowd going, and he had great comedic timing (which is a rare thing, you can imagine, in the wrestling business.  Below is a clip of Jericho with the Rock (another legend):



Find it funny or not (I certainly do) this stuff was entertaining, in the height of the WWE Attitude area.  And now there is Chris Jericho, leaving his wrestling roots and branching out into another type of "reality" TV.  I kind of feel embarrassed for him for choosing such a ludicrous show to host.  Downfall was horrible.  I can't imagine that this show will be picked up for another season.  But hey, I could be wrong and it could suddenly become a big hit.  It wouldn't be the first time that a show that makes absolutely no sense to become popular (The Bachelor(ette), Hole in the Wall...)

-d