America Says premiered on the Game Show Network in the summer of 2018 and the delightful and always entertaining game/quiz show is currently in its fifth season. It has become a huge hit for GSN and its distributor Sony. Fortunately, the show is now a mainstay on GSN. America Says is hosted by John Michael Higgins. Higgins is certainly one of the most talented and downright wittiest of people in all of television and film. Higgins has appeared in dozens of television series in both starring and guest-starring roles, along with many roles in feature films and of course, he is well employed by major advertisers.
By nature, I am not a game show/quiz show watcher, but I thoroughly enjoy watching this series which pits two teams against one another in attempting to figure out the answers to a particular question. Admittedly, some of the questions are far easier than others, so one team at times seems highly disadvantaged, but that is the nature of the proverbial beast. Also, in the final round the questions often seem way too difficult for the average team (well, most of the teams are average) and why after five seasons is the grand prize still sitting at $15,000? Okay, so I've criticized the series, but I actually enjoy the series and set it on the DVR for all new episodes. Oh, one more criticism before I return to applauding the series. If you don't win the $15,000 you get stuck with a $1000 victory for four people. I'm not quite sure it is worth going on for a split of $250 per player.
Back to the merits of the series. I stopped watching Jeopardy after Alex Trebeck passed away. I managed to view a few of the early guest hosts and I gave up completely after the Aaron Rodgers (quarterback of the Green Bay Packers who had at one point won a celebrity Jeopardy) run. I stopped watching because I thought Rodgers was a perfect host and I knew he wasn't coming back. Obviously, he is a future Hall of Fame NFL player who was about to sign one of the largest athlete deals in history, but his talent on the field meant we weren't going to get him as a host of Jeopardy.
After much fanfare of who would be named the permanent host (quasi scandals included), the powers that be selected the historic Jeopardy champion, Ken Jennings. Jennings clearly has a mind filled with lots of information, but he is as dull as the dirt that surrounds the marigold plants in the garden. He's a knowledge based wunderkind, but he is not a host of any show, let alone the legendary Jeopardy. The current executive producer of the series is Michael Davies. In fairness, I once worked with Michael Davies and Davies is a delightful and smart guy. If I were at Sony, I'd give him a shot at hosting Jeopardy.
This takes me back to America Says. America Says is not a mind bending think tank like Jeopardy (even though Jeopardy used to be a much more difficult show to win than it is today); and it is not like you need to be a brainiac, but you have to have a mind stored with lots of information to win and you better be kind of/sort of charming while doing it.
America Says is one of the more entertaining diversions in a television landscape filled with 560 series per year. Imagine that. All of that television and most of it is awful. I watch some high brow series, some news, some nature shows and a few films here and there, but I DVR America Says and I am thoroughly entertained.
John Michael Higgins should have been selected to host Jeopardy. He's smart, witty, clever, quick and wildly entertaining.
Copyright The Flaming Nose 2022
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