Master Minds

I can't believe how good she is. For several reasons. She rapid fire shoots the questions. I've seen the shows that must miss her because half the time to answer was taken by the question. Brooke deserves another Emmy!

This fast paced trivia contest is one of the best in this genre. Hosted by the beautiful and talented Brooke Burns, the show has three contestants vie against each other while three trivia experts simultaneously compete against each other.

The two highest scoring contestants face off to determine who wins $1,000 and the chance to play against the highest scoring expert. The final competition pits the contestant against the expert for $10,000.

One thing that makes this so watchable is the way they switch up the game play each round. Also, the questions are both challenging and interesting.

The experts are unquestioningly among the best. Any contestant who wins the $10,000 has accomplished something noteworthy.

This is my favorite by far. It misses a 10 for only one reason. The Masters continuous comments. First at the start the arrogant comments. And the long explanations of the correct answer. Some are brief and enlightening. Ken does a good job at that.

Yes, the show offers high-quality, not-dumbed-down trivia in three rounds. Host Brooke Burns does a good job during the timed round of spitting out the questions rapid-fire (Leah Remini from "People Puzzler" should take some lessons from her) and mostly avoids telling contestants who soil themselves what a great job they did, a common malady among GSN hosts.

The final, head-to-head round really does feel shady, though. So often, it comes down to the final question, and nearly invariably, the Master Mind gets it right and the challenger gets it wrong. Over and over and over.

Oh, and the part at the beginning when one of the Master Minds trash-talks the contestants -- lose that. It's forced and it sucks.

I'm perplexed by the ability of the Master Minds to "just happen" to have an extra trivia remark after some answers. Is it merely a coincidence that they know extra info about these particular questions and can just toss it out there? It sounds very scripted to me, which would indicate prior coaching about these answers. ??? Otherwise, I love this show!