Take It All

"Take It All" was another "big money" prime time supergame, with the promise of spectacular prizes, cash and ultimate trips to fantastic places.

Hosted by "Deal or No Deal" emcee Howie Mandel, this game also involved opening boxes. Contestants battled each other in a high stakes Yankee Swap/White Elephant game, where someone opened a box to find a prize. The next contestant could grab that prize or open a new box, hoping to find something more valuable. At the end of the round the contestants with the prizes worth the most got to continue. The low prize holder was out.

The end of the game was the most controversial. The two contestants who made it to the final round, each with presumably fantastic cars, trips and money could choose to "Keep Mine" or "Take It All." If both players chose "Keep Mine," both players went home with their collection of gifts. If both chose "Take It All," they both left with nothing. But if one chose to "Keep" while the other chose to "Take," the "taker" got everything, while the "keeper" left with nothing. This was especially harrowing when one contestant begged another to split their winnings, that she simply wanted to take her goodies and be happy, before they made their decision. Then, when the results were revealed, she had convinced her opponent to say "Keep Mine" while she picked "Take It All!"

The one tweak that should have been included in this final portion of the game was a simple one, and really an obvious one. If you believe your opponent plans to steal your prizes by saying "Take It All," there should have been an option to say "Block," which would mean that the defender would get all the prizes for blocking the attempt to steal. However, if the opponent said "Keep Mine," when you selected "block" you would sacrifice all your prizes to the opponent.

Having an option like that would have made the decision to choose much more of a psychological issue, more of a powerful circumstance and would have been fairer to both contestants as far as giving each a reasonable chance.

Shameful. A Long, slow, painful way for the sleazy sneering host to get gullible people to trade their souls and character for a handful of trinkets. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn't exist. If you can watch this show without feeling dirty inside you should join Howie Mandel on his crusade to shovel the final handful of dirt on NBC. They almost deserve the derision for signing this shark jumping game show to their schedule. Mr Mandel is the luckiest man on television, but even for the hard of thinking this show has to be a tax on his popularity. Save yourself the misery of knowing this show cost you an hour of your life you'll never get back and watch paint dry as a better alternative.

I am generally not a fan of game shows that encourage contestants to bring out the worst in themselves, and after watching two episodes of this trash earlier this week, I'd say it most certainly falls into that insidiously horrendous category.

The show I'm referring to in particular is the one mentioned by another reviewer - the one with Destiny, the law student who wound up completely playing her fellow finalist by gaining his trust and then betraying that trust and taking everything from him. Afterwards she hid behind the guise of 'hey, that's how you play the game and I play to win.'

This morally corrupt person will get nothing but negative energy from her ill-gotten gains because they became hers through blatant and vile manipulation and greed. As the other reviewer said, her behavior left a bad taste in my mouth along with a heartsick feeling. If a game show host - in this case the shameless Howie Mandel- tells you it's okay to kill someone, say, does that override a person's own moral compass, or does the game show's endorsement of said behavior actually make it okay? Apparently, to Destiny, it did. All I can say about this wretched excuse for a human being is that she will most definitely make an excellent lawyer.