At this point, William Shatner can do whatever he wants.
If you want proof, watch him break into dance on national television for no apparent reason with 13 scantily clad women while on a platform next to an otherwise normal person who stands a chance to win more than $1 million.
This isn’t a review of “Show Me the Money,” ABC’s new high-stakes game show hosted by Shatner, because the program is a spectacle that defies criticism.
For at least the first half of the show, you’re not sure whether you’re watching a legitimate television program or a “Saturday Night Live”-style spoof of a game show you’d find in a Third World country.
Throughout the second half of the show, you’re not sure why you’re still watching.
But you are, and that’s why this show is not reviewable.
After a sneak preview last week, “Show Me the Money” will premiere in its regular time slot at 8 p.m. Wednesday on KOMO-TV, Channel 4.
“Show Me the Money” follows the basic premise of the many million-dollar-plus game shows that have sprouted since “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” planted the seed more than five years ago.
But “Show Me the Money” plays more like a high-stakes game show with a multiple-personality disorder.
The big payoff provides the foundation for the show, as it does with many others, but the 13 women whose job is it to display the prize amounts borrow from “Deal or No Deal,” though they hold scrolls instead of briefcases.
And it appears that while planning the show, the creators fell asleep, awoke to “Dancing with the Stars” and decided to incorporate that, as well. Shatner and his gal pals, or “Million Dollar Dancers,” as he calls them, occasionally burst into dance at a simple command, such as, “Ladies, let’s salsa!”
The players must answer a series of trivia questions, each one worth an amount of money in one of 12 increments up to $250,000. Players give an answer to each question before they know how much it’s worth. If the answer is right, they gain that money, and if it’s wrong, they lose it. Once the player has answered six questions correctly or six questions incorrectly, he or she walks away with the accumulated winnings. A “killer card” threatens to end the game in an instant.
Rather than take incremental approach to the winnings, as its predecessors have done, “Show Me the Money” can put nearly a half-million dollars in a player’s pot after just two questions.
The dancing has no bearing on the game, but “Show Me the Money” gets some points for recognizing camp and keeping things light. “Millionaire” and its “final answer,” and “Deal or No Deal,” with its ominous “banker” guy, just seem to take themselves too seriously. Perhaps “Money” and Shatner have swung too far in the other direction, but why not have a little fun with folks who are likely to walk out of the studio far richer than they were when they walked in?
He’s William Tiberius Shatner. He can do whatever he wants.
For more TV scoops, check out Victor’s blog at heraldnet.com/blogpopculture.
Victor Balta’s column runs Mondays and Thursdays on the A&E page. Reach him at 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
On TV
“Show Me the Money,” 8 p.m. Wed- nesday, KOMO-TV, Channel 4
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