Brace yourselves, as I know criticizing the Dob is tantamount to blasphemy 'round these parts. But I saw this comment on his Facebook page and I had to offer a rebuttal.
This is his response to a poster asking how he thinks the show is able to afford things like Dream Car and Big Money Weeks:
As I have mentioned before, I believe the show is no longer making a profit (we were struggling during Bob's final years, having to cut back every year on our production budget to make sure the show was profitable). I would wager that since Price is sold all around the world in other countries, it is important for the company to keep the main version on the air, even if it is losing money (it would be emabarrassing for the original version to be cancelled!). I believe they are pumping money into the show, feeding gimmicks and rebuilding games and sets, in the belief that these superficial actions will help the show.
I'm sorry, but this is just absolute nonsense.
1)If CBS wasn't making money off of TPiR, they would cancel it. Things like “prestige” and “tradition” mean very little in the TV business, the bottom line is everything. The show is currently doing very well ratings-wise and no one has given any indication that it isn't profitable, so the speculation that it isn't is completely baseless. 2)Nobody in other countries with their own version of TPiR gives a damn about what happens to the US version. I doubt most people who watch TPiR in, say, Thailand or France are even aware that it is based on an American show, and even if they were...they're going to stop watching because the American version is cancelled? Huh???
3)So now updating and refreshing the set is a bad thing? What was the point of creating a new board for Any Number in 1986, then, or bringing back Pick-a-Pair after a nearly two-year absence with an entirely different set in 1990, then, to give just two examples of set changes that occured under Roger? The current staff updates the set for the exact same reasons--it keeps the show from feeling stale and gives frequent viewers a bit of a surprise.
Posts like this just demonstrate how out-of-touch Roger is. I respect how he ran the show in Barker's day, but the fact is, for better or for worse, the TV business has changed.