Last night, ABC wrapped up the first season of 500 Questions, their new primetime game show. How did it do in the ratings? Is it a slam-dunk to be renewed for a second season or, will it certainly be cancelled instead?
Hosted by Richard Quest, 500 Questions lets some adult geniuses try to answer 500 very difficult general knowledge questions and win lots of cash — without answering three in a row incorrectly.
Airing over the course of seven evenings, the series debuted on May 20th to a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 5.058 million viewers. It wasn’t a great start, even for a summer series.
The numbers dropped over the seven episodes but didn’t dip below four million. They averaged a 1.04 demo rating with 4.79 million.
Looking at the numbers, there’s really no reason for ABC to renew 500 Questions for a second season. It surely didn’t attract much attention as an “event”. Still, there is a chance that the network will bring it back for another short run, filling a gap in their schedule. It didn’t cost ABC much to make and it did maintain its (small) viewership numbers as people begin to cut back on their television viewing in the warmer months.
But, what do you think? Do you like the 500 Questions series? Cancel or keep it?
one of the best quiz shows ever! 7 nights is hardly enough for people to know it is on. please consider renewing it for another season and then make the determination as to whether to continue
i thought it was a great show and hope it come back. You can learn a lot. Keep it going.
I enjoyed it. “Keep it”!!!!!
Did not care for it – probably would never watch it again
KEEP IT!!!!!!!!!!! I LIKED THE SHOW!! I LOVE RICHARD QUEST, AND WAS UPSET THAT THE ONLY TIME I SAW HIM WAS ON CNN WHEN THERE WAS A TERRIBLE PLANE CRASH!!!
As a concept, I like it. But, there’s a lot of problems… The sound they play when a contestant gets all of the answers for a battle or a top 10 still sounds like they got it wrong. Get rid of the host. If he’s not yelling at me, he’s growling at me. The man needs a Ricola. He was the wrong choice anyways. When they did Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, part of the reason it worked is because Regis was already so popular here. Should have done that this time around as well… They could’ve picked Jon… Read more »
Keep it. I loved the show and I learned a lot, too!
My wife & I enjoyed the show. I too felt bad for the challengers who had to kind of sit back and watch. Perhaps a Battle Challenge where they switch places with a loss? We hope it comes back.
Keep it!! I really enjoyed it!!
I think it needs some tweaking because the challengers seem to be quite knowledgable but are at an extreme disadvantage. I would have liked for several of them to have had the opportunity to move on…..
Please bring it back! I really enjoyed watching this show! I liked the host too, he’s very entertaining.
I grew to like it enough to want a second season. Needs tweaking. The “genius” stuff was overdone, as was the banter. Challengers need a slightly larger presence.
KEEP IT!!!!!!!
Keep it, but please, change the format, the way the questions pop-up on the screen is frustrating, first in unreadable text on the side ad then in OK letters in the center, make it uniform and easy to read. The other beef I have is some answers cannot be understood, I do not know whether that can be corrected.I liked the show, but do not quite understand what it is with the second person standing around until the main person has to leave, I feel sorry for the second persons as they put in all the efforts but don’t get… Read more »
As a game show fan, where you actually have to know something, I enjoyed the show. It would better, though, if the challenger played a bigger role in the game. I say keep it and possibly tweak the game to have the challenger more involved.
I keep hearing that the challenger needs to be more involved…Can you be specific in what way?
Maybe they could have the challenger answer the questions the contestant misses and if they answer three right it counts as a wrong against the contestant