TPiR Recap - 10/16/2013 (TPiR Season 42 Big Money Week - Day 3)

[tvnutboy]

Really enjoyed Cliffhangers today...though I fear that Money Might be a gimmick for regular playings in the future (On a FAR Scaled back level, of course. Maybe $100 per space in bonus money in addition to the prize?). Like many things, I hope this is a One-Time thing.

[GSFan2005]

Point of reference for the not quite eagle-eyed...

On tape day, this was apparently the early show.  Cassidy Schlitz, who won 1/2 Off is sitting in the front row of the audience.

[noahproblem]

So... does Cliff Hangers count as a win or a loss?

If we go by the Plinko standard I'd say it was a loss.  (And, honestly, even though $30K was won it didn't feel all that special at the end). 

Having said that it was mind-blowing to see Cliffy played for the big bucks, not to mention it had to be played at least a little bit differently from a strategic standpoint (normally you're just trying to keep it close since there's no extra bonus for exact bids or extra penalty for each dollar missed - today you had to be as exact as possible because money was lost for each dollar away).

[Swingbatta0]

So... does Cliff Hangers count as a win or a loss?

Since the Yodely Guy didn't go over the cliff, I'd say it counts as a win.

[vadernader]

For some reason I did not enjoy this episode as much as Monday's, not sure why. The DSW at the end was a complete surprise to me, but I'm glad to see they are being more lenient when coming up with endings for Showcases. Instead of trying to get them to be XX251-XX499 or XX751-XX999 it seems like they just let this one be how it was.

So... does Cliff Hangers count as a win or a loss?  It's times like this you miss Roger and his understanding of the games.  I mean, like, when Super Ball!! was played for a car, it counted as a loss if the car was won, but not the other prizes, so Cliff Hangers may not count like a normal "have to win  everything" cash game... but then, there was a lot not won.  Can a game be called won if only $30,000 of $250,000 is won?

It also seems like it should've been $260,000... having the mountain climber stop at 25 at the end of the game would have made for a ridiculously awkward situation that could have been entirely preventable.

I completely agree 100% with everything you just said.

For those who say Plinko has been never won because "The full advertised prize amount announced wasn't won".....would Cliff Hangers be considered a loss in this case?

[CJBojangles]

For those who say Plinko has been never won because "The full advertised prize amount announced wasn't won".....would Cliff Hangers be considered a loss in this case?

No, because the whole point of Cliff is to "keep the mountain climber from falling over the edge of the cliff." There's no finite rule stated in Plinko's explanation that says "if you accomplish X, you win".

Cliff was definitely won today.

[thepriceis_J]

On one hand you could say Cliff Hangers was won. The main objective of the game, which is to keep the mountain climber from falling, was completed. You could treat the cash as any other prize like a trip or some kitchen appliances, just that it was adjustable.

On the other hand you could treat it like a cash game and that it's top prize as advertised, just like in Plinko, Grand Game, or Punch-a-Bunch, wasn't won. You could say that for the first time in the game's history, unless I'm forgetting about some other instance, it was partially won.

[blozier2006]

Here's my take on Cliff Hangers today...

Something I saw in the FAQ that can be extended to this situation

In addition to this, Super Ball!! and Walk of Fame sometimes blurred the above distinctions between types of games; they weren’t car games, but in each game, the final prize was a car sometimes. Under these circumstances, the games’ normal requirements prevailed, meaning that it was possible to win a car in your pricing game and still technically not win the game.

I believe this would apply, that since the player accomplished the standard goal of the mountain climber not falling off the cliff, they won.

[Cartboy]

Squeeze Play, Now Or Then:  Nice wins!
Cliff Hangers:  Neat idea, but too bad more wasn't won.
Showcase:  The second of the season already & the first on the new podiums - awesome!

Good show overall, IMHO.

