FULL RECAP - TPiR 12/16/2008

[FPGWillyT]

Ted didn't break any rules, but whether he did anything wrong is open to debate. The point is that from here on, people are going to be wondering whenever a contestant scores a big win whether they did it by themselves from guessing or if they relied on help from someone who memorized everything and anything. ...

Jesus....have you ever even been to the show?  Are you one of those people who shout at the TV when someone guesses a price for the first prize in Cliffhangers of $40?  Are you honestly telling me that you, if you were in studio, wouldn't be shouting out $20?  If you are one of those people that would sit quietly as time went by in that studio, that's fine and I respect that.  But this isn't a quiz show, it's an audience participation show.  And too bad for the staff that they got hammered that day.  

Please stop in any way putting Ted at the forefront of this.  It's pure jealousy on ya'lls part and an outlandish attempt to draw the attention away from where it truly belongs.

It's the same concept - fan knows the prices to just about everything featured on the show, provides contestant with exact bids, gives contestant an advantage other contestants might not have. It's a valid comparison, though it's not on the same scale as Voltaire's bragging to everybody in line within an earshot of the pages & staff.

So if by circumstance you go with family, friends, significant other to see the show, are you going to self-disqualify because "gee...it's not fair to everyone else that I can help her so she's on her own"?

Because really I can't see the difference.  And it should be noted that Ted was not just helping Terry that day.  Having sat in the #3 many times, there were many eyes pointed in that direction.

[drmusic_99]

Jesus....have you ever even been to the show?  Are you one of those people who shout at the TV when someone guesses a price for the first prize in Cliffhangers of $40?  Are you honestly telling me that you, if you were in studio, wouldn't be shouting out $20? ...

You're right about Cliffhangers... which means it's not so interesting to watch. One presumes they began arranging the small prizes the way they do to give people a shot at winning. But now it's a cinch for anyone who watches the show, and that's not much fun to watch. Maybe it's about time they started making those more challenging. I mean, I win every time on the PC version of the game. That's great when you're trying to build up your score... but it's not a very suspenseful viewing experience.

If you want to reward people for paying attention, the Ten Chances rule is an example of the way to do it. Knowing the "rule" doesn't GUARANTEE a win, but it gives you a fighting chance.

[macnbc]

(see above quote)

I'd yell "$20!", based on an educated guess on general range of prices. Not "$18.53!" because I had memorized everything in advance.

There is a clear difference between intelligent strategy and cribbing.

To use another analogy, it's like what's happened with high school students and the SAT. Students are no longer attempting to study and become generally intelligent and therefore perform well. Instead, they study for the type of questions that the SAT asks, example questions and what-not. They're not cheating, but they are gaming the system. The end result has been that the SAT has become absolutely useless as a standardized test and an increasing number of colleges are removing their SAT requirement because it's become bogus.

Ditto here. Ted didn't cheat. The contestant didn't cheat. The contestant, did, however, have an unfair advantage over his opponent. He gamed the system.

At that point, the point of the game becomes moot and it just becomes an exercise in who watched more episodes, rather than who is the smarter shopper, which is the point of the show.

[TPIRZippy]

I recall from attending the show over 10 years ago Rod having the audience take the "Oath of Audience."  I will yell out the prices! and so on.  Isn't that basically what Ted did? 

Basically you have 325 lifelines to use at once and you can pick and choose who to trust or ignore.  If the show uses the same prizes over and over again, they can't be surprised that some fans will show up and put that knowledge to work.  We've seen contestants many times before who got onstage with perfect bids and then ran the table in their pricing games because they knew the prices or knew someone who did.  We've seen the audience react to Klondike bars and famous Hole in Two Ella explaining how the audience was pricing items in the line so they all knew they were $2.99.  (We've also seen $850 bids on toy guitars and $9000 for a pair of surfboards, but that's beside the point. )

Drew's reveal left an awful lot to be desired, but who knows what they told him to do or say.  But the way things have been so uneven lately, I'm afraid it might have just been Drew messing up.

The contestants not appearing on stage getting to appear on stage modeling prizes was great....

