Game show week wraps up with its third day:

CAMOUFLAGE is the newest game show from the brains behind GSN, formerly known as The Game Show Network. Hosted by Roger Lodge — longtime host of such shows as TALK SOUP and various dating shows and a game show or two, also — the show is a quick-paced clever word game that requires a bit of smarts, intuition, and wits to win.

The basic formula is this: a string of letters appears on the board. They happen to form a series of nonsensically-strung-together words. A clue is provided leading the three contestants to a word hidden inside those letters, in order. As time goes by, letters drop off the board and the point value for the correct answer likewise drops, until the word is revealed on the board. Three rounds are played, with the point values and the difficulty level increasing.

For example, the board might show PAIDLEAVES. If the clue is “Bright ones are hard to come by,” the answer would be IDEAS. (That’s based on a real board on a recent show, but isn’t exactly the same thing. My memory isn’t that good.) The closest thing I can relate this show to is another game show of yore from a fellow GNS host, Chuck Woolery. It’s very SCRABBLE-esque, in the way the clues are phrased to lead you to one obvious answer that’s completely wrong. A clue about “the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker” wasn’t about a fairy tale, but about the yellow pages, for example.

I like these kinds of shows. I like playing with words. I like the clever twists. It’s a real mental workout, particularly as the words get longer. You start seeking out letter combinations in the board to anticipate words that might be part of the real answer in later rounds, which can have three or more words in the solution.

It’s a fun game, though the scoring leaves something to be desired. There’s almost no penalty for not scoring any points early on. In fact, you could answer one clue correctly in the final round and wind up the overall winner, if the timing worked out. (They have “Double Camouflages,” where the contestant wins a chance to double the points for the clue by answering a follow-up clue.) They should consider eliminating the third place contestant after the second round. Make the remaining two contestants have a more interesting battle of the wits in the last round.

The winner proceeds to a final round that reminds me of LINGO, also. It’s a lightning round. In 45 seconds, the contestant must answer as many camouflages as possible. For each one they get right, they drop one letter off the final camouflage. The final camouflage gives them ten seconds to solve the puzzle for a $5000 top prize.

Yeah, not big money. But this is GSN. $5000 seems to be the cap in their budget.

Lodge does a good job in moving the show along, but doesn’t add much. It’s a fast game. He gets you in, keeps the game moving, and doesn’t spend time trying to be witty. He’ll explain answers after their obvious sometimes, but I imagine they’re not obvious to everyone. Who am I to judge?

This one is interesting to me and will have me hooked soon. . .

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 7:02 am and is filed under TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.