[Kev347]

The rest of the show was actually pretty good and even made me forget about it a little, but Cliff is one of the worst ideas they've had yet. It just would have been awkward if someone landed on step 25. Solving that by STARTING on step 1 just confuses everyone. Alternative solutions: 1) Offer 260k; 2) Offer a regular prize in addition to the 250k, that is still won on step 25 (although this would seem awkwardly puny); 3) Give the contestant step 1 for free and offer 250k, which would also just be confusing. There's really no good way around that awkwardness. Additionally, I am glad the SPs were tweaked to at least be a little harder. Having a normal playing of Cliff Hangers suddenly give away 150k+ and break Vickyann's record would have been the ultimate asterisk for me. With Cliff's normal difficulty level, there is no good way to tweak it for a huge prize that I can see

[GameShowKid]

Again, this iteration of Big Money Week has been more palatable and exciting than the last iterations games, but it still suffers from the sudden jumps in excitement and attention paid to a single segment of the show. ...I would still have like to have some reason to remain particularly excited throughout the whole show instead of all of the attention being paid to one segment then fleeting, win or lose. Spread the extra budget around the whole show.

Courtney's apparent oblivion to everything going on around her while she insisted to Drew that she continue her greetings speech was one of the funnier parts of the day (for me, anyway).

I agree with you on both comments. Like TPIRighteous and PayingTheRent wrote on Monday, there's a certain awkwardness and lack of balance to the show when one game is for a huge prize and the other parts (games and showcases) are pretty much as they are on any usual day. "Spreading the wealth" is an idea I would definitely support.

I noticed that Drew actually said "You won both showcases!" today and got a reaction from the contestant. It's an improvement over exclaiming "Double Showcase Winner!", but to me it would have been even better if he'd said it right after reading the actual retail price and difference, like Bob did ("You win BOTH showcases!"). 

$25,000 even for a car on The Price is Right?? $17,000 even for another car recently?? What is going on here?

[MannyCav]

Is it just me, or doesn't $250,000 - $230,000 = $20,000 (not $30,000)?

As cu2010 pointed out earlier, Hans started on 1 today, meaning that when Hans stopped on 23 at the end, Kyle erred by 22, not 23. In other words, it's $250k-$220k=$30k, not $250k-$230k=whatever. Hans was placed on the 1 at the start to avoid any awkward situations that Frank15 alluded to. While they could have placed him on the normal 0 and played for $260k, I feel that starting him on the 1 provides a slight but quite reasonable increase in difficulty. I don't even mind the hard small prizes today. Given the high stakes, I think it was within reason, and big money was still very much winnable.

As far as whether or not Cliffhangers was won or not, Drew did say that the only way to lose was for Hans to go over the cliff, but we can't necessarily go on everything Drew says, either. I really don't have a strong opinion either way--a lot of money was at stake today that could have easily been won or lost quickly, and that's what I'm mainly dwelling on about the game today.

There's something else I missed about Line 'em Up. Had Kevin ever guessed $15,570 in Line 'em Up, there would have been an... shall I say... unfortunate situation in the game.

[MannyCav]

Sorry, I got timed out of the edit button--would a mod please merge these two posts?

Really enjoyed Cliffhangers today...though I fear that Money Might be a gimmick for regular playings in the future (On a FAR Scaled back level, of course. Maybe $100 per space in bonus money in addition to the prize?). Like many things, I hope this is a One-Time thing.

I wouldn't mind this if it added some variety to the many playings of the game and let contestants play for a fair amount of money instead of just prizes.

[vadernader]

I'd also like to point out that I was confused why they were allowed to start the mountain climber at Step 1. Wouldn't S&P or anyone have some problem with that? (Of course we know they didn't end up having a problem and let them do this, but it just confuses me that they were allowed to make the game artificially harder for this one time.) It's like if they changed Lucky $even to Lucky $ix and only gave the contestant 6 dollars because they were playing for a Viper or something.

No, because the whole point of Cliff is to "keep the mountain climber from falling over the edge of the cliff." There's no finite rule stated in Plinko's explanation that says "if you accomplish X, you win".

I'm pretty sure the assumed rule is "Drop it down into the center slot". Yes, some think you have to drop it there 5 times to win and some think it is only 1 time to win, either way the goal is the same.

In this case, stopping the mountain climber at Step 23 might be equivalent to dropping it in the center slot 1 time where stopping it/him at Step 1 might be equivalent to dropping it in the center slot 5 times.

[wildbill0962]

Just my two cents...

I was a bit skeptical at first on how Cliff Hangers would work but after Drew explained the rules, I found it very interesting. I definitely liked how the prize was set up. Too bad he didn't win more money, but $30,000 is nothing to sneeze at.

And wow, another car ending in -000.

Also, congrats to Jeune on the DSW!