As you note, we will get a functional vaccine in due time. If we're really lucky, perhaps either an effective stopgap treatment (maybe the plasma therapy that has been mentioned from time to time) will come into common usage in the interregnum, or the best case scenario, the virus mutates into a less virulent form where it's no longer deadly. It will take some time to get all this together, but by and large we are on the right path as of now.
Or one of the ones using existing drugs, since those would be easy to do, with much of the "background" work already known about them. After all, most people aren't overly concerned with any number of other things that you can get, knowing there is something out there that you can take to make it better.
All of us on this board come from different areas of the country (some of us are in different countries entirely!) and are subject to — in some cases — vastly different protocol for handling this virus.
My point is, we’ll all be at different stages come this summer. We’'ll probably be back to playing Little League games with a full crowd in my state. New York might just be opening JCPenny back up (assuming they even survive this) at that point.
Absolutely - while those on here not in or around NY probably primarily hear the huge numbers that NY has (more than many countries), what you may not hear is that throughout the process somewhere over 90% of those have been confined to NY City and a few surrounding counties. So even in a single state, there is a major variance, no less from one state to another.
If the economy is slow to recover, CBS will have a much harder time selling ads at the rate they'’ve been accustomed to, which will translate into a limited prize budget. Also, trips are their bread and butter for cutting corners with the budget. If you can'’t offer trips until a vaccine is released, how do you fill that gaping hole without destroying the budget? Those are the questions I’'m more interested in right now, not speculation over something that has a less than .01% chance of happening.
Maybe the question is, do you have to not offer trips? While normally there is a time period (1 year I believe) to take them, nothing stops them from changing that to, say 1 year beyond when X happens (say the vaccine is available)? That way, you still get it but can just delay taking it until it is safe to do so.
Perhaps they already started this for those who taped currently being shown shows that wouldn't be able to take them now as well?
Good question on the ads - I know so far (locally) there are some not advertising (mostly those who can't do anything, like a bus company) but other things have popped up in their places (like a locally owned food production company) - but no way to know without knowing someone in that business if they are getting a better deal or just chose to do ads now to let people know that they are around and can help (by delivering their items directly).
Obviously, if they had to do something different for a time to tape (less people, maybe pre-interviewing via online methods to limit how many needed to be in studio) it wouldn't be the same, but there might be ways to work with it.
How about some form of those video conferences that can be limited by passwords - basically let 50 (or how ever many) people "sign in" from home to watch as it's taped, having them show up on the screens so you can hear them cheering like they were actually in the audience. Different, but would give some of the feel of having an actual audience.
