The right way to enjoy a game show
Game shows are a staple of American television viewing (really, human television viewing I believe, but then I don’t really watch TV in not-America). Whether it’s a basic game show like Wheel of Fortune, a complicated thing like Chopped, or even a reality show like American Idol, game shows are sports for non-sports fans.
Maybe you watch them. Maybe you don’t. But today, I’m here to offer up the most absolutely freeing way to watch reality television. If you start doing this, you will have so much more fun watching these shows than you ever thought possible:
Root for everyone to lose.
Game shows are not the culmination of a life’s work. In some instances, they can be a shortcut or an advantage to getting where you need to be, but this isn’t pro sports. You aren’t watching the one single thing these people have been preparing for their entire lives. On top of that, game shows are all gravy. It’s all profit. There are no game shows where the losers have their bank accounts mined for extra losses (that would be a financial Hunger Games, and it would be amazing in a whole different way).
So the worst thing that can happen when you’re on a game show is you go back to the life you already lead. If you lose on Wheel of Fortune, well, you lost on Wheel. If you lose on Jeopardy, well, just by being there you’re already a crazy smart person and we all know that. Even a show where you are competing in your chosen vocation or aspiration — Chopped or American Idol or whatever — that in and of itself is not the culmination of a life’s work. It’s a way to capitalize on what you’re good at — in something like American Idol, it’s a way to shortcut yourself to the top — but it’s not a football player losing in the Super Bowl.
There are no stakes. You are completely free to root against whoever you want for whatever reason you want without being a jerk or a bad person.
The best show for this? Deal or No Deal. Seeing someone with one shot left at big bucks and multiple tiny suitcase values pass up on a deal, open a suitcase, and lose any chance at big money? Seeing their dreams of extravagant, unnecessary riches dashed? It is the absolute funniest thing in the world.
But that’s not all. We watched Chopped Junior one time, and there was a little boy on there who wanted to be a chef, but he was clearly very smart, and he kept going on about how his parents wanted him to be a brain surgeon. Kid had talent oozing out of his nostrils. So when he got knocked out on the entrée (I think?) round, I laughed and said “What a loser! Now you have to go be a doctor!” My wife was aghast. But come on. A, the kid obviously couldn’t hear me, and B, that kid is going to be a massive success in life. So he lost on a game show? Who the heck cares?
It is absolutely freeing. On Wheel of Fortune, you can solve the puzzle and feel superior to the dummies. On Jeopardy, it feels good to get the answers right. You know what feels better? Getting them right when the geniuses don’t. Everyone knows the best American Idol episodes ever were the early-season ones when Simon had some bad singer to mock. Once you got the William Hungs out of the way it was just a bunch of attractive people who were decent singers. What’s fun in that?
Again, though, Deal or No Deal is the cream of the crop here. Not only do you get to watch contestants’ dreams of riches dashed, you get to watch those dreams dashed in front of all their loved ones, often due to the loved ones’ advice. “Oh no, Debbie thought she was gonna win a million bucks, and now her best hope is to take a deal for $61.” That face is amazing.
And again, lest you think I’m evil, the worst that can happen on a show is that you leave exactly as wealthy (or not) as you came on. And because game shows predominantly make you pay your way to the show to compete, there is no one destitute on a game show. They aren’t going out to the street to pick up broke homeless folks to compete for big money. (That show would be evil.)
Watch game shows and root for failure. It is utterly freeing, and you’ll never have more fun.
(Postscript: I’m writing this Thursday night while Laurie and I watch Top Chef. And I found a new wrinkle to this fun game: Pretaping. The first-place prize on the episode was a trip for two to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics … you know, the canceled games. The reason for the cancellation is obviously an awful one, but watching six of the best chefs in the world going on at length about how cool it might be to go to the Olympics and how badly they want to win the prize knowing that the prize will vanish? Oh my god that was amazing. Highly recommended.)