There’s a new (reasonably) new show called “Minute to Win It.” The premise was so delightful, so “I want to do that” that I of course set up a TiVo Season Pass for it.
Basically, contestants have 60 seconds to complete really stupid, yet slightly challenging tasks. And, unlike a lot of shows in this vein, there’s no threat of violence, there’s no crazy embarrassment, there’s no nonsense. Simply: can you empty two tissue boxes, one hand per box in 60 seconds. Or, can you flick a box of raisins from underneath a bottle and keep the bottle standing. Or, can you kick a shoe across the rink onto a table and have it stay there.
Genius. Stupid human tricks. Best show ever. Until you watch it.
So, we already know that each trick lasts 60 seconds. Why then, do we often see only 6 or seven tricks per hour? This show is the single most padded out show in the history of TV. The host, a bleached-blond, spiked-haired tool (who is evidently famous for being on some other show, but I dislike him enough not to find out what), mugs into the camera, stage whispers to us and generally acts like the show is about him. And what makes this worse is that he uses up even more screen time mugging at the camera, being cute and getting in the faces of the contestants.
Each trick is introduced with an amusing blueprint. A British woman (inexplicably) is the narrator who attempts a highfalutin explanation of these common parlor tricks. So, between the intro and the trick, we’re looking at about 90 seconds. Let’s say 44 minutes for the show, that means that over half an hour of the show is this guy talking! (He even talks DURING the tricks!).
True, TiVo allowed us to watch the show in about ten minutes the other night, but the annoyance level of the show so vastly outweighs the (reasonably high) enjoyment, that I had to cancel our season pass. Some things are just not worth putting up with, even to watch someone stack Ding Dongs on his forehead.
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