Grand Slam

i mentioned it briefly on the podcast this week (episode 49), but in case you didn't listen to the show, Grand Slam premiered this weekend on the game show network, with an episode on saturday and one on sunday. and it is great.

for those of you unfamiliar with the show. it is the trivia show of all trivia shows. importing the format over from the u.k. the show has brought together 16 of the biggest winners from various games shows (Jeopardy, Millionaire, Lingo, Win Ben Stien's Money, Tic-Tac-Dough, Weakest Link, etc...) to compete to see who is the greatest game show/trivia contestant around.

i thought the premise sounded great, but was really worried that it would end up being lame. thankfully that isn't the case. the format is great, with contestants going up against each other head-to-head in a tournament style elimination setting (i like the stage, the big screens, the standing in front of each other set-up...). but, rather then explaine how it looks and feels just check out this clip from the finals of the u.k. version from 2003 - also notice how incredible these guys are.

anyway, the first few rounds that aired this past weekend were lots of fun and yes ken jennings made it through without much of a problem.

amanda byram co-hosts the show with dennis miller. she is hot and holds her own with dennis and his millerisms. much of the time it feels like he is isn't saying much besides trying to find a way to make another arcane reference, but they are usually funny and the time spent with the hosts before getting back to the game is short and thankfully doesn't go on past its due point before we get right back to the action.

if you missed this wekends episodes, don't worry. there is still a lot of grand slammin' to go and new episodes air every saturday and sunday so just chekc it out this weekend coming up.

the pace is great, the format is good and any trivia and gameshow fan will definitely want to check out Grand Slam.

grade: A