In my opinion, this show is totally "underwhelming" at best, at all levels.

On television, production values determine how the show "looks and feels". Someone made the decision to deliberately cut costs by significantly slashing production costs.

That will turn out to be a REALLY BAD DECISION.

I was pretty shocked to see them using Larry Becker’s Ultimate Flashback (yes it took me this long to watch the next episode). They did not use the main principle the books are famous for, but used the !@#$e book to reveal the first word on the page. What? Why not just use the standard method for the first word and then !@#$e the page for the long word for the second/third reveal? They also went for my pet peeve and did mind reading to get the second word only to reveal it was predicted in an openly displayed envelope. What’s the point of the mind reading if you already predicted the word?

Don’t get me wrong, to laymen I’m sure it was impossible to figure out. The spectators seemed amazed, but from an insider’s perspective it seemed like a weak use of a really powerful set. You can do miracles with Ultimate Flashback. And yet that’s the performance that got Lance Burton’s first 5/5. I just don’t get it.

Episode 5 came on Saturday, it was watched by 382.000 folks,
making it the most watched episode so far, but it got a demo of 0.00.

the "stars" were football player vernon davis, and rapper flavor flav.

The categories were grand illusion, close up, and escape.

i was quite enthused by mr flavs first trick, involving a dog driving
a car that he than made levitate, apparently the judges were less
enthused, they only gave it three stars each.

i guess they edit the bad parts because I would have gave it five.

Spoiler, flavor would come back to win the episode, getting the
undoubtedly ultra valuable golden stick.

flavor flav was my favorite "celebrity" so far, I'll swing the episode 4.5 out of 5
stars because of him.

Fedora- Thanks for your efforts to share these summaries with all of us. I find the show to excruciatingly painful to watch, so you are doing a good thing!

I've found it a good practice to record the show and fast forward through everything except the actual performances.

With kindness in my heart,

Julie

I have more respect for Flavor Flav after watching last week's episode

This 'review' from the Vital Vegas website on Casino.org:
“Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars” Nails Five Straight Weeks of Zero Ratings

Scott Roeben
By Scott Roeben, on November 28 2022

Fresh off the closure of his Planet Hollywood show, “Amystika,” Strip magician Criss Angel is making news for his TV series, too.

“Criss Angel’s Magic with the Stars” on The CW, which we assume is a cable network of some sort, has garnered a rating of zero for five straight episodes.

Zero. Out of 100. For five straight episodes.


This answers the question, “What happens when you’re surrounded by people who aren’t comfortable being honest?”
The rating represents the percentage of TV viewers watching a given show at a given time, according to the Nielson ratings service. See more.

This doesn’t mean zero people were watching Criss Angel’s show, of course. We trust all his family members were watching, as well as dozens of others watching ironically. Also, C.I.A. “black sites” sometimes force high-value terrorists to watch television shows during interrogations, so there’s that.

The bottom line is the number of people watching Criss Angel’s TV series isn’t literally zero. It’s figuratively zero.

Nielson ratings, of course, aren’t necessarily the ultimate measurement of the quality of a show. Two of the best-rated shows on television are “Sunday Night Football” and “Thursday Night Football.” In related news, we are all doomed.

Criss Angel is going through a rough patch. Beyond the ignominious closure of “Amystika,” the magician’s restaurant caught fire.

The restaurant, Cablp, is located in Overton, Nevada. The restaurant name stands for “Criss Angel’s Breakfast, Lunch & Pizza.”

Investigators suspect the fire was arson, surprising no one, or approximately the same number of people watching “Criss Angel’s Magic with the Stars” each week.

If you haven’t seen “Criss Angel’s Magic with the Stars,” and by “if” we mean “because,” here’s what it’s about: The show is a competition reality series hosted by Eddie Griffin.


Creating and producing a TV show is hard. Watching this one is harder.
Performers are judged by Criss Angel, Loni Love and Lance Burton. Celebrity guests train with magicians, perform illusions and, if the judges deem them worthy, they’ll be back to compete for the “Golden Wand.”

We would not be surprised if “golden wand” were Criss Angel’s nickname for his sexual organ.

The format of the show is familiar, and it’s hard to go wrong with celebrity guests, so it’s baffling why “Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars” would be getting such terrible numbers.

It’s really baffling. If it’s not the magic, or the celebrities, what else could it be? Oh, right.


“Magic With the Stars” consists mainly of: 1) Criss Angel talking about himself, 2) Lance Burton dying inside, 3) the term “celebrity” being used very loosely.
We trust Criss Angel will blame the show’s failure on Loni Love, whoever that might be.

If it seems like we’re experiencing joy from witnessing Criss Angel’s failures, that’s a misguided conclusion. What you’re seeing is actually “schadenfreude,” a much fancier way of saying we experience joy from witnessing Criss Angel’s failures.

Why? Because Criss Angel’s sort of a lunkhead.

Here’s an example. He went on a TV show to promote “Magic With the Stars.” We aren’t even going to say anything about his hair, because we are mature. Just listen to what he says about how he came up with the idea for “Magic With the Stars.”



Here’s what Angel said, “I wanted to put something out there, when we came back from COVID, that would be completely different than anything ever done on television.”

Today we learned that while Criss Angel has a television show, he clearly never watches television. His show is literally “Dancing With the Stars” with magic.

But, also, that hair.


