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I don't know if anyone in America watched this or not but I let it steal an hour of my time. Basically this show is American idle for mentalism with Criss Angel and Uri Gellar as the hosts.

The episode showed four "mentalists" if you can call them that. The first performed a descent PK touch routine, which I found humorous because Banachek is an adviser or Criss.

Next was a guy who stuck his hand in a fox trap, mentalism at its best...

Then there was a Russian Roulette routine a la Derren Brown (but instead of a gun he used six different nail guns) This guy was alright but not believable enough.

The last was a telephone book test which was the most interesting of all of the effects mainly because he made it seem extremely fair. I found that the test also borrowed from Derren in the newspaper test he does in his stage show (edited)

Overall I was pretty unimpressed with the "best mentalist that we could find."

This is my two cents worth....

What number do we dial to vote Criss off the show?

At least Uri is acting like he's having fun and enjoying the demonstrations (though it's obvious that he's heavily scripted). Angel is just being a punk... I about died from laughter when he was talking about how big a perfectionist he is on things... Steve Baker can tell you some wonderful stories on that point and how Criss didn't listen to him, etc.

All in all my opinions are as follows;

Over All, the show was better than I'd expected.

The Twist to PK Touches was cute but as was pointed out, it could have been much more had the performer taken some time to get coached and "choreographed" a bit.

The Bear Trap Routine SUCKED! Though the guy has great energy for a side show worker or street busker, the way he presented the bear trap more or less proved it was FAKED in some manner... very underwhelming!

Nail-Gun Roulette... novel but horrid... I can't say anything more than that.

The Phone Number Routine was ok... I expected more in that he's done this on major Tv before (within the past year) and as Uri said, he really "telegraphed" what was going to happen 30 seconds into the bit. There was no suspense or mystery, just lots of "look at me, I'm wonderful"

Uri's routine was exceptionally weak and in my mind, kind of backfired on him in that the numbers were very low compared to where they normally lay on that kind of routine... in order for it to seem "miraculous" he needed way over 30% (like closer to 40%) to create an impression on most folks now days.... I did like the props he used though... very cool.

I hope things improve but I fear things are moving in exactly the direction I'd predicted (I must be psychic).

All I can say is that I found the first episode to be sorely disappointing.
I could say more, but I won't.

I enjoyed it. It's not something that rocked my world. But I had fun with it.

THIS JUST IN... Thanks to Tony Blake of the Mentalists Alliance...
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Hollywood Reporter:

Phenomenon -- Bottom Line: Extrasensory mumbo-jumbo that plays like "American Idol" on hallucinogens.

By Ray Richmond

Oct 26, 2007 * 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24 * NBC

As if we didn't have quite enough self-flagellating cheese in primetime, now we get this spiritually inert NBC exercise in extrasensory mumbo-jumbo that plays like "American Idol" on hallucinogens.

Mentalists, mystifiers and "paranormalists" (there's a new one) take to the stage in this live series to convince three particularly lame celebrity assistants, a pair of supernatural professionals and a skeptical America that they are the real mental deal. Whoever is most successful at winning over voters at home -- permitted to cast 10 ballots apiece if they wish -- will take away a grand prize of $250,000 and the title of "next great mentalist." I think an imaginary trophy is also part of the package.

Of the four competitors on Night 1 of "Phenomenon," one was impressive in a "Wow, he's really insane!" kinda way, and the other three were more annoying than anything else.

With the Welsh-born host, Tim Vincent, tapping the proper momentous vibe in tandem with a darkened stage bathed in surrealistic hues, the show's rotating cast of C-list celebrity guest helpers included Carmen Electra, Rachel Hunter and the insipidly flamboyant Ross "Ross the Intern" Mathews, with spoon-bender Uri Geller and cool dude Criss Angel (host of A&E's "Mindfreak") assessing the relative abilities of the participants. Those competitors in¬cluded a guy who planted the idea of being touched into a blindfolded Electra's mind, another who snared his fingers in a deer trap while proclaiming to feel no pain, a third who performed a phone book number trick and a fourth who successfully played Russian roulette with six nail guns pointed one by one at his temple. Only the latter was truly convincing. The others spoke really loudly and moved about the stage frantically, unwittingly impersonating children with ADD.

