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During the prime-time broadcasts, local NBC personalities will arrive at the door of a person playing online somewhere in the country and send them to New York where they will play on TV the next night. The game continues even when not on TV, and is designed to test speed and endurance. A player's goal is to stay in the "money chair," where the number of seconds they control the game corresponds to a cash prize. The chamber for top players includes cots and televisions because some of the quiz questions are plucked from the day's headlines. Even though she'd never seen the game yet, one woman from Orlando, Fla., flew to New York to apply and waited outside the NBC Experience store all night, Hurwitz said. "We've seen a different kind of contestant than we've seen in years past on different shows," said the former "Fear Factor" producer. "They're enthusiastic to be on TV and go for it, but they're also an intelligent group." The event is timed for a two-week fallow period for television before the introduction of new fall programming and, if it works, will give NBC a platform to promote those shows. NBC isn't talking publicly about expectations. Telegdy would say only that he'd like to beat NBC's ratings for the same time slots a year ago, which seems relatively easy. His real hopes may been expressed in a conversation with the architect who helped turn an idea into the tons of steel and flashing lights rising into the sky of Manhattan's West Side. "I said, 'You're spending an awful lot of money. I do hope we're going to use this thing several times over,'" he recalled.
If it does work, "The Million Second Quiz" will appear again as a special event, not a regular series. The design of the game
-- the million seconds -- locks that format in, Telegdy said. Success could also mean a potential conflict for Seacrest, who has a well-known TV commitment that sucks up his time during the winter and spring. "I haven't even crossed that bridge yet," he said. ___ Online:
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