Short-lived

The previous entry discussed a list of top game shows. So I went looking for other lists on the game show Interwebs, and found this one. Only it's an offbeat collection: "Your 10 favorite game shows that lasted less than one year."

Like so many other game show lists on the Internet, this one OD's on the '70s and '80s. All but one of the ten shows come from those often pined-for decades.

To be blunt, the only one of the listed formats that I really like is Now You See It, an interesting word game. And I prefer the Jack Narz original from the seventies. (Narz's version lasted a little over a year and thus doesn't qualify for the list.) Instead, the poster gives the Chuck Henry version from 1989.

Looking over my top-50 list from a few years ago, I see only four shows - okay, there are two versions of one format - that would qualify. Greed (1999-2000), Lane Chain Reaction (2006-07), Catherwood Chain Reaction (2015-16), and Power of 10 (2007-08).

Greed may be the best all-round of these shows, though my personal favorite is Mike Catherwood's Chain Reaction. I thought this final version (so far) of the venerable format got everything right: host, bonus round, contestants. Sadly, GSN's audience disagreed. The forty eps came and went. Meanwhile, the network is still grinding through reruns of Dylan Lane's version.

At any rate, I prefer all four of the shows to anything on the original poster's list.

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