Camouflage Review

Camouflage is GSN's new original. It is easily the best original GSN has put on in five years. The basic conceit is that you have a string of letters, with the answer to a clue reading from left to right, with extra letters intermingled, usually to make a bunch of words (for instance "NEXTTOPMODEL" contains the word "NOME" reading from left to right). Puzzles start at 100 points; every removed letter takes 10 points off the score. One puzzle is "Double Camouflage"; the answer contains another answer inside of it, getting the second doubles your score for that puzzle.

Round 2 contains two lines of letters (each line containing at least one complete word); puzzles start at 200 and the first two letters are free. One puzzle is Double.

Round 3 contains three lines of letters (each line containing at least one complete word); puzzles start at 300 and the first five letters are free. One puzzle is Double.

Winner gets to play the bonus round--45 seconds to get as many puzzles as you can. Each puzzle knocks one letter of the Final Camouflage. Get it right, get $5000.

Host is Roger Lodge (no really), who isn't ostentatiously good, but is more than adequate. The puzzle writing is very good. (The writers are very good at occasionally putting obvious clue answers that are almost, but not quite, in the puzzle.) Unfortunately, Roger insists on explaining each clue, which he really shouldn't.

Final analysis: I now have somewhere to be at 7:00 every night.