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Reviews
People Puzzler (2021)
Really dumb contestants
Crossword is a pretty solid format for a game show but this one screws it up.
For starters, it's a commercial for vapid celebrity-worshipping People magazine so you know it isn't going to be "Jeopardy!" going in, but where do they get these people as contestants? An endless parade of ditzes who are completely stumped by anything that happened before 2015 or so. (One contestant didn't know Elvis is called "the King." No, really.)
Leah needs to read the clues faster in the timed rounds. And for the love of God, when a contestant in the finals finishes 5 or 6 clues short of winning, please stop saying "You were soooooooo close!" It is like nails on a chalkboard.
Master Minds (2020)
Agree about the endings
Yes, the show offers high-quality, not-dumbed-down trivia in three rounds. Host Brooke Burns does a good job during the timed round of spitting out the questions rapid-fire (Leah Remini from "People Puzzler" should take some lessons from her) and mostly avoids telling contestants who soil themselves what a great job they did, a common malady among GSN hosts.
The final, head-to-head round really does feel shady, though. So often, it comes down to the final question, and nearly invariably, the Master Mind gets it right and the challenger gets it wrong. Over and over and over.
Oh, and the part at the beginning when one of the Master Minds trash-talks the contestants -- lose that. It's forced and it sucks.