For another foreign point of view, I like classic Price, but I also like current, not for the same reasons.
Bob is surely a great host. He knows how to bring fun interaction with the contestants. He's maybe the only one to know how to make Double Prices interesting. This is under Bob the core of the show has become famous. This is under Bob that many countries adapted Price.
Bob and his crew knew almost everything. Except one thing: how to feel modern, how to adapt yourself and your show to the time being. I recently watched Bob's last show on Youtube, I had the feeling it was taped back in the early 90's.
Sticking with traditions is not bad in itself (I'm a traditionalist myself), but they have to be careful about not being too outdated, otherwise they'll reach a non-return point. A median age of 63 is the signal (here, channels care only about viewers younger than 50). They have to attract younger viewers, otherwise the show will disappear because of its too-invasive traditions. And that's precisely what the current show tries to do, attract younger viewers with a whole new, way more modern set, more modern or more young-wise prizes... while the core of the show is exactly the same. Exactly.
I like Drew. He's not worse than Bob. He's different. He maybe doesn't know how to make Hi-Lo (crash items) or Double Prices exciting. But he knows how to interact with his announcer, what Bob didn't really do. I like some of his jokes (not the grocery crash). He didn't like the show at first, but now, after 3 years, he regularly throws a random history fact, proving he cares about the show.
The show is rushed? That's not in Fremantle's hands, but CBS's. I'm not sure Bob would be THAT good, bring THAT much interaction, with 38 minutes instead of 42-45. It's more difficult to produce the same show 4 minutes less, whatever your name's Dobkowitz or Richards. Richards may want some "foolishness", but he has to deal with some things we're not mastering.
Current staff has also one more problem: the economy is not the same since 2008. Fremantle had to deal with the economical crisis, and
maybe that's what Dobkowitz was unable to. Crisis is not over, that's why they have less sponsors. And really, that's not much of a deal: having 3 sponsored medicines and 2 sponsored cosmetics as a Grocery Game setup is not fun to watch. I like themed Grocery Game (Apple, Pine, brands with names of pricing games...). CNAOS still receive parting gifts from sponsors, and those are not cheaper than before.
Talk about impossible setups: in France, the last two L7 setups have been 10809 and 10019. Just feel lucky with what you have.
About set changes since season 37:
- the Big Doors: they work the same way they did for decades, and their design is more modern. A bit pale, IMO. Looks foreign? You are the only country which has kept this kind of doors. You're the only country which has no giant screen. At least that looks less outdated now than it did.
- the new turntable: finally! The old turntable could be sold as an antique. I like the mechanism, but that's all. Now, it looks brighter, even if it could be more, IMO.
- Showcase podiums: I just regret they're overloaded with plasma things.
- Temptation: a useful paint job, but a plasma overload. Pink set looked terrible. Plasma wasn't needed, IMO.
- Any Number: the digits started to fail, they had to change it. They changed the whole set to accomodate Drew, and that's where I call fail. It was not needed, the whole "used numbers" thing looks awkward and the prize placards are ridiculously tiny. The false vane display is awful.
- Plinko: the new reveal is way better than the old one. They brightened up the main set and it looks better, even if the other things (light spots, winnings display) were too much.
- Rat Race: very good game, the set is a bit too busy, though.
- Pay The Rent: deceptive.
- Ten Chances: looks foreign? It's nowhere close to this: (courtesy of lejusteprixtv.com)
Once again, be lucky with what you have.
Once again, you criticize (you may be true) international versions, but even if I don't like French current version myself (it's nothing but a one-man show of the host),
four of the last six international adaptations (Flemish Belgium, Walloon Belgium, Lebanon, Romania)
of Price went from the French current version (Pakistan and Mexico aside). This is a fact. It doesn't care of traditions (they make jokes on it), it's LCD screens everywhere (no magic), the games are deceptive (I invite you to see what are the games they "created" lately, it's an horror), set pieces and prizes are cheap (€75 for the average IUFB), it's centered on the host and not on the game, but this is what works. Price might have attracted foreign TVs in the early 80's, but they're not attracting any foreign channel by 2010 anymore.
I don't say it's the way to go (and I clearly expect and want you: DON'T DO IT), but that's what attracts. Bear it in mind.
It’s called keeping up with the audience advertisers want to reach, the core objective for a business that makes its money based on advertising revenue.
