Just say no.

Like most people, I enjoy America's new pastime, Game Shows.

I don't watch any one show in particular, nor do I watch specific shows on specific nights. I catch the occasional show here or there, like Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Deal or No Deal, Identity and 1 vs. 100 (For those who read this blog that are younger than 30 or do not have kids, Identity and 1 vs. 100 are on on Friday nights and yes there are television shows on Friday nights). I usually watch game shows when there is nothing else worth watching.

Like any average person I sometimes get sucked into the show. Whether it is the host, the contestant, or the questions and dynamic of the game, I become part of the show. I answer the questions out loud so my wife will realize that I am not smarter than a 5th grader. I play the whole "I would have taken the deal at $157,000." And I also find myself calling people idiots when they get questions, that I consider easy, wrong.

The only problem I have with these new types of prime time game shows is the way they break for commercials. They let the questions build up, they work the contestestants into having to make a decision to either take the money or continue, the build up the suspense and then the host of the show says something like, "We'll find out...right after this." The studio audience moans and they cut to a commercial.

I have no issues with commercials. They are the way television works. My issue is the fact that the shows actually try to act like they are NOT going to cut to a commerical when everyone, the contestant, the audience and the viewers at home, know they are cutting to a commercial. I find this somewhat insulting to my intelligence. Why put on the act when eveyone knows there will be a commercial? Why build the suspense? Why does the host smile and wink at the camera like he is playing a practical joke on everyone? Again, I find it insulting. They don't do this on Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune. Bob Barker never stopped Plinko in mid-game to keep the audience on the edge of their seat.

Now, whenever I watch one of the new game shows and they work the cheesy-suspense-commercial break into the show I change the channel and I tell myself I don't want to know what happens. I won't watch the commercial. It's my way of, kind of, telling the game show people I am not a rube. I am not to be played. That I don't want my 4th grade intelligence insulted anymore.