Just been catching up on El Precio Justo (Argentina) after a busy couple of months. The show has continued to tape and air during COVID-19 with some interesting and bewildering results.
But first... there was an interesting new game that debuted just prior to the virus impacting the show:
El Arbol De La Fortuna ("The Tree of Fortune")
In this game, there are different money value cards scattered on the reverse side of a large tree, including one top value card of $10,000, as well as several "Lose Everything" cards.
The contestant starts with 10 seconds to pick as many cards off the tree and can earn an extra 20 seconds through two small prizes. They are then blindfolded and pick as many cards as they can within the time limit. These are then revealed to the contestant one by one, with the cash amounts revealed accumulating. The contestant can bail at any time, as revealing a "Lose Everything" card loses them any money revealed and ends the game.
Since my last update when Clock Game debuted, it appears the show has fallen in love with that game. It's replaced the big wheel and showcase at the end of regular episodes - similar to other international versions - but was also getting played in place of one of the pricing games early on in the episodes.
Since COVID-19 hit, the show's become a bit of a mess and barely "The Price Is Right" at all the longer they've gone on. The episodes appear to now fill a 2 hour timeslot and have become variety shows including updates on the virus, and other non-pricing related games and segments. In some episodes, there have literally not been any pricing games played at all, and in others only the new Clock Game has been played.
Initially it appears they tried several formats, including:
1. Playing with just the minimum contestants needed to play the pricing games, with no audience, which worked okay and could work on the US version with some tweaks
2. Playing with contestants at home through video, which also worked okay and could work on the US versions as a "TPIR at Home" sort of format.
3. Up to 8 of the show's cast and crew acting as the contestants and audience members, playing a few of the pricing games as part of the 'variety' format.
The situation highlights a possible issue with the US version returning: beyond the audience social distancing issues, the show is a large production behind the scenes with lots of different games, organizing prizes, etc. that all still need to be able to be done for the show to be made.