“1 vs. 100,” a new NBC quiz show from the producers of “Deal or No Deal,” is almost as simple as that hit.

Host Bob Saget asks contestants questions nearly as easy as picking a numbered briefcase at random.

The twist in this show is that each contestant plays not against two others but against 100 others. As the questions continue, the prize money grows. Every wrong answer from one of the 100 means more money for the contestant, and also means that the person giving the wrong answer is eliminated.

The contestant can stop anytime and walk away with the money earned to that point, and can ask members of the mob for advice twice during the game. But that can be tricky because if the contestant gives one wrong answer, that game is over, and surviving members of the mob split the winnings.

Only if the contestant goes all the way is the $1 million grand prize achieved.

In Friday’s premiere (at 9 p.m.), members of the mob include a gaggle of teachers, a quartet of “Deal or No Deal” briefcase-toting models and “Jeopardy!” mega-champ Ken Jennings. Most questions are painfully easy, but “1 vs. 100” clearly is going for the brainless-enjoyment “Deal or No Deal” vibe.

The Achilles’ heel of even an educated contestant – one who knows, say, how mythology explains the otherwise invulnerable Achilles’ weak spot in the first place – is what that contestant may not have absorbed about modern, often ephemeral, pop culture.

Even with responses narrowed down to a three-way multiple choice, only those who saw “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” can know, rather than guess, whose name is screamed out by Steve Carell’s character during his chest-waxing scene. Yes, it was “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson – and “American Idol” figures in another question, as Saget asks the contestant, and the 100 seated members of “the mob,” which judge usually occupies the center seat.

More than 10 people get that one wrong, which Saget finds difficult to believe.

“How did you get that wrong, No. 38?” he asks.

“I don’t watch TV,” No. 38 answers sheepishly.

If No. 38 watches “1 vs. 100” tomorrow, he might learn something.

He might be the only one, but that may prove to be the show’s strength, not its weakness.