À vous de jouer in danger of cancellation (Québec's TPiR)

[DarkBaron]

The French-Canadian version of TPiR, "Price is Right: À vous de jouer!" is facing a possible cancellation. According to a few articles on cyberpresse.ca (http://www.lapresse.ca/debats/chroniques/hugo-dumas/201205/30/01-4529883-price-is-right-coute-t-il-trop-cher.php), the show's ratings declined after the show had the most-watched premiere in V's history (even before they changed the network name from TQS to V).

Although its ratings are still quite acceptable, its revenues are not enough to cover the high cost of producing and giving away prizes. One of the important factors is that the prizes themselves are never sponsored (except for cars, which are all from the Nissan brand). Instead, they rely on other forms of sponsorship such as department stores (Michel the accouncer would say that this prize comes to you from B&M, for example), which are very few, compared to the huge sponsorship the show received in its past version in 1995. Back then, almost every prize came from a specific store, from grocery stores to travel agencies. Even their pricing games were sponsored (the Grocery Game was aptly named The Inter-Marché Supermarket after its sponsor). Accoring to an article, for the last shows produced the past season, some of the prizes came directly from the network's own money.

The 1995 version lasted one season, and the current version might last one season as well, even though the latter is much more faithful to the American version and closely resembles the excitement and feel of said version. However, history seems to repeat itself has the network was never been able to keep any hit show on the air since its creation in 1986. Every hit show would last a season or two, then move on to another network. Could À vous de jouer do the move? Anything's possible...

For now the show is in reruns for the fall period with a possible contract renewal in January. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Johnnya2k4]

The current version only had a handful of games played; in Season 2, they added Plinko (for $25,000 CDN) and 3 Strikes (for a four-digit prize). There was also Golden Road infused with More or Less, Step Up minus the cash prizes, and Punch-a-Bunch was for a prize rather than cash.

I was able to watch those episodes online and I was hoping they would also include Danger Price, Any Number, Bonus Game, Squeeze Play, etc., but they still rotated the same games. As for cars? They went beyond Nissan also in Season 2, but the only times they're offered are in the Showcase.

But I read that in the 1995 version, they used to offer trips to Cuba in addition to the car rentals (the Canadian version of Supermarket Sweep might have done the same thing)!!

Hey, at least A Vous de Joeur (whether or not if it'll see a Season 3) is more enjoyable than the Filipino version with Kris Aquino!

[Shaymin]

But I read that in the 1995 version, they used to offer trips to Cuba in addition to the car rentals (the Canadian version of Supermarket Sweep might have done the same thing)!!

There's no embargo between Canada and Cuba, so why not? It's a nice bit of trip variety.

(Also a great trap prize for a Canadian HYO...)