Television has produced some pretty heart warming shows that provide inspiration for viewers to make a difference in the world. From a community coming together to help build shelter for the deserving to overweight contestants being guided to lose weight and become the person they once were or so longed to be. ABC welcomes yet another game show to television that attempts to do the same. That game is You Deserve It.

Contestants on the show are there to win money, but not for themselves. The money they win will go to the person they feel deserves it the most and in this first episode that person is the contestants mother, Alice (For the sake of not murdering Alice’s last name we’ll simply call her Alice). Alice moved to South Central Los Angeles and turned her home into a shelter with her husband. The two of them expanded their program from their local church offering food to needy families and whatever else they could do to help. After the death of her husband Alice worked hard to keep the program up and running, even at the expense of her own home, which she eventually lost. Her daughter is the latest contestant trying to give something back to her mother. A woman that has helped so many.

After the first round of the show I had pretty much made my up my opinion about You Deserve It. The show, right down to its hosts Chris Harrison (The Bachelor) and Brooke Burns (Baywatch), has a very generic feel to it. I couldn’t help but think that it felt like some kind of insincere Frankenstein’s monster put together from left over pieces of other shows, minus the enthusiasm of the other shows audience, players, and hosts. Something just feels off kilter about it. The actual game itself also seemed to be a bit blah. Your given a vague description, a large chunk of change, and then you can either guess or pick numbers off the side of the board to reveal clues, but at a cost to your total amount which is unknown until you pick them. They can range very high or very low. This aspect seemed very Deal or No Deal to me. The clues are pretty vague as well and as the show rolled on I found it hard to understand how the contestant came to their conclusions about the answer to their puzzle. Maybe you just have to be lucky. In any case without much audience participation or enthusiasm by Chris Harrison it just felt very blah. Finally the reveal of the show, where Brooke Burns and camera crew bust in on the individual that will receive the money, felt very stiff, very uncomfortable. I know that the show is supposed to be unscripted but this particular episode seemed like its reveal could have used some prep work for the sake of not allowing it to be so awkward.

The show, which has a six episode run during the holidays, just seems like a filler show that I can’t see getting aired or renewed again. It could be that this one episode is just the bad apple in the bunch but then again, when I look at the show’s set up, I can’t help but feel that this is as good as its going to get, and that just isn’t good enough. Its heart is in the right place but its execution just feels poorly handled. As always final judgment is yours.