I have to admit that I was intrigued by the promos for the new NBC game show “Who’s Still Standing?” Since the show sends losing contestants down through a trap door below their feet, I was hoping that their descent would involve a long slide ending in a big pile of goo — or something comparably fun.

Alas, the contestants’ departure consists of loud music, a few last words with host Ben Bailey of “Cash Cab” fame and a brief fall through the trap door to parts unknown. But my expectation says a lot about how the game show has evolved from the days when all contestants had to do was know stuff.

Then, most famously and enduringly, they had to know stuff that they could put in the form of a question.

Or provide an answer that was both final and determined while sitting in a chair opposite the host under bright lights and throbbing music.

Or provide an answer while being tortured. (What, you don’t remember “The Chair and The Chamber”?)

Or work with other contestants, or against other contestants — whatever the producers could imagine that would make things more dramatic.

NBC certainly thinks “Who’s Still Standing?” is dramatic enough, or cheap enough, to fill lots of air time around the holidays. Based on an Israeli game show, it will premiere at 8 p.m. Monday, then air at the same time Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; it will then assume a regular weekly time slot, 8 p.m. Monday, beginning Dec. 26 through Jan. 30.

The show works like this: One contestant has a chance to win $1 million.

To do so, he must beat each of 10 challengers in a trivia question-and-answer, with them alternating increasingly difficult questions until one gets an answer wrong. (They get help from a display of blocks showing the number of letters in the answer, with some letters filled in.) A successful challenger can win $10,000.

But wait, there’s more: The main contestant has two passes to skip difficult questions; the challengers do not get any passes. Each challenger beaten has been assigned a hidden dollar value, building a pot as challengers are eliminated; once five are gone, the main contestant can opt to take the accumulated money and leave the game — or risk it all by continuing in pursuit of the million bucks. There’s also a lightning round.

And I got tired of all the gimmickry pretty quickly, not to mention the noise level from the music, the studio audience and players who’ve clearly been chosen for their excitability.

At the same time, though, I found myself calling out answers to questions. And you still have to know stuff. Isn’t it still good to see an audience give a standing ovation to someone able to identify Dominique Strauss-Kahn?