Monopoly Millionaires Club is one of the least interesting game shows I have ever seen. It involves no skill whatsoever while making its contestants, selected from lottery winners, play slightly altered versions of the same game over and over again. It offers nothing to maintain the viewers' interest.
In a thinly adapted version of the board game Monopoly, contestants – who get on the show by winning a lottery game of the same title – are selected from the studio audience to play a game. Although each contestant plays a different titled game, in the end they all boil down to the same thing. Contestants have to choose from various options, whether they be keys to a lock or limousines full of guests to fill hotel rooms, in order to reach a certain limit and get $100,000. The games are effectively a gamble, with the contestant having to choose whether to risk choosing the wrong option and losing all the money or settling for a smaller amount and splitting with the audience.
The games seem intrinsically designed to protect the producers from making a large pay out. The pressure is on the contestant to settle for a lower amount, as not only their own money is at stake, but also payments to everyone in their section of the audience, creating an element of peer pressure. Screw up, and you cheat not only yourself but the people sitting next to you. Even if you win the big prize, you are likely to lose it if you go for the million dollar payout at the end of the game.
Furthermore, the games' basis in chance diminishes the interest of the show. If you look at the really successful game shows such as Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, they tend to have an element of skill, with the contestants' knowledge or ability to solve puzzles determining whether they win. Here, it all goes down to blind luck, with the odds heavily stacked by the producers. The show is further hindered by its extremely loud host and production design, which rob it of the charm of more successful shows.
Ultimately, this program is nothing more than an hour long advertisement for the lottery game of the same title. They even go so far as to feature short segments with lottery winners at a local studio playing games for smaller prizes. Not coincidentally, all the contestants in these segments came from the viewing area of the station I was watching it on, as if to drill into our minds that we too should buy a ticket.
