When word broke last week that NBC had ordered a new reality game show featuring 24/7 competition, a possible $10 million dollar cash prize, and — oh yeah — live broadcasts for 12 consecutive days from “a gigantic hourglass shaped structure in the heart of Manhattan,” where the game’s champions will also live for the duration of the contest, the news was greeted with a collective “Huh?” The Million Second Quiz, frankly, sounded more like a ludicrous, Truman Show-inspired reality show parody than an actual event that will air on network TV this fall.
But according to Paul Telegdy, NBC’s president of alternative and late night programming, the show is actually “mind-blowingly simple when you really lay it out.” And perhaps more importantly, Telegdy swears that The Million Second Quiz will feel more current than the vast majority of today’s popular reality shows — nearly all of which were created before online video and social media had come into wide use. (The exception to that rule? The Voice, “which, lucky enough, is on NBC.”)
