Business

It’s a highly-rated, exciting TV show where acknowledged experts compete in a head-to-head challenge on a playing field that changes with each new competition, but in the end, only one can be the victor. 

Top Shot?

Nope, Iron Chef. 

The producers on Top Shot (and other shooting shows) could learn a lot from Iron Chef’s success, but number one on the list is how to use expert commentary to make an otherwise obscure procedure approachable to the average viewer. 

For example, even though I’m the cook for my family (and not a bad one at that), I’ll never cook like an contestant on Iron Chef, but I still learn things from watching the show like how to quickly prepare a whole fish or how to improve my knife skills. 

This hasn’t happened with Top Shot (yet). Yes, it’s brought in viewers (quite a lot, in fact), but those viewers haven’t been able to appreciate just how spectacular JJ was on the dueling tree in the last episode of Season One or how hard it is to make a 300 yard shot under time pressure.

Colby hasn’t done this, and more to the point, he can’t do it, he just doesn’t know what technique and skills are involved (Memo to Pilgrim TV: Bring back Iain and have him do it).

Ideally, the resident expert on Top Shot would be like the colour analyst in a sports broadcast: Someone who expands the knowledge of the viewers and makes them want to get more into the game. 

Spoiler-free. 

If Sig Sauer, Glock, S+W, et al aren’t burning up the phone lines to get their products on this show, they’re morons. Over two million people watch this show each week, I’d be willing to bet that doesn’t amount to an entire season’s audience for any other shooting show on TV.

Did anyone besides me notice that aside from a Gander Mountain spot or two, there was a complete lack of shooting-related ads? Whether or not that’s because of History Channel’s rates or the fact that nobody know what the ratings would be before it aired, I don’t know. And Gander Mountain’s spots were wasted on me out here in Arizona: I don’t think there’s a store of theirs within a thousand miles of me.

No more TZ-99/SVT-40/whatintheheckisTHATgundoingontheshow: Stick with what people actually own, please. (And shoot CZ’s all the time instead of Berettas and TZ-99’s. But that’s just me.  )

They really need to split up the teams better at the start. Blue team dominated the competitions because top-to-bottom they had more shooters who had shot under the pressure of competition.

Caleb’s already got a deal due, in part, to his being on the show, and if I were Iain, Chris, JJ, Pete or Kelly, I’d look to capitalize on my fifteen minutes as much as I could with endorsements, personal appearances and speaking out in favour of worthwhile causes.

Let’s face it, the drama llama brings in viewers. The producers did it right: They started out with the personalities to give us the faces and heels, and then moved on to the shooting so we could root for our heroes and jeer our villians.

Shotguns! Shotguns were used in only one elimination round competition, far too infrequently for how popular they are. Maybe mix in some trap, skeet or clays in the next series.

The show needs a “resident expert”, someone to set up each shot and explain the possible strategies the competitors might use, something like role Dr. Hattori had on the original Iron Chef. For instance, casual viewers might not know why JJ used the sling on his rife last night, and they need to explain why he would want to use it, and how.

And one more thing to make the show more fun – Two words: Full auto.

Spoilers, of course.