Last night I caught ABC’s new game show, Duel. I wish I hadn’t. ABC tried to follow the standard 21st century game show format made popular in the US by Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Unfortunately they failed. The game’s rules are too complicated. I couldn’t just sit down ten minutes into the show and quickly figure out what was going on. 24 contestants in a five-night event is too many. The Duel is also overly dramatic. All of these game shows try to build the tension by cutting to commercial or just drawing out the time before the answer. The Duel really over did it though. The best part of the show was when Denise, one of the contestants, finally broke down and told them to just get on with it already. I had to agree. Duel has the hip darkened set it just didn’t seem laid out very well. They even threw in some models like Deal or No Deal as ‘chip girls’. Mike Greenberg is the host. Greenberg is co-host of ESPN’s “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” a syndicated drive-time radio show covering sports and other subjects. Greenberg has both the looks and personality to host a game show but, whatever talent he has is wasted on Duel. This show probably never would have made it to prime time were it not for the writer’s guild strike. So we can only hope they will be back to work soon.

Check out the rest of our TV Coverage.