one thing I do miss on today's shows....

[Superballer]

...you don't tend to see too many elderly contestants anymore (Price being an exception from time to time).  It seems that too many shows homogenize the type of contestants they put on, usually young and attractive.  Which is understandable from the point of view of likely advertising, and is generally following with the rest of TV, but I do miss the wider age range we used to have.  Especially since often times elderly contestants were among the most entertaining to watch and easy to root for.  Anyone else here feel the same way? 

[whowouldeverhurtawhammy]

Now that you mentioned it, I do seem to notice that at times these days on TPIR...

[Trevor Tuominen]

And they weren’t on caffeine.

[AussieEvil]

Game shows now mostly audition from casting agencies, and I just find it sad that producers now are going for the kind of contestant who acts stereotypical and ACTING!! so much you'd think they were fakes. Game shows used to just have everyday people appearing, but that doesn't go anymore in the new television landscape does it? Everyone's gotta have that perfectly crafted story and an attitude that smacks of having several stimulants in their bloodstream...

[Bluescreen_ODeff]

"This lady is 83 and she does PUSH-UPS!"

You see, producers, there's still quite a crop of "fascinating people" to put on your show.

[ThomHuge]

You see, producers, there's still quite a crop of "fascinating people" to put on your show.

You can have the best story in the world, but if you can't tell it with zeal, it falls completely flat. That's more true than ever in the modern TV world. As much as I loathe the hypercaffeinated cookie-cutter contestants we have nowadays, I understand the logic: "If we can't offer them something that's loud and high-energy, you can bet the folks on the show on the other network will." Or, equally likely, "We have to get people on our show that'll give us YouTube moments that people will want to watch, hopefully more than once, and that means loud, high-energy, and as far from 'ordinary' as we can get." Either statement is undoubtedly followed by: "Well, we can't put George on a treadmill and trip him every day...and we can't tell people to tackle George like that time in Most Expensive...and we won't even discuss Samoans...well, we'll just have to pick people that are really hyper and hope for the best!"

/As usual, this wouldn't be quite so problematic if Drew and the producers knew what to do with spontaneous moments, but despite all the improvements he has made I still don't think this is among Drew's strengths. I know what people will say but for comparison, look at the season 27 finale that got posted not that long ago, and skip to Clock Game. When that player went straight from $798 to $800, Bob had a fit, and had fun with that contestant for the entire rest of the show. Yes, that was a Bob Barker way of handling it, but I've never seen a Drew Carey approach that was really analogous to it.