TPiR Recap - 4/13/2012

[stardf29]

I don't care about the whole Plinko thing today and the rest of this week; I don't necessarily feel as strongly about it as others do, but yeah, the whole thing flopped (and pretty much shot Plinko's 50/50 "win" record before this) and I do hope they never do this again.

Moving on to the rest of the show...

5 Price Tags was definitely a way to completely mess up the lineup for FPG players, though. Same with Line 'em Up (and fourth, no less!)

It was definitely weird, though, hearing her go with False for the last item, saying "it worked so well for her before"... as in, it got her 1 out of 3. I can understand the (faulty) logic of "two true, two false", but not that. As for the Kia pricing, she just didn't go low enough. Not sure if a second pick would have helped... At least there were definitely people in the audience who knew it was $18K.

Magic #, in addition to further messing with the FPG folks, was yet another practically forced win. She got dangerously low there for a second, but thankfully brought the number back up.

Line 'em Up was hard, though it would have been odd if the ARP turned out to be her final pick ($18,143), which was only $2 less than the Kia.

Aside from the FPG chaos, the only real highlight of the show was the Volkswagen in the showcase; the show doesn't offer too many of those!

[Cartboy]

Crappy show today except for Magic # & Coming Or Going being won & the showcase differences being so close to each other, IMHO.

[ChinookUT]

My workplace thoroughly enjoyed this Plinko week.  Kudos to anyone who had a hand in its inception.

[wrikent3500]

The PCH stunt was the Doug Davidson week for the show...it will not be spoken of again ...

[Macsen]

Recap is up.

I have come to the realization that some of you take this show way too dooping seriously. I understand we have orthodox viewers here, but COME ON YOU PEOPLE!!!

[tpirfan28]

The whole PCH thing this week felt tacked on for no good reason, especially that winner's bonus today.  I don't disagree with a Plinkostravagaza, it just needed better execution, such as introducing it as "Thanks to Publisher's Clearinghouse, you are going to play Plinko!" and play it for a straight $100,000 every day.

[PatrickRox80]

I have come to the realization that some of you take this show way too dooping seriously. I understand we have orthodox viewers here, but COME ON YOU PEOPLE!!!

I'll just add my own two cents here. I don't have time to watch The Price is Right anymore so I was largely unaffected by this week's PCH promotion. I don't consider myself a traditionalist like some fanboys here so I could care less if they do the same for Pay the Rent.

[spoon14]

I like Magic # and Five Price Tags, so it's cool to see both of them. And Magic # is actually on a tiny winning streak. Is there any game that TPTB have been trying harder to set up for wins? Finally, the contestants are obliging. They even took the lower price down into triple digits.

I'm probably more pro-Drew than the average poster here, but today's episode highlighted his weakness in explaining pricing game rules. Drew's Magic # explanation usually has confusing phrasing. Sometimes he makes it sound a bit like there's only one right answer. Finally, Drew explained that the Magic # can be one of several. But it came because he realized saying "right in the middle" made it sound like they had to hit the exact midpoint. And I'm glad Pearl asked whether the vertical column in Line Em Up is the car price. Drew says that the prices of the small prizes to get "the right combination". But he never said the player was trying to get the car price until Pearl asked. I've noticed in other recent playings Drew has failed to mention that the object of the game is to figure out the car price.

TPIR has had some guests with baggage recently. There's Jenny McCarthy with her anti-vaccination crusade. The swimmer Jessica Hardy had a positive drug test a few years back that led to a ban. And Publishers Clearing House entered into a major settlement because several states had accused them of deceptive advertising. I wonder why they all get booked. Are they just easier to book?

[GuyWithFace]

^Maybe the show likes controversy, aka "all publicity is good publicity".

My sole thought after seeing Plinko lost today, and Drew's announcement of the $25,000 bonus to the Showcase winner, was "And if there is a Double Overbid, then WHADDAIDO?"

Apologies to Kitch, but tpirfan28 is right -- they were better off playing Plinko for $100,000 from PCH and doubling all the amounts (except making $100 into $500).

[TPIRSteven]

I have come to the realization that some of you take this show way too dooping seriously. I understand we have orthodox viewers here, but COME ON YOU PEOPLE!!!

