Is **any** major TV network CHINTZIER than **NBC** has become *since* "Friends" ended?

Question

In the last several episodes of "Friends," NBC paid the key *seven* actors ***one million dollars EACH... per EPISODE!*** That's **7 million dollars a week**, just for the performances! Not counting all of the *other* production costs associated with the show! And that was a few years ago, so a million dollars isn't worth quite as much today as it was back then. That network was spending BIG bucks on a mere HALF-hour-long show!

Fast-forward to today. We have the possibility of a contestant winning a million dollars on "1 vs. 100" -- but ONLY if he can get questions right until ALL 100 members of the "Mob" have missed them. Like THAT's ever gonna happen!

If you know the mechanism by which "Deal or No Deal" works, you know, too, that NO one will ever win a million dollars *there*, either -- unless they start having cases routinely containing more than a million dollars.

And "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" OBVIOUSLY accepts people who score *average* at best on their test.

I don't think *any* contestant has EVER won a million dollars on the daytime "Millionare" show. I'll be amazed if anyone ever does!

So HOW in the world can a HUGE network like NBC have become so ludicrously and abysmally CHEAP?!?

(And... just for the record, the other of the "Big Four" broadcast networks aren't much better at it! It's just NBC's "Friends" example that simply shows so well what NBC *can* be doing... and isn't!)

Answer 1

"Friends" was a huge hit. [I thought it ghastly, but that's beside the point here.] Since it was a huge hit, NBC could charge significantly more for commercials.

These icky and tacky game shows aren't generating nearly the same profits. Simple economics.

Besides, making it so difficult to win a million dollars is what gives these shows what little suspense they have. If someone won the grand prize weekly, people would stop tuning in after a short while.

Answer 2

Those current game shows are all rigged, anyway. The cases on "Deal" can have multiple amounts; the models open them and peek inside to make sure the numbers have stopped moving.

At least NBC has Heroes and its spin-off for now.