Okay, so they completely dropped the ball on the season premiere. But I'm a forgiving man, I can allow them a misstep. The 7,000th show should come close to the same level of extravagance that the season premiere should have displayed, right? Maybe they were saving it all for a show that was more promotable.
And within the first two minutes, they've lost me. The first item up for bids is a camera? A camera??? It's your big milestone episode, and you're kicking things off with a camera? I don't care if it's $1,800, it's still just a camera!
And then the first game... is Most Expensive for trips. Much nicer trips than they played for in the season premiere, certainly, but think about it for even one second, show. I know you're in love with giving away trips this year, and the 7,000 miles thing is a decent gimmick, I'll admit, but you're The Price is Right! Nobody wears a t-shirt to TPiR that says "I came here to win a trip to Australia!" You're known for cars! I cannot understand how they can think it's a good idea to begin the show by not offering a car.
$38,000 worth of trips or a $38,000 car. Which would get the better reaction? I mean, is it that difficult to realize?
And there's another loss to begin a special episode, although I picked Africa, so I'm not going to blame the show for that. And since there's no commercial, maybe now things are going to... a bicycle? Are you joking? The second item up for bids on the 7,000th episode is a bicycle?!
The second pricing game is Grand Game. A fine game for a special episode, but I still can't believe there's not going to be a car at all within the first two games. But unlike Plinko from the season premiere, this was actually winnable, so it's good that they decided to end the first segment with a good win.
The third item up for bids, the outdoor dinette, was a better prize than the bicycle, despite it being only $700.
Lucky $even Thousand... okay, that fits with the theme of the show. The contestant probably won't win more than one or two thousand, and he definitely can't win all $7,000, Drew, but it works. But then there's a 9 in the price? What is the reasoning behind presenting such a difficult setup on a highly promotable episode?
I'm not sure how to feel about how Any Number went. Jolene seemed to be picking numbers at random, but I think that $5.43 piggy bank would have snared a lot of players regardless.
Bonus Game... a nice bonus in the chairs, TV, and ugly jukebox, but surprise surprise... the bonus is with the warming tray that nobody was going to win! I'm baffled by the show's newfound desire to make contestants not win.
So we know that Double Prices is coming up, so they're going to have to do something to make it interesting. Now would have been a good time for a luxury trip, if they hadn't blown that on the first game. The classic Giant Price Tag staging is great, but the prize is a watch? I don't care if it is a Rolex... if you have to take a secondary shot of the prize because nobody can see the prize when it's first revealed, it shouldn't be the one and only prize in the pricing game. At least they set it up to be won.
The showcases were presented as a nice nod to the show's past, although the subtext was clearly "Look at the crap that they used to present! We're so much better than that now!" Which is the attitude that the new regime has always projected about the show's past, so at least they're being consistent. And by devoting half of the hour to a "nostalgic" look at the show's first episode, they can distract everybody from the fact that they're not actually doing anything special in the here and now for the 7,000th episode, so they don't have to give any big-ticket prizes away! It's win-win!
So overall, as I said last week, they still don't know how to put together an everyday episode of The Price is Right. Or even a special episode when they can't hang anything on holiday gimmicks. Drew continues to be a forgettable presence, so bully for him, I suppose. It's better than season 37, but I'm not seeing the great turnaround that others have proclaimed.