Hi Everyone,
I'm on my way home from the first episode taped of season 37 and I'm stopped to simply upload my report of changes. Please leave any questions for me and I'll be happy to get to them around midnight tonight.
SPOILER ALERT: Wait till September if you don't want to hear the changes. SPOILERS START NOW!
These are the BIG spoilers everyone has been wanting to hear about.
Tape Date: 7/20 1 PM
Production Number: 4441K
Date air: September 29th.
Basically: no gameplay changes. Same old show. (nearly) all changes are cosmetic.
There is no video wall, and if there was... it was nowhere to be seen.
First: What hasn't changed
- There are still onebids for each of the 6 games that are played, 3 in each half.
- Drew Carey is still the host
- Rich Fields is still the announcer
- There is a white floor with two red asterisks at contestant's row.
- Stan Blits still does contest coordinating as normal.
- There are two showcase showdowns and two showcases shown. Each player bids on their one showcase.
- The showcase showdown is played with the same 20 space wheel with the same rules as before (3 small cosmetic changes have occured... see What has Changed).
-Still three doors, a turntable, and that funny looking "producer's window" that was introduced late S36.
-The set basically looks the same execpt for changes noted in what has changed.
Second: What has changed
- The wheel holding sides is no longer red and black. is a purple motif with a large, silver pricedown dollar sign on each side of the wheel.
-The wheel has (temporarially) every space that is not .5, .15, and $1.00 a purple color as well(.5 and .15 are still green and $1.00 is red). Drew mentioned on air that the color change was something that happened during the vacation between S36 and S37 and that it would be returned to black on next week's tapings.
-Primetime doors and primetime turntable (square motif, same colors).
-The bonuses on the wheel are now $10,000 if you land on .5 or .15 in your bonus spin and $25,000 if you land on the $1.00 space.
-Every contestant now has their name written down on a card if they are called on down. Jeff shows the card to the audience as rich says their name (I'm not sure if this is a change).
-Kathy appears to be talking to each contestant after each game, so it might be assumed that she is the producer (I was unfortunatly not looking at the monitors when the credits rolled).
-Just to be sure, Roger was not there (this was expected).
-The door prize was $100 + Stan's book + the DVD game (not in a tin) (Not sure if this is a change).
UNSURE:
-Did not notice any difference in Rich's opening speil but, it is dang loud on the set at that time so I couldn't hear anything.
-I believe the monitors still showed catchphrases during the opening speil although I wasn't really looking.
-There were some guys in suits near the producer's table before the show started. I have no idea who they are.
-There was a woman in at the producer's table with dark hair who wasn't Kathy. I don't know if she is normally there.
And I can say this:
You might be writing slightly higher checks on Check Game.