No, but an audience that’s all old isn’t sellable (save for Scooter Store and “diabetus” supply ads).
“Doing great?” By surpassing all of its daytime network brethren in terms of factors like average age? Being the show of choice for the retirement home set isn’t doing great when it comes to what matters.
Because perhaps had they paid some attention to the demographic issues earlier, they might not have reached the point they did.
Jeopardy still plays two rounds of questions and a final category, just like Price plays two sets of three games and a showdown, plus the showcase. In that regard, both keep their same format. But Jeopardy has changed sets several times, updated music, added things like video clues (from the Clue Crew), etc. Wheel has made more cosmetic changes and the one core change of dropping shopping for ceramic dogs and the like, but it’s still multiple rounds of spin/solve at heart. And both demonstrate that making updates to look current while keeping the core structure can work (more than a quarter century at the top of their particular field, with demos that—though clearly towards the higher end of the 25-54 spectrum—bring in good advertisers and keep replenishing at the younger end enough to hold firm).
I'll give imhomerjay a point, which is part of my reasoning.
I know how you feel.
Shieldsy, the negativity is based on the fact that we no longer have the ear of the "insiders" at the show, something to which we were accustomed, and we can no longer feel as if we can dictate what the show does or doesn't do just because we discuss it here.
You mention your radio background and how you feel formats SHOULD be changed, apparently just to change them up, the radio listener in me HATES this. I want to turn to my favorite radio station and know what I'm going to find. Radio format changes here in the U.S. mean switching from Country to Rap overnight. Is that the kind of change you like?
'Price' spoiled us over the years by being a show that specifically DIDN'T change things just for the sake of change, and we liked the idea of always knowing (within reason) what to expect. A lot of the viewers of 'Price' seem to feel the way I do, and when what appeared to be "major" changes for a show that had changed so little over the years came along, they bucked.
The problem NOW is that most people seem to refuse to accept that the show now is what it is. It's as if some people here STILL think that just because they start a thread saying they don't like this or don't like that, whatever they're complaining about will just suddenly go away. Or, at the very least, we'll actually hear from the producer or an insider about WHY the change was made.
For years, we told ourselves -- as long as it looked like Barker WASN'T going to retire -- that there'd only be ONE Bob Barker. For years, we told ourselves that the show would never be the same if he were to leave. Then he left, and we were proven right. And being proven right in this case made people really, really angry.
In other words, the negativity today is the frustration that seems to come with so many people STILL not accepting the fact that the show they WANT 'Price' to be is over. It's not coming back. Barker's not coming back. Johnny, Janice, Dian, Holly, Rod aren't coming back. Rich isn't likely coming back, either. The only thing we can expect now is that there's absolutely NOTHING we can expect. And all of the "Mikey" foolishness is basically the immaturity of a child's temper tantrum: we can't have our way so we'll just call people names.
Yeah. That'll show 'em!
Some of us have been saying for some time now that it's time to get over it. That's not because we LIKE what we see these days, but because we realize that what we liked so much is over to one degree or another. I'm not a huge fan of today's show BECAUSE I liked the older version. If I'd only started watching in the past few years, I'm sure I'd like the current show much better...because I'd have no real perspective on how much better it had once been.
I don't hate the show today, but to me, it just isn't anywhere near as good. But I'll let you in on a little secret: I've reached the point with Sherwood's announcing, that as soon as I hear him bellow his over-the-top, Don Pardo-ish "Price is RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT," I pick up that little remote you mention and switch to something else.
You're not the only one who feels that the negativity here is too much, but I hope you can at least understand why someone who has watched the show for decades would have a hard time adjusting.
What seems harder to understand is why it's just STILL taking so long.
I think with this post, I'm going to understand you better. But you know as well as me, this is how life goes, and there's nothing we can do against that, because G-R members are (and will always be) a minority. I feel the same way about current French Price, but it is WAY more different to former French Price than "older" US Price is to "current" US Price.
I dislike "change for the sake of change" myself. But having a median age of 63 (even for a daytime show) IS a good reason for a change. Seeing the ratings slide is also a good reason. Changing Rich to have "a variety show within a gameshow" is not a good reason.
I can understand how you feel. Why it's that long? Because this show has jumped 20 years of age in one year (and because no guest announcers are close to Rich, also).
