There's a lot to munch on in the 3 Strikes segment.
6 numbers and 3 strikes? 5 numbers and 3 strikes is making the game unreasonably hard to begin with. I still think there's nothing wrong with 5 numbers and 1 strike repeated over (I realize that 4 numbers and 3 strikes is traditional, but it was changed for very good reasons when cars moved up to 5 digits). And, yes, you could say that this is 'appropriate difficulty' for a $280,000 car, but that brings up other issues. They could keep putting Ferraris (or similar, like Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Mercedes SLSs, McLarens, etc.) like this on the show, and have a low enough chance of someone actually getting the price right while still enjoying the hype, pomp, and circumstance, and in the amazingly wild chance that someone actually does get it, the taxes will wreck havoc without someway to quickly flip the car around for money (or find someone that will finance a car note on a large amount of taxes, which would still be the equivalent of an expensive luxury car). What happened in the playing was probably exactly what was wanted. Therese was making wild guesses like $8##,### and $6##,###, and while the show's obviously not going to give away a car like that in daytime, and while even a Ferrari like the one shown isn't going to cost anywhere near that much (the last one I believe did was the limited-production Enzo, which eclipsed $1,000,000), it's also easy to see how she could get flustered like that. Most people probably don't even know what in the world price range a Ferrari is supposed to fall under to begin with. I wasn't excited by the Ferrari appearance (spoiled in advance commercials, but that again was likely to build hype and ratings in the frequently mentioned "first half"), and, rather than waiting in anticipation to see if Therese was going to fill the numbers up and get it down to the wire, I was sitting and waiting in anticipation for her to draw the eventual third strike, since she obviously had no idea where in the world to place anything (and I'm sure most wouldn't). The 6-digit format and difficult to price car also invites a lot of number repetition, which further exaggerated the waiting-for-the-third-strike-to-drop feeling (incidentally, Drew did exactly that--drop the third strike, or more precisely, sling it across the stage).
I was really hoping for Golden Road. It hasn't been played in awhile, and it's not like its win record isn't abysmal with Drew, anyway. This would have fit in real nicely with the spirit of the show, and what a Big Money/high-budget Golden Road would look like. The car would have still been hard to reach, but wouldn't be absurd like this mad version of Stack the Deck, requiring an actual alteration to the gameplay itself, something Big Money week has thus far avoided doing. Again like I said above, the Ferrari appearing offered me no surprise or suspense other than perhaps placing bets on how many more numbers before strike three shows up. 3 Strikes has been ruined before (4-digit pricings of 5-digit Dodge Avengers), and the game just didn't have the same appeal of hearing George Gray shout without warning, "It's a new Lexus/Audi/Cadillac!" with what was proven to be a couple of season ago an unnecessarily difficult, but still very much winnable game. I feel it was ruined today, as well.
For what it's worth, I'm sure the excitement of the contestant and others in the studio was a lot higher, sitting/standing there live, and I wouldn't have all minded taking Therese's place in playing the game, instead. I also don't think all of the options not being there would have helped Therese any. The fact that the show was capped off with a Double Overbid drove the stake down further. Marc in Let 'em Roll and his attitude was easily the most exciting thing I saw behind my screen. The fact that the Hyndai Elantra cost a 'mere' $17,000 compared to $280,000 was no loss of excitement to me over watching 3 Strikes.
I have a feeling tomorrow's game, which the commercial bumpers have shown us all, is going to bring the real excitement to Big Money week.
