Well, this was quite a departure from the other April Fools shows they've done. It didn't go out of its way to be as wacky as possible, but rather made one seemingly simple change and let that be the focus of the show, with everything else going on as normal. We do know, however, that that change was far from simple, as all the obvious edits and retakes (that we could have anticipated) could prove. Still, after today we all know why the models do their jobs and don't host
But I appreciate the effort it took to put this together. It was weird but yet at the same time it felt simple and not overwhelming to the TV viewer, and it worked. The obvious stars of the day were Drew and George, who naturally hammed it up for maximum effect (I especially enjoyed Drew and the contestant's pillow fight in Double Prices - that was a great unscripted moment). I feel like basic things like contestant interaction got lost today, but I do appreciate the obvious effort made to coach the models through step by step on how to host one-bids, the SCSDs, the showcases and each game. The game lineup chosen was simple, and short, but still a lineup that made sense, unlike last time. For what it's worth, I thought Rob seemed the most comfortable hosting, although that may be male-host bias at work. He explained TTM better than Drew! I really didn't care for Amber as a host much (Plinko was God-awful - it was like taking the already bad thing Drew does in that game and making it 1000x worse; she did recover to do much better in Eazy as 123 though still a bit too over the top) but she was a solid announcer. In all, maybe the hosting/announcing we saw today will make people appreciate Drew/George a little bit more, although little of it (that made it to air!) was egregiously bad
Everything did sound well coached though, and there were moments that were handled better than Drew would have at times (particularly, the end of losses!)
Speaking of losses, I don't want to let that get lost in today. This show was set up pretty easy overall - Switch? was a trap and Eazy a bit hard, but the car games and Plinko were left wide open and it's not like even the hard games were unwinnable today. Yet, I feel there's a definite distraction factor going on on these type shows that prevents them from being big win shows. They have to make it even more obvious than today, apparently. When there's this much going on, it's going to get an already hyperventilating contestant extra frazzled and that could cause them to possibly bungle a gimme. I'm mainly speaking of the Halloween and April Fools shows here. I find the shows entertaining to watch and they rarely disappoint, but I've seen enough easy setups "blown" on this type show to make me think unfortunately distraction is a factor. They are 2 days a season, but soething to keep in mind.
Still, the occasional cringe factor (i.e. in Plinko) keeps it from taking the top spot away from S37, but this is easily my 2nd favorite April Fools show - great job on the execution overall of something difficult to pull off! And did anyone else notice the model search video references in SC1? I thought it was great that Rob got to announce George going through essentially the exact same SC he had to go through to get on the show.
Timings:
Money Game (4.5) - 4:12
Switch? (3.5) - 2:52
Plinko (5.5) - 5:16
Double Prices (4) - 3:25
That's Too Much (4) - 3:29
Eazy as 123 (4) - 4:44
Total (24.5 - heh): 23:58
