As someone who isn't from the US, this show is honestly one of the most American and most 2008 shows I have ever seen.
Password is a format which is light, humorous and comfortable, and doesn't need to be jazzed up into a million-dollar extravaganza. That is, sadly, what CBS got so wrong about this show. It's understandable why they wanted to do it, but it all felt like a failed experiment.
This version of the format got taken all over the world, complete with the darkened set, continuous boasting of the prize fund ("30 000 Euro Password"?) and was surprisingly successful. Putting aside the very American setup, that's why this version of Password was so much stronger: it's played for fun with lower stakes, and these versions lasted longer than the primetime spectaculars.
The brashness of Million Dollar Password might be good fun for Americans, but if it wanted to stand up outside of primetime or seem appealing internationally, it needed to tone the US trademarks down quite a lot.
Password is a format which is light, humorous and comfortable, and doesn't need to be jazzed up into a million-dollar extravaganza. That is, sadly, what CBS got so wrong about this show. It's understandable why they wanted to do it, but it all felt like a failed experiment.
This version of the format got taken all over the world, complete with the darkened set, continuous boasting of the prize fund ("30 000 Euro Password"?) and was surprisingly successful. Putting aside the very American setup, that's why this version of Password was so much stronger: it's played for fun with lower stakes, and these versions lasted longer than the primetime spectaculars.
The brashness of Million Dollar Password might be good fun for Americans, but if it wanted to stand up outside of primetime or seem appealing internationally, it needed to tone the US trademarks down quite a lot.