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Million Second Quiz off to modest start in US

While Australia readies for Million Dollar Minute, in the US they've already upped the ante with Ryan Seacrest.

2013-09-11_0251While Australia readies for Million Dollar Minute on Seven, in the US they’ve already upped the ante with Million Dollar Second, a bold quiz show experiment hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

The NBC quiz involves contestants competing in a giant glass hourglass outdoors in Manhattan, competing for up to $10 million across 1,000,000 seconds, or about eleven and a half days. Pitched as a “TV event” the game continues 24 / 7 where a contestant competes against opponents from the public, either physically or via online with an app, like a marathon tennis match.

NBC is airing one hour edited episodes over the 11 days but the game is streamed online non-stop

The episode averaged 6.5 million viewers but dropped 500,000 viewers in its second half hour, and its demo average matches that of last summer’s ill-fated Stars Earn Stripes. While it beat tennis on CBS and repeats on ABC and FOX, it merely matched NBC’s demo delivery in the hour a week earlier with reality show American Ninja Warrior.

Variety is calling those “soft numbers” so unless it improves it’s not likely we’ll see the idea replicated here, despite the hopes NBC had to make it compelling PVR-proof viewing.

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