How come the nighttime episodes aren't million dollar spectacular anymore?

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

also, note that a lot of these shows in those days that had an advertised million+ prize usually made it all but impossible to win it... which would also cause ratings to eventually cool off once people realize that fact
(plus when this eventuality happened with the first run of Deal or no Deal, the Million Dollar Mission happened... and we STILL couldn't give away the top prize by having half the cases hold it)

heck, modern day Wheel of Fortune still has that exact logic in place

(edited for clarity)

[TPIRfan#9821]

That wasn't the point being made by those numbers. The million-dollar gimmick didn't comparatively do better compared to other daytime episodes. I believe that is a stronger correlation to the question you proposed than assuming people in a recession will watch more TV instead of doomscroll.

I get you personally want more MDS shows, and you're trying to throw in speculation to justify your wants, but CBS has been doing fine with the At Night episodes for several years now. Drew has now hosted more primetime specials than Bob, most of those being labeled At Night. They don't need the seven-digit number to entice people to watch.

[Madskills2]

The Million Dollar Spectaculars were a product of the big money game show era of the early 2000s. They only came back during Drew's first season because of the writer's strike which halted scripted productions. As others have said, TV is very different now than it was 15 years old, and the Price is Right at Night episodes put up really good numbers for TV in the 2020s.

Tv is indeed very different but there are still shows offering a million dollars as a prize. And with another strike likely, now is a perfect time to bring back the million dollar format.

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

and how many of them has lasted beyond a single season?

or make the million nigh-impossible (like i mentioned before)

[Madskills2]

That wasn't the point being made by those numbers. The million-dollar gimmick didn't comparatively do better compared to other daytime episodes. I believe that is a stronger correlation to the question you proposed than assuming people in a recession will watch more TV instead of doomscroll.

I get you personally want more MDS shows, and you're trying to throw in speculation to justify your wants, but CBS has been doing fine with the At Night episodes for several years now. Drew has now hosted more primetime specials than Bob, most of those being labeled At Night. They don't need the seven-digit number to entice people to watch.

Of course I want more million dollar episodes but my point is that with a recession likely plus another writer's strike (and possibly a directors and actors strike too), a million dollars will suddenly seem appealing in a few short months. It helps that people seems to be reducing the number of streaming services they subscribed to lately.

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

i give up, there's no reasoning with this guy

remember how they made the Million available after so many hoops on Wheel?

remember the Barker era MDS rules with the big wheel?

and again,.. the MDM on DOND

[Madskills2]

i give up, there's no reasoning with this guy

remember how they made the Million available after so many hoops on Wheel?

remember the Barker era MDS rules with the big wheel?

and again,.. the MDM on DOND

Why do you need to be rude? I haven't talked back to you or anything.

The barker era rules could be the solution to the complaints that a million can be too easy to give away during the carey era in 2008.

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

do people want impossible million dollar shows?


or shows with a lower prize budget, but with more FUN in it (like what ABC's shows have for the most part)

[Madskills2]

do people want impossible million dollar shows?


or shows with a lower prize budget, but with more FUN in it (like what ABC's shows have for the most part)

A show can be both fun and have a high prize budget. I love the survivor shows along with amazing race.  A fun show doesn't need a million but for a show that offered a million dollars on primetime many times before, the current crop feels like a massive downgrade.

[TPIRfan#9821]

You're right. A recession would cause more people to cut back on services they don't need, and that includes streamers. In addition, a writer's strike would cause linear TV to search for more unscripted content, such as game shows.

I believe you are fundamentally insisting that people would rather turn on a TV with an antenna (because if someone was paying for cable, they would have probably cancelled that first before any streaming services) and go out of their way to watch a program with 15 minutes of commercials solely because of the $1,000,000 instead of scrolling through TikTok or YouTube and watch whatever they care more about for free.

If viewers were already going out of their way to watch linear television, there are so many hoops they'd go through already, that the million dollars would be a tertiary reason to watch. As shown with the ratings of the Season 50 premiere, the average viewership didn't increase for the week they offered the million dollars. You have stated what you think could happen (viewers suddenly hear some Joe Schmoe can win $1,000,000, so they will drop everything just to watch the show), but haven't given concrete evidence as to why a recession would lead to more television viewers in general (as again, social media is FREE and it is rare to have television but not internet), as well as why a CBS exec would expect a major increase in viewership specifically by just the million instead of just having a recognizable game show (given that there's recent data showing otherwise). I'll respond again once I see a reasonable argument, but responding to every single one of our remarks with just two or three sentences with your wants and hypothetical scenarios isn't successfully convincing any of us.

