I’m surprised no one has pointed this out, but the omission of ‘Ask the Audience’ is due, obviously, to there being no audience present.
If we look at the UK revival format, four lifelines are present throughout the game: 50:50, Phone a Friend, Ask the Audience and Ask the Host. There is no option to swap a lifeline during the top tier level questions, and if I had to take an educated guess, they are only doing it now to fill the gap of the missing lifeline without reintroducing another old lifeline from the syndicated version.
Also, I do wonder if there are plans to eventually include a ‘Fastest Finger’ segment, assuming the show eventually tapes with regular people instead of celebrities. The set featured on this celebrity edition is modified slightly to include a space for the celebrity friend, so I don’t believe FF was ever meant to be a feature on this particular version. That being said, the friend’s computer panel is designed exactly like the UK FF panels.
When comparing the sets side-by-side, they are nearly identical. The primary difference is the UK version has a pair of pits for FF that the celebrity version does not — but — a civilian version on ABC would have no need for a celebrity friend, so that makes me wonder if there is or will be an alternate configuration for FF. Seeing that they are staying true to almost every other facet of the original run, it wouldn’t surprise me to see it come back.
As for my thoughts on the show, I’m not a fan of Kimmel for...reasons...but I think he is doing a fine job and fits the role. Some say “he’s no Regis,” but I personally compare Regis to Chris Tarrant and think the latter was better in the UK, but that’s my own opinion.
The graphics are identical to the UK version, minus the color scheme being true to the original run. I might be in the minority here, but I actually quite liked them.
Finally, Mike Richards is an executive producer on the show. Not sure how many were aware of that or caught it on the end credits, but whatever the extent of his involvement is, I think he’s doing a fine job. In fact, Davies, Richards and even Kimmel are all listed as EPs.