The Million Dollar Word Game

The Million Dollar Word Game is a Canadian game show that aired on the low-powered and obscure America One network in 1999. It ran for 40 episodes, and tried to cash in on the success of mh:besttvshows:Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) Ian Jamieson is a very dull host, who flirts with female contestants too often, and simply laughs every time he can’t come up with something. It should also be noted that he was also the executive producer, and music co-scorer.
 * 2) *His dull hosting made Cyndi Seidelman from Game Show Garbage apologize to a few of her previous targets (such as Patrick Wayne and Pat Bullard), before drawing the line at Rick Schwartz from The Chamber.
 * 3) Poor set. All it consists of is a wall with the show’s name on it, two cheap-looking boards, two podiums that also look cheap, and the lighting and effects.
 * 4) Generic music.
 * 5) Dull, public access atmosphere.
 * 6) Had a very low budget with 80s-level production values. For example, they apparently couldn’t afford to show a countdown clock on screen. Obviously they couldn’t even afford to give away $10,000, let alone $1,000,000.
 * 7) Bad graphics for 1999.
 * 8) Contestants also rarely made it to the higher levels to begin with.
 * 9) An online version had a tournament for $10,000,000, but each entrant had to pay $100 to enter and the winner had to go to the Caribbean to claim the prize. That is an outright scam.

Videos
Game Show Garbage’s review, along with the available episode.

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Trivia

 * In the above episode, Ian boasts that the next round of tapings would add a top prize of $5,000,000. Later on, he announces a tournament between the United States and Canada. Said tapings and tournament never happened.