[Madskills2]

You're right. A recession would cause more people to cut back on services they don't need, and that includes streamers. In addition, a writer's strike would cause linear TV to search for more unscripted content, such as game shows.

I believe you are fundamentally insisting that people would rather turn on a TV with an antenna (because if someone was paying for cable, they would have probably cancelled that first before any streaming services) and go out of their way to watch a program with 15 minutes of commercials solely because of the $1,000,000 instead of scrolling through TikTok or YouTube and watch whatever they care more about for free.

If viewers were already going out of their way to watch linear television, there are so many hoops they'd go through already, that the million dollars would be a tertiary reason to watch. As shown with the ratings of the Season 50 premiere, the average viewership didn't increase for the week they offered the million dollars. You have stated what you think could happen (viewers suddenly hear some Joe Schmoe can win $1,000,000, so they will drop everything just to watch the show), but haven't given concrete evidence as to why a recession would lead to more television viewers in general (as again, social media is FREE and it is rare to have television but not internet), as well as why a CBS exec would expect a major increase in viewership specifically by just the million instead of just having a recognizable game show (given that there's recent data showing otherwise). I'll respond again once I see a reasonable argument, but responding to every single one of our remarks with just two or three sentences with your wants and hypothetical scenarios isn't successfully convincing any of us.

I'm going to change the question a bit. Would the show get the same ratings if all of the prizes offered on the nighttime edition were less than $1000?

[OneBidTris]

Mostly echoing the point that there was a point where it was trendy to have the Million Dollars be the big draw of these shows 15 years ago, and those specials were all pretty much from that point. We didn't even have them for a while outside those trio of primetime specials and those showed that people still have the appetite for regular old Price at Night. Whether it works better with celebrities or alone, they've shown in the last few years that they don't need to offer a mega prize to get people to watch. People just like to watch the show and the fact that it can still pull 5 million a week in when ratings for all of TV is down is nothing short of incredible.

Perhaps it's not everything you want from it, but they are willing to go higher budget and have shown in even this past batch of shows that they are fine with upping the prizes on the show. Whether it's raising cash amounts or offering nicer cars, they've got a winning format on their hands and they know what they're doing.

I'm not sure this two person discussion is helping the topic at hand. It's not an either or situation and it doesn't seem relevant to dwell on past eras of game shows when it's changed quite a bit.

EDIT: Even if they stuck to what the normal daytime show did with one or two nicer cars (like they've done before), I think the audience would still be into the show. The Price is Right is an institution people love and we've experience a game show boom.

[Madskills2]

Mostly echoing the point that there was a point where it was trendy to have the Million Dollars be the big draw of these shows 15 years ago, and those specials were all pretty much from that point. We didn't even have them for a while outside those trio of primetime specials and those showed that people still have the appetite for regular old Price at Night. Whether it works better with celebrities or alone, they've shown in the last few years that they don't need to offer a mega prize to get people to watch. People just like to watch the show and the fact that it can still pull 5 million a week in when ratings for all of TV is down is nothing short of incredible.

Perhaps it's not everything you want from it, but they are willing to go higher budget and have shown in even this past batch of shows that they are fine with upping the prizes on the show. Whether it's raising cash amounts or offering nicer cars, they've got a winning format on their hands and they know what they're doing.

I'm not sure this two person discussion is helping the topic at hand. It's not an either or situation and it doesn't seem relevant to dwell on past eras of game shows when it's changed quite a bit.

EDIT: Even if they stuck to what the normal daytime show did with one or two nicer cars (like they've done before), I think the audience would still be into the show. People just like watching the shows and we've experience a game show boom.

Kind of brings me to my next question. Would people be happy if they went in the opposite direction and made the prizes cheaper at less than $1000? After all, it's still the same game show so why complain?

[GRWHAMMY the 2nd]

this kinda thing is why daytime Wheel of Fortune eventually died out (that and possibly the exit of Pat, leading eventually to the CBS run with Bob Goen)

[Madskills2]

this kinda thing is why daytime Wheel of Fortune eventually died out (that and possibly the exit of Pat, leading eventually to the CBS run with Bob Goen)

Which leads to the point that a fun gameshow like this that gets a million dollar prize to give away and proper promotion (I don't believe the advertising for the daytime edition promised a million) could give this strong ratings than what tpir at night is pulling in