Game show 2.0 already sounds buggy

On paper, it sounds like a match made in Hollywood heaven: Reality TV and Web 2.0. That, at least, seems to be the thinking behind the first live interactive game show on TBS.

The good news is that the eight-week experiment is an indication that the television industry is taking some tangible steps toward developing its own interactive entertainment, aside from just doing deals with the likes of YouTube and even peer-to-peer rebel BitTorrent. Yet, at the risk of sounding cynical, we feel compelled to ask the question about the TBS venture: Is this the answer?

The show, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 28, will air at midnight Mondays through Thursdays. "Midnight Money Madness" will feature the participation of online contestants asked to solve trivia questions or solve puzzles, with two hosts in a Los Angeles studio. Call us crazy, but isn't TV about visuals? It's hard to imagine a show like this becoming wildly popular with viewers conditioned to seeing dramatic or outrageous behavior. Even "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" had some visual drama, in the form of profusely perspiring contestants on camera.

The "Madness" format may have succeeded in the U.K., but we're talking about American TV here--home of bug-eating contests, high-speed chases and "Girls Gone Wild." This is the market where TBS is hoping that viewers will sit through two hours of a show that evidently features text messages and faceless voices calling in.

A TBS exec is quoted by Reuters as saying that the show "could be like 'Dialing for Dollars' for the next generation." The last time we saw "Dialing for Dollars," it was on black-and-white RCA tube right after "Leave It to Beaver."

Enough said.