I agree with others about it being unfair to compare one day of hosting/announcing to several years' worth, but...
Craig did a really impressive job today. I'm sure he took a crash course in Price is Right before hosting, but there was a huge difference between his performance today and Drew's performance early on in Season 36. Heck, there was a huge difference between him and Drew just in general. He was very over-the-top in his delivery, but that was to be expected. Otherwise, he was awesome with contestant interaction, and he seemed like a pro when it came to handling the overbid in the Showcase, something Drew isn't all that great that. He just fit right in with the show and kept it moving at a good pace, as if he had been hosting it for a while and not just that once. Editing probably helped, and for once, I might actually have to give Mr. Richards credit for the production job, as I'm sure this special was no easy task. I'll have more to say on that in a moment...
Shadoe Stevens... It was almost surreal to hear him announce. Yes, he was a little shaky at times, especially with a few of his "Come on Downs," but with a little more practice, he would make a hell of an announcer. Sure, he is no Rod Roddy or Johnny Olsen, but his voice has that same booming power, for lack of a better word, that has been lacking since Rod's passing. And the fact that he was dressed like Rod was just the icing on the cake.
I also have to give Geoffrey Peterson credit for the few announcing roles that he had. His voice actor (
Josh Robert Thompson) could also certainly announce for the show. I wouldn't go as far as to say he is better than Shadoe, as Shadoe had some really good moments today, but I would really like to hear him announce an entire show sometime (as himself, not Geoff).
Secretariat's role was pretty hilarious. From the mic delivery to modeling the prizes, Secretariat did about as good of job as any horse you'll ever see model a prize.
Now onto the show itself...
Mike, well done. You put together a show that easily could have been 6/6 perfect had Squeeze Play not proven to be the Achilles Heel at the end, and even that didn't seem too difficult (that 1 clearly didn't look right to me; too bad the contestant couldn't hear me yelling). Lucky $even was set up properly for the occasion...well, pretty much all of the games were set up properly. Great job on that. Also, I'm sure it was no easy task having a new host, announcer, horse and animatronic robot (also serving as an announcer at times) in the mix, so great job there as well.
The show itself was an interesting experiment. On a day-to-day basis, I'll take Drew over Craig, simply because Craig just doesn't fit this role very well (over-the-top voice, comedic style, etc). On the announcer front, George better look out. Shadoe is a much better announcer, and so is "Geoff." It'll be interesting to see what happens now that both of them have been given a shot at announcing the show, Shadoe in particular. This wasn't a very good day for George, I'll say that much.
All in all, as crazy as the idea was, I wouldn't mind seeing it happen again...however, I'm sure it won't.
