7 other game shows that Watson should be on

I want to see Watson get slimed on 'Double Dare'

By Keith Shaw on Wed, 02/16/11 - 4:35pm.

Sure, it’s real easy for all of the braniacs to get excited about IBM’s Watson supercomputer destroying all humans in a game of Jeopardy – that’s the ultimate in knowledge, quick wits and thinking. But with the excitement around this event, I think IBM’s engineers should go the extra step and start putting Watson on other game shows. Trivia games like Jeopardy and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” would be a piece of cake for old Watson, but we think it might have some difficulty with some other classic shows. Here’s a list of shows I want to see Watson compete on:

Watson tries to play Plinko

The Price is Right: Sure, Watson would be able to get off Contestant’s Row rather quickly, since he would know the exact retail price for most products. But would he piss off the other contestants by bidding $1 more dollar than the previous bidder? Would he go the “One dollar, Drew” route if he was the last bidder, knowing that everyone else went too high?

When Watson got up to the pricing games, I think his vast knowledge of pricing would be work well on some games (like Lucky Sevens), but some of the more physical games could be a challenge. Watson might have a tough time handling a Plinko chip, and it wouldn’t do very well with Hole in One – no arms make for difficult putting. And spinning the Showcase Showdown wheel could prove Watson’s undoing. Still, it might be interesting to see how Watson reacts when the announcer says, “You’re playing for a new car!!!!”

Match Game: Back in the '70s, Match Game was the BEST game show on TV, not for the gameplay, but for the double entendres and joke answers given by the celebrity panelists. If Watson truly understood natural language, would he be able to match Brett Somers to the question, “George said, ‘I just ran into a lady with the biggest (BLANKS) I ever saw”?

Double Dare: The kids’ game show on Nickelodeon in the ‘80s and ‘90s often featured Beat-the-Clock like challenges for contestants (the “physical challenge” if contestants didn’t know the answers). It also involved a lot of slime, which I think would be dangerous to Watson’s supercomputing processor parts.

The Hollywood Squares: Watson is probably very good at Tic Tac Toe (or Tic-Tac-Dough!), but would he be able to figure out if center square Paul Lynde was bluffing or not? I agree. George Gobel for the win, indeed.

To Tell the Truth: For that matter, how would Watson do on a show like To Tell the Truth, where the goal for contestants is to try to fool a panel of celebrities? Could Watson detect truths and lies?

The Dating Game: “Bachelor number 3, what kind of ice cream topping would you be?” Watson: “I would be hot hot hot fudge”. Ummm, probably not.

The Gong Show: Watson’s brainpower is impressive, but he’s no Gene Gene the Dancing Machine.