"I think her humour is kind of cheap - it is the cheap shot," journalist Melanie Seymour told the BBC.
The programme, presented by Anne Robinson, was almost identical to the British version.
Despite the huge amount of publicity American TV critics have given the quiz a lukewarm reception.
The influential New York Times observed of Robinson: "Her manner has been described as that of a dominatrix.
"But with her practical cropped hair and glasses, she is more like a school librarian in a black leather coat."
The LA Times TV critic, Howard Rosenberg, described the British import as "somewhat entertaining".
"I think her humour is kind of cheap - it is the cheap shot," journalist Melanie Seymour told the BBC.
But USA Today said: "If this entertainingly hard-edged English import takes off like NBC thinks it will, that phrase likely will spread like foot-and-mouth disease so brace yourself."
Viewers broadly welcomed the British import.
John Sullivan from Granada Hills in California said: "I thought it was brutal. She turned everybody on everybody else.
"You could not help but watch it."
Humiliation
The US show featured a group of eight contestants from around the US with many of the questions slanted towards a general knowledge of American popular culture.
The first question of the night, one of the easiest, was: "Which 70s cops were played by David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser?"
The contestant, Marcus, 45, an airport operations supervisor from Florida, had no problem answering "Starsky and Hutch".
But Marcus later stumbled on: "What does the 'W' in George W Bush stand for?"
He said William but the answer was Walker.
Robinson retorted: "Were you so busy supervising that the election passed you by ?".
The first contestant to be voted off the show was Jeff, a personal fitness trainer from New Jersey.
Tersely dismissed
He was tersely dismissed by Robinson: "Jeff, the personal trainer, who alas has worked on his body and not his brain."
Contestants had the potential to win $1m (£695,000), more than on he British show.
But their failure to bank the money and inability to answer some relatively simple questions, reduced the final takings to $73,000 (£50,000).
"Do I have to beg you to take the money," Robinson asked the contestants.
Robinson described the group's performance, at one stage, as miserable, depressing and pathetic.
The winner was John - a funeral director from New Jersey.
The show has been launched by NBC with a considerable amount of hype and promotion.
Robinson told a news conference in Los Angeles she expected the programme to a big hit with US viewers.
"It will be even more phenomenally successful here than it is in Britain," she said.