I'll agree with this statement.  My opinion of the Plinko gimmick is just that -- a gimmick.  Game shows in general (not just TPIR) have been doing lots of these crazy gimmicks lately.  While I'm certainly not a fan constant gimmicks taking the focus away from the games and the contestants, I'm not going to raise a ruckus over it, especially if it's just a one-week promotion.

I thought we had the potential for a fairly good show today.  5PT was a very winnable setup, given the fact that three of the tags were more than $20K, which is too much for a Kia Soul.  Also, I would have had 4/5 chips on Plinko, and a smart contestant probably could have done the same.  The setups were mostly reasonable in my opinion; we just had a few bad guesses mess us up today.

[neilrocks87]

When I first heard about "Plinko Week", I didn't get all fired up about it. I figured it was another one of Mikey's publicity stunts that won't pan out to be all that great. Well, I was right.

No doubt that "Plinko Week" tossed a major money wrench in to the PG lineups this week. Temptation 3rd, Line em Up 4th, Hi Lo for a car, an extra playing of Make Your Move and 5 Price Tags on Plinko day just wouldn't happen in a normal week (except maybe for the extra MYM playing). Mike should really try playing Make Your Move 1st someday.

Barker's Bargain Bar was obviously a substitute for Switch? this week. I do believe this is the 1st week since the season started that Switch? has not bee played. I don't mind seeing Switch? at all but I do feel it is overplayed.

I also noticed another week without seeing Money Game. It's getting a big cut in playings this season This time last year it had been played 27 times and now here in season 40 it's only been played 17 times. There's something about this that really bugs me.

[3StrikesFan]

I also noticed another week without seeing Money Game. It's getting a big cut in playings this season This time last year it had been played 27 times and now here in season 40 it's only been played 17 times. There's something about this that really bugs me.

That's because its easier to win Money Game because the staff can't control it. In Lucky Seven and Cover Up, they can make the numbers really hard. For Money Game, if you chose the first half of the car on your first pick and are smart not to choose the other two "fake" first half choices for the back of the car, you have a 1 out of 6 shot to win the car.

[brosa0]

I'm not upset about the lack of Money Game playings; a few other car games could follow suit.

And I'm surprised to find myself agreeing with this sentiment.

No doubt that "Plinko Week" tossed a major money wrench in to the PG lineups this week. Temptation 3rd, Line em Up 4th, Hi Lo for a car, an extra playing of Make Your Move and 5 Price Tags on Plinko day just wouldn't happen in a normal week (except maybe for the extra MYM playing). Mike should really try playing Make Your Move 1st someday.

All of those plus Bargain Game's return and a Magic # playing (let alone win) add up to a pretty good week on the show.   

Plinko was only 5 segments of the week so not as big a deal as some are making out.   I find it interesting though that it seems to be the most 'popular' game with general viewers, yet with the low winnings of the game in most playings this week it might have actually got them to realize that winnings often aren't very big at all on Plinko compared to other games.

[ClassicG]

So the whole consensus states, in the way of the Price Is Right Bible (because it's so sacred, no offense), "Thou shalt not produce nor create a gimmick for the purposes of winning unless the gimmick is reasonable at producing or creating a believable win." Did I get that right?

[thepriceis_J]

I know some will think this has happened already, but I think it is extremely feasible that we’ll look back at this week, and this one, #5945K, in particular, as the day/week The Price is Right jumped the shark.

*picks up megaphone*
The Price is Right doing something it used to do when there was a limited selection of games is not jumping the shark. It isn't as if they've never played a game five times in a week before.
*puts down megaphone*

This week was not the grand end-all decline of the show. Yes, this sucked and fell flat terribly. Yes, this would've worked so much better as a month long event. But this is not the end, nor the start of it. If anything we came close to jumping the shark with the celebrity week. Thankfully, that turned out okay. This is nowhere near close to Celebrity Week. Far from the worst gimmick the show has brought us.

I do agree that the tacked on bonus to the showcases was a bit bad. I mean we're used to trips to award ceremonies and concerts, but that was a lot.

WHAT A LINEUP!

This is what I love about this week. Say what you will about the Plinko gimmick, but it gave us one of the best lineups of the season right here.

Poor Tags. Couldn't get a win in today. But hopefully we'll see you soon enough.

Okay Adam, thank you for Magic #. But dang, does it need to be that easy? It's okay if there is a loss in this game, it isn't your fault (yet).

In all, I appreciate the thought of this week, but I don't think it'd be worth producing next season unless they do some major tweaking.