Million Dollar Secret

The biggest flaw of this reality show is that (at least so far through 3 episodes) there is absolutely no incentive to lie or manipulate if you're not the millionaire. This essentially just turns it into X number of contestants against 1 person.

Lying can only be used against you here, as the person who gets the most votes against them is voted out. If the millionaire gets voted out, the money just cycles back to someone else.

Want to stick your neck out and lie about something someone said or did? Well now you've just put suspicion on yourself and, more importantly, accomplished nothing.

If there were reasons for people to lie like extra money, votes, immunity, etc this would be a lot more entertaining. However, with the way it stands the people "making waves" are just putting targets on their own backs and getting themselves voted out.

The best strategy in this game would be to tell people you're the millionaire, and be honest about every piece of information you get. Have to make a smiley face out of your food at dinner to get 3 extra votes? Tell everyone you're going to do it. Why would anyone vote you out right away when you're relaying all the information? Vote people out who question the method, and then mix it up when there's 3-4 people left. I realize the producers would never let this happen, but the fact that it would be the best chance to win is bad design.

I doubt I will revisit this when new episodes drop, but it's not the worst.

This is the most engaging show I've ever watched so far. I finished the whole show just by a night binge watching it. There were so many plot twists in the show and you can't really guess who the millionaire was. The missions in the games were quite interesting. Accomplishing those missions allow the millionaire to have a power in the game and that made the show even more interesting. The host also did a very good job in moderating the show. I just love his voice tone and poker face. His contribution in the show is overwhelming. The production was superb and managed to keep you feel excited for the entire show.

6 episodes in, I'm giving this show a generous 9 stars because it delivers where it matters most: entertainment. It's a fun watch, and I've genuinely enjoyed it.

That said, there are a couple of issues with the game itself.

This is one of those reality shows where the producers seem to have immense power to tip the scales however they like-handing out advantages or disadvantages to players as they see fit.

Want an early millionaire with heat on them to stay in the game? Give them an easy secret agenda with the reward of moving the money. Want a millionaire to go home? Give the winning team a hint that practically spells it out.

Of course, producer interference is par for the course in reality TV-but it's a bit next level here. There have already been a few questionable moments, one in particular that felt especially egregious.

Another flaw in the game design: there's no real incentive for identifying the millionaire early. If the group were 100% sure who it was from the start, they'd actually be better off not voting them out-because all that does is transfer the million to someone else (randomly, supposedly) and reset everyone back to square one. There should be some reward or bonus for correctly voting out the millionaire early-maybe $10K for each person who got it right.

All that aside, it's the kind of guilty pleasure I'm here for. I've enjoyed it a lot so far. Perfect for a lazy weekend binge.

Firstly, to address my main gripe with Million Dollar Secret, I personally think a million dollars is an obscene amount of money to offer as a prize for winning a gameshow that lasts only 8 episodes. If it was just $100K it wouldn't make any difference to the watchability of it and that's still a life-changing sum of money. The issue with stupendous prize money is that you really want someone deserving and likeable to win it, but reality show contestants are very often the opposite, especially after they've been forced to lie and deceive in acts of sheer selfishness in order to win. It hardly endears them to the viewer.

Anyway, with that out of the way I do like the concept. 12 players have a box, but only one contains the cash. At the end of each episode there is a Traitors-esque banishment in which the players try to eliminate the current 'millionaire' in order to randomly shift the cash to another persons box (preferably their own!).

Along the way there are games and challenges with a chance of rewards and secrets for those who win, to help them either follow the money or hang on to it.

On the whole I'm enjoying it, it's entertaining and it fills a gap until the next season of The Traitors!

Some say this is just a "shameless version" of the traitors but some haven't seen the traitors obviously, because this show has its own charm!

For one person to have the million dollars and have to keep that secret throughout awhile completing agendas in plain sight is awesome!!

Also another thing people complain about the traitors for is its only celebrities only, this show has your average joe and they're likeable actually!

And the host is charming and pretty awesome and he's likeable..

Overall this is a great fresh idea and it's only 3 episodes so far but it's great and has so much potential to become its own yearly show like the traitors..

Give it a try and don't let critics sway your mind before watching.