On the bright side, Criss Angel has come a long way since this ode to asking to speak to a manager.
Anyway, we trust Criss Angel is still making more money than god with his “Mindfreak” show, so don’t feel too sorry for him because his TV show is consistently tanking in the ratings.

You can watch episodes of “Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars” online, and by doing so you will personally be responsible for doubling the show’s viewership.

We can only hope the dumpster fire that is “Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars” could signal the end of the Criss Angel era. If you want to see entertaining magic, there are lots of alternatives in Las Vegas.

See Piff the Magic Dragon, Penn & Teller or Mac King. If you like digital dexterity, go with Mat Franco or Shin Lim.

Honestly, Criss Angel’s stage show isn’t terrible. It’s just a lot of him screaming and using childhood illness to get a standing ovation.

Lunkheads gonna lunkhea

Wow, I'm not exactly a big Criss Angel fan, but that is pretty harsh! Kicking him while he's down....

Ouch. That is rough.

It was a fairly entertaining read until the "golden wand" reference, which turned a scathing take-down into playground name calling. Usually this kind of poison spewing is produced by someone who was burned by the recipient at some point. I wonder if Mr. Roeben felt he was wronged by Mr. Angel somewhere along the way.

I do wonder if the "What happens when you're surrounded by people who aren't comfortable being honest?" reference may be accurate. Criss's narcissism has been well-publicized. This trait is usually accompanied by either a rejection of criticism, or a filter that enables one to hear only what they want to hear.

Scott roebens review of "magic with the stars" Solidifies him as
the king reviewer of low quality magic shows, may the crown
rest lightly on his head, and my criss sized ego survive the ding.

In other news, magic with the stars is changing days, it will air
Friday instead of Saturday.

It took last week off, to my understanding, this was done to give
the viewers a chance to recover.

Long review warning.

Episode 6 appeared yesterday, it's viewership was a record 509.000,
likely because it's after "Penn & teller fool us" now.

The "celebrities" were comedian Michael ian black, and comedian
matt walsh, aka "uncle Criss angel" the man who taught Criss all
he knows.

As it turns out, the Pupil doesn't always surpass the teacher.

matt walsh theorized that Criss was offended by his character, which
caused him to be scored worse.

but that would require a person of a low character and large ego size,
which can't possibly include a man as incredible as Criss.

the categories were comedy magic, aka the best magic.
close up, and Criss angels signature illusion "easy rider".

The show opened with fans blowing trash all over the audience, it remained
there the rest of the show, I don't know what the point was, but because
it's Criss it must be profound.

perhaps it was an analogy for the show.

For the first time all three acts by both performers was good, who could
have guessed comedians would be more entertaining than athletes?

If you've ever wanted to see an intentionally funny Criss angel character,
or see Michael ian black without pants on, this episode is your chance.

I'll swing this episode 5 out of 5 stars, I unironically recommend it.

For those interested, you can watch this episode and all the others
on the cw website.
https://www.cwtv.com/shows/criss-angels-......69f79173

I've just received bad news, "magic with the stars" is returning January 20th on the cw.

It will feature donny osmond.

Well then the good news for you is you simply don't have to watch! But I certainly know this is one of your guilty pleasures in life to watch. Enjoy it and give us a synopsis (and ratings) that you do weekly without fail.

I don't really have any desire to see it, but since Fedora provided us with a link to the series, does anyone have a recommendation for a particular episode that isn't too awful? Thanks!

Hey MJE,

Episode 6 has the best acts, episode 5 has flavor flav, who's the best
celebrity so far, I would pick one of those two.

From the looks of this out must be filmed here in Las Vegas based on the cast and guest stars.

Thanks very much!

Yes, it's filmed at the criss angel theater in planet hollywood.

Episode 7 appeared Friday, it was watched by 440.000 folks, with
a demo of a record 0.10.

This may have been the worst episode of television ever produced, and I loved
every second of it.

The "celebrities" were singer donny osmand, and singer Debbie Gibson,
the third celebrity was the bow in criss' hair.

It was interesting seeing donny on the stage with criss, if for no other reason than to see
who could shill for their own show harder. (donny won)

The categories were stage illusion, mentalism, and criss angels super special awesome signature
illusion "enigma".

Donnys mentalism trick was of particular note, it was called "color match", and yes it was
the marketed effect, coming up with original names is hard.

As will be keeping the secret of the trick from the audience when they Google it.

That was the first problem, the next was the trick itself.

Donny was blindfolded the whole time the volunteer was making the drawing, even
though it turned out to be a pre written prediction, making the blindfold as pointless
as the bow criss tied his hair back with.

The absolute best part of the episode, and quite possibly the history of television,
was the end of the trick.

Donny turned to the volunteer on his left, and told him he had a blue marker in his
right pocket, the guy did!

He than said there was another color in his left, there was, and as the kicker,
there was another in his sock.

The only problem is the show never said how these markers got there, as far
as I know this guy came to the show with markers concealed all over his body.

I was laughing so hard, I thought I was ganna throw up.

And for the cherry on top the judges all gave it five stars.

This episode came out to a tie, so criss had to use his authority to break it,
but he couldn't bring himself to do it, so he declared it a tie again.

I guess they're ganna have to break the golden stick in half.

If You're wondering why it took three day to write this review, it took
me that long to recover.

Unfortunately, I forgot what I saw and had to watch it again.

This episode restored my hope for the future, the future can't be worse than this,
I'll swing it 1 out of 5 stars.