The Bottom Line
- Excellent family fare, great viewing for all ages
- The challenges are clever, well-designed, and entertaining
- Cute kids and competitive dads
- Eliminated families walk away with nothing
- Time slot (9pm) is a little late for young kids who have school the following day
Description
- Four teams start off competing against each other in games that are designed to test whose Dad is "better" than the others
- Each team is made up of Dad and one of his children, aged 8-12
- The challenges are designed to test different skill sets, like strength, bravery, intelligence, and speed
- Teams are eliminated one by one, depending on who scores the lowest on the games
- The final remaining Dad answers five questions about his child, and each one is worth $10,000
Guide Review - 'My Dad is Better Than Your Dad'
My Dad is Better Than Your Dad is light-hearted entertainment that is definitely suitable for the whole family. To me, it's like a cross between American Gladiators and the old show Double Dare. Dads are tested in multiple areas, so the strong guy won't always come out on top.
One of the things I found interesting was watching the dynamics between the Dads and their kids. All of the children were confident, sweet, and pumped up, completely confident in their fathers' abilities. While the show is certainly competitive, the eliminated families had nothing but positive things to say about the experience.
The games and challenges themselves are extremely well thought-out, with an almost perfect combination of fun and actual difficulty. The kids are involved in the games as much as possible, but the scoring rests almost solely on the Dads.
The final round is a classic trivia round with a twist: the questions asked are based on how well Dad knows his child. Having children of my own, I can understand how simple questions like, "What is your child's favorite dinner?" seem simple on the surface, but could end up being really tricky. Kids change their minds all the time!
Host Dan Cortese brings personality and order to the show. He interacts with the families well, but at the same time doesn't make himself the focus of the proceedings. There is very little manufactured or forced drama here, as the kids and their Dads bring enough spirit to the game to make it completely unnecessary.
We really enjoyed this show. There were a lot of laughs, and lots of cheering coming from the family room as the game progressed. The only change I would make is to give the eliminated families some old-fashioned parting gifts so they could at least walk away with something. Hopefully we'll also see My Mom is Better Than Your Mom in the near future!
