Something interesting about shooting the light box live is that it would often look different depending on the episode. Specifically, sometimes you couldn't see the bulbs at all, and other times, the bulbs were in full view. I'm guessing this depends on how far the camera was zoomed into the light box. Regardless, this is something I loved about TPIR in the past...because so many things were done live, there were bound to be inconsistencies from one episode to the next, and that's part of the beauty that this show had. (Another example would be the ticket plug before it was electronic...sometimes, it would not be centered or steady on the screen.)
Watching the light box in action was also one of my favorite parts of seeing the show live, and I'm disappointed (but not surprised) that it will no longer be used. Still, I am grateful that they are at least using a taped shot of the same light box. (I would feel differently if it were a taped shot of a different light box, or a computer generated one.)