Confessions of a Gameshow Addict

Hi.  I'm B.E. and I'm addicted to gameshows.  

I probably need an intervention or something, but Hubs is an enabler.  (Psst... he watches them, too.)  And I'm not hurting anyone.  I rationalize it by telling myself I'm keeping my brain active, but let's face it... Other than MasterMinds, I'm really not exercising the brain cells.  I mean, Deal or No Deal has no mental value.  The contestant picks cases, for petesakes.  

I remember watching gameshows as a small child, so I guess you could say that The Price is Right and Let's Make a Deal were my gateway drugs.  Mom watched, so I watched.  Later, I got hooked on Jeopardy! so I was in front of the TV every night at 7 watching Alex and the contestants.  

For a while in high school, I was a participant of sorts.  It was called Quiz Bowl and then they changed the name to High School Challenge.  Teams of trivia buffs from high schools all over the area would compete on TV (PBS, so nothing network and no big fame there).  I made captain of the team my Junior year - the previous captain graduated and there was no one else to take over.  

There was a time there when I was too busy to watch gameshows.  I was working, I was a mom, I had things going on in my life.  I dabbled a little after I retired, but I was busy with homeschooling and my writing.  Then we moved here and I spent more time watching.  I got off the shows entirely while I was back to work, but since then, I've been slowly getting more and more hooked on them.

I start at 10am with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  After that, it's Deal or No Deal.  Then old reruns of Match Game.  (I will NEVER watch the new one.  Alec Baldwin makes me nauseous.)  After that, I take a break because I'm not a big fan of the newer Wheel of Fortune episodes.  Later, I'll pick back up again with shows like MasterMinds, Split Second, Switch, and Chain Reaction.  Then I stop until the next day.  

I really could be getting a lot more done if I didn't watch these things.  Oh, I do occasionally get some editing done on commercial breaks, but that's sporadic.  Maybe today I'll do something else.  But then I wouldn't get to see how far that guy made it on that show.  Or how silly the contestants are on the other ones.  It's a vicious cycle of addiction.