Season One: Treasure Hunters on NBC: A Show Where Ten Teams of Three People Race Across America While Enduring Physical and Mental Challenges

The new NBC reality adventure series, Treasure Hunters, features three-player teams of specific groups. The Treasure Hunter mix is quite diverse. There is a wacky southern family, a dysfunctional mother, father and daughter, an air force team, Miss USAs, a young professionals team, and a sorority grad team, to name a few.

The one thing that really irks me is the Genius group. They are only labeled as geniuses because they had double majors in college… it has nothing to do with their IQ or actual intelligence, which is misleading and irritating.

The ten teams of three people race across America while enduring physical and mental challenges. The challenges are not too difficult, especially physical ones, considering two physically-challenged teams manage their way through and beat out the young professional group. The mental challenges, or puzzles, are also not too complex, considering the Miss USA team can do it almost effortlessly. Is that mean?

Each team's goal is to try to beat the other teams as they are challenged in their quest to a hidden treasure. This leads to manipulation, corruption and deceit - all makings of a great drama. They all travel to historical locations where they decipher codes and solve puzzles, in order to obtain clues that direct them towards a larger mystery that offers the final treasure, a grand prize. The teams complete to win each mission before the others to avoid elimination. The team that comes in last in each challenge gets kicked off the show.

The missions do not involve the audience as much as you would expect. They do however; attempt to involve the viewers through one trivia question and prize per episode. The most amusing aspect to this show is the characters. Well, the teams, not the host. The host is Laird Macintosh, a man who looks frighteningly similar to someone you would typecast as a commercial actor. Macintosh seems too serious, and looks awfully similar to a Ken doll. However, the Wild Hanlons and the Brown Family do a great job keeping viewers amused.

The only thing that really kept me watching the pilot was the Wild Hanlon family. The Wild Hanlon family is just hilarious. They really don't fit in there - and it is not just the mullet that is out of place. They blindly search for clues on rocks and sticks and in the second episode, they get hungry during a mission so they take a break and drive miles away to a drive-thru restaurant. The most entertaining part is… they make it back in time to pass the mission!

Overall, the show is decent for the summer season. If it were up against the primetime television shows during the year, it would bomb. However, considering the summer heat makes people delirious, the show just might make the cut. There is not much to watch on Monday nights anyway.

If you missed the premiere episode, make note that encores will be shown on Friday and Saturday nights for most locations, so check your local listings or set your Tivo.