If there is one thing we can take away from "Phenomenon," however, it's the drilled-home understanding that under no circumstances should we ever try any of this at home. In fact, we shouldn't even watch it. Consider me utterly convinced. But we'd best get used to it. Once the WGA goes on strike, this is likely to be about as good as it gets.

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Daily Variety:

Phenomenon (Series -- NBC, Wed. Oct. 24, 8 p.m.)

By BRIAN LOWRY

Produced in Los Angeles by Granada America/Keshet Broadcasting/Kuperman Prods. in association with SevenOne International.
Host: Tim Vincent.
Experts: Uri Geller, Criss Angel

In a way, "Phenomenon" inaugurates the Ben Silverman era at NBC, drawing from the new entertainment chief's bag of tricks as an agent and producer -- a proven international format (in this case from Israel) with a sensational-sounding hook and the edginess of live TV. Too bad that the series itself amounts to little more than "Last Magician Standing" -- just another talent contest, only with mentalists/illusionists vying to make their competition disappear. Premiere ratings were respectable but far from living up to the title.

Mentalist Uri Geller and magician Criss Angel serve as "experts," but they're poorly cast for the task at hand. Angel, harsher in judging the performers, struggles to articulate his opinions, while Geller seems wowed by just about anything. In that regard, unfortunately, he took a back seat to "Access Hollywood's" Tim Vincent, who was so giddily enthusiastic ("spellbinding!" he exclaimed at one point) that on the one contestant both panned, Vincent scored it a split decision.

Only four of the 10 hopefuls performed Wednesday, with the remainder to get their chance next week during a two-hour Halloween episode. For the most part, the initial acts were strictly the small room at the Magic Castle, although NBC and the producers labored to drum up suspense with the eerie music and "Do Not Attempt This At Any Time" warnings.

Actually, to borrow from the Darwin Awards philosophy, anybody dumb enough to shoot himself in the head with a nail gun after seeing it on TV might not belong in the gene pool.

Along with the performances (garnished, needlessly, with B-list celebrity guests like Carmen Electra and "Tonight Show" intern Ross Mathews) and tedious back-story introductions, the show also threw in an old Geller favorite, albeit with an Internet-age twist. Staring into the camera, the mentalist sought to project one of five symbols into the heads of viewers at home. When the online voting breakdown came back at 28% for his choice -- barely topping the second-place finisher at 27% -- it was hard not to think that if Geller were competing, he'd be among the first to get gonged.

NBC has done a creditable job promoting the show on its sci-fi-heavy lineup, and there has been a marginal network-sized audience in the past for the likes of David Blaine and David Copperfield. Yet in terms of fascination level, "Phenomenon" lags well behind the polished star of "Mind Control With Derren Brown" on NBC Universal's sister Sci Fi Channel, and as Fox's "The Next Great American Band" demonstrated, expecting a substantial audience for tired wrinkles on talent searches is, at this juncture, a helluva lot to ask.

Of course, if Geller's still all that, maybe he can project his thoughts into the ether and convince a few million more impressionable souls to tune in for the show's duration. If not, NBC will be reminded that in TV, it doesn't require any magic to go up in smoke.

Executive producers, Suzy Lamb, Michael Agbabian, Dwight Smith; supervising producer, Melanie Balac; line producer, Tim Gaydos; director, Alan Carter; set design, Anton Goss. Running Time: 60 MIN.


It's obvious that NBC, the producers and NBC's new chief of programming Ben Silverman woke up on Thursday to a headache on their hands... I doubt if they'll be able to turn it around and save the show -- right now the word on the street is that this will be a write-off, it may be shut down quickly if next weeks ratings don't improve (it won't, they'll drop) and that this will put a huge ding in magic/mentalism being on the small screen for some time to come (this not really being the fault of the performers but of the producers and minds behind this train-wreck)... already Angel and Geller are out there back-spinning because they know this is a dog of a show... but look at the bright side -- this'll be Gerry's second failure on NBC...

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I think this says it all!

Why don't they cancel American Idol instead? I'd rather watch a show that features mentalists, as crappy as they are, than watch cheesy wannabe pop artists. I just love watching magicians/mentalists do their thing.

Sargin.Pepper wrote:Why don't they cancel American Idol instead? I'd rather watch a show that features mentalists, as crappy as they are, than watch cheesy wannabe pop artists. I just love watching magicians/mentalists do their thing.

I can half-way agree to that, sadly though music makes investors more money than any form of magic