I totally agree about Card Game being intentional which helped show the return of the audience. On another note, that was one of things I admired during the Superball!! Era. Just something about playing a pricing game with the several people as fans/spectators in the background rooting you on. Of course, if they wanted to go "big" on the premiere they could've done a 3 car (or 3 trip) Most Expensive segment. However, I think they still could've done that within Door 2 in the new studio. So it was great to have Card Game on this first episode, especially with the outcome.
To respond to jbrocato: It's been a long time now, probably about 2 years ago at this point, where the BBB name change was brought up. Someone inquired if they'd change it back to Barker's Bargain Bar in the aftermath of Bob's passing, and someone else concluded that it was probably not going to happen. Maybe one time, but no more than that. I still agreed, but I think that's a no-go. Who knows? Obviously there are episodes featuring Bargain Game that were taped while Bob was still with us that will air soon (1-2 I suppose), so I wouldn't be surprised if they actually did it one time if they wanted to honor him later on. Not going to bet on it.
I do agree about the set. While the name of the game doesn't need to be changed, I do agree about the lack of appeal in terms of the current set. I'd love to see the return of the old set or something else, but it's still unnecessary, especially when this is a quick, 2-prizer.
I probably would not have noticed or thought of the end of the closing from Drew at the bottom of the hour for a week. Therefore, I don't think I'll miss it too much if it's done away with for good. I wasn't a big fan of the mid-show bumper going away 18 years ago, but IMO, it's not a big deal. I guess everybody's used to TPIR being 60 Minutes long as opposed to one half hour in length similar to other game shows; so no need to mention pricing games & fabulous showcases in the second half of TPIR anymore