Who would really want to Claim Face the Ace?

As if the new reality-based poker show Face the Ace didn’t have enough problems already with its terrible ratings, the show’s producers have been hit with a big lawsuit by a man who claims he came up with the idea for Face the Ace.  Brandon McSmith has leveled an $85,000,000 lawsuit against the show and says that Face the Ace is modeled after his idea of having amateur players compete against professionals for major cash and a seat in the World Series of Poker. 

And there is certainly some validity to McSmith’s claims too since he pitched the same kind of idea to a company called Poker Productions two years ago.  Unfortunately for McSmith, his seemingly good idea was rejected by Poker Productions which would have made one think that the idea was dead in the water.  However, the idea was not dead at all since we now have Face the Ace and the show was created by none other than Poker Productions.

But whatever the case may be and no matter who wins the lawsuit, both sides would have been better off forgetting this idea altogether.  The ratings for Face the Ace have been horrible (a re-run of Finding Nemo beat the show in ratings) and the prospects are bleak for things getting any better in the future.

As far as McSmith asking for $85 million in reparations, he might as well be asking for a gazillion dollars because this show isn’t hauling in shit money-wise.  Maybe Poker Productions has a decent amount of money or NBC would somehow be liable for some of the assumed damage - I don’t know.   The only thing that I do know is that this show has been nothing but trouble for all parties involved.