Rich Fields is probably the worst permanent announcer the show has had.
The thing is, when Rich started, he sounded great. But over time, he seemed to become more and more over the top. And I have to wonder if he was actually ENCOURAGED to announce that way. Because even if he somehow couldn't have heard how over the top he was, surely the producers did and would have said something if they weren't happy with him.
I don't know why he was removed from the show. After all they put him through in those "Drewcases," I think he deserved better.
But speaking of over the top...now we have someone who's even more so!
George Gray is a wonderful human being. As a support for Drew, warm-up guy, comedic sidekick, fill-in model, professional audience wrangler, he's 10/10. He adds a ton to making an enjoyable taping atmosphere.
But his announcing voice just doesn't click with me at all and I'm annoyed by the way he adds a high intonation on things like "In-CLEW-did!"
THAT. Right there. And I'm so glad someone else said it!!!
George has a great voice and his on-camera personality is very positive.
But his announcing has become horrendous. Gamesurf is dead-on with the "in-CLEW-did" thing. It's at times as if George is trying to sing through his copy.
And I'll say this about the calldowns: think about it...telling someone on that show to "Come on Down" is potentially giving them life-changing news! It's a GREAT thing.
But listen to George's first four calldowns on
any show. And try this little exercise: make a mental note of the pitch and tone he uses for each of the first four "come on down" calldowns. And in your head, substitute the words, "You got the job!" (Essentially, you're on a casting call...so if you impress the producer, you get cast in the show.)
His first and fourth calldowns, when you substitute "You got the job!" with the same tone and pitch he uses, makes it sound depressing. On the word "down," he's using a DOWNWARD pitch. But if it's good news, you'd use an UPWARD pitch because it IS good news. Instead, they come off sounding like they're being said by someone who's a bit too interested in hearing his own voice!
His second "come on down" almost passes. His third is the worst...it almost comes off like a question instead of a statement.
And he does those first four calldowns the exact same way every single show. Pick any show and sub "Come on Down" in your head for "You got the job!" You'll hear it.
Am I overthinking it? Maybe. But then again some of us of a certain age grew up with shows actually run by Mark Goodson who thought things out to this degree to get into the psychology of the game. If you're old enough to have been immersed in Goodson's vision of how game shows should work, today's shows -- not just picking on 'Price' here, but ALL of them now -- fall short because it appears that there's not nearly as much thought going into things.
I took a broadcast announcing class and back then, they were still teaching us to mark up your copy the way we know Johnny Olson did. We were encouraged to read the scripts, study them, look for meaning and think about what we were trying to convey.
It just doesn't feel like that's happening anymore, and unfortunately, on a show like 'Price' where the announcer has SO MUCH TIME in the show, it's harder to enjoy.