[MrPlinko]

Some Questions For Those Who Have Been to A Taping: (In light of today's events in the Showcases)

1.) What normally happens between the Showcase bids and the commercial breaks?  Does Drew know the prices of the Showcases or anything else ahead of time?

2.) Is Drew told who to start with in Showcase reveals?  Bob used to poll the audience asking who to start with, so does this matter?  Did the producers between normal showcase reveals and during commercials request different ways of dealing with them during the Bob and Dew era's.

3.) What was the time of the stopdown?  Even on this forum, it has ranged from 20-45 minutes.  What was the audience doing during this time and where were Drew and the staff?

Joe

[drmusic_99]

I recall from attending the show over 10 years ago Rod having the audience take the "Oath of Audience."  I will yell out the prices! and so on.  Isn't that basically what Ted did? 

Really? In his warmup, Johnny O. would tell the contestants to make up their own minds instead of listening to the audience.

[TPIRZippy]

Really? In his warmup, Johnny O. would tell the contestants to make up their own minds instead of listening to the audience.

If you're onstage, you don't have to listen to the suggestions from the audience.  Some of the suggestions stink (what Gene Rayburn would call a rotten answer).  But people should offer them up.

It's what I remember from Rod's warmup.  He wanted everyone to be excited and involved (not like the lady in the audience caught sleeping on camera once).  Yelling out the prices was part of it.

I haven't managed to see the show in person since 2004 before Rich.  Does the current warm-up involve encouragement to yell out prices and try to help the contestants?

I just found it interesting that it seems to go back and forth between explicitly telling people to help each other to apparently sequestering people who are too helpful in the opinion of the producers.  Maybe some audience members are deemed too helpful simply because they will cost the production company $$$$ in DSW prizes!

[JoePlinko]

I've always read on here, but I thought what a momentous day to join.  Unfortunately, I watch the show with my friends and I know more than they do about it. And while today, I went nuts, they went "Oh, that's crap.  There's no way."

I've read everything in this thread and understand what happened was perfectly fine, but I've read three posts on cbs.com where they are questioning the integrity like my buddies and one on Buzzerblog who was overly rude but made a good point.  What if the people who watch don't ever hear about Ted and they just continue to think mistakely that the show was rigged and people start tuning off the show.

Is anyone else concerned about this, like I am, because no matter what I said today to my roommate about how there was no way to rig the show he just kept on saying it was rigged.

Comments?

[Bgamer90]

^^Yep. Definitely. In all honesty, I thought today's show was "rigged" until I read all the posts in this thread. And as you have said, the average viewer doesn't know anything about this website or Ted. This will definitely turn a lot of people off.

[3StrikesFan]

Some Questions For Those Who Have Been to A Taping: (In light of today's events in the Showcases)

1.) What normally happens between the Showcase bids and the commercial breaks?  Does Drew know the prices of the Showcases or anything else ahead of time?

If I remember correctly and granted this was during Bob's tenure, Bob just talked to the audience. The stage people inserted the signs into the showcase podiums and they put the prices for the showcases into the holders.

2.) Is Drew told who to start with in Showcase reveals?  Bob used to poll the audience asking who to start with, so does this matter?  Did the producers between normal showcase reveals and during commercials request different ways of dealing with them during the Bob and Dew era's.

Unless it happened earlier in the years Bob was on, when I went in 2004, Bob never polled the audience to see whose showcase should be read first. He may have polled the audience to see who they thought won their showcase, but that's it. I think Bob was told whom to start with when he was going to read the showcases from Roger or Kathy. If a contestant won both showcases, obviously Bob had to know to read their bid last.

[jzion12345]

I've always read on here, but I thought what a momentous day to join.  Unfortunately, I watch the show with my friends and I know more than they do about it. And while today, I went nuts, they went "Oh, that's crap.  There's no way."....
Is anyone else concerned about this, like I am, because no matter what I said today to my roommate about how there was no way to rig the show he just kept on saying it was rigged.

I am concerned that people like that will cause the show to go down. as much as I disagree with what they said, there is a huge population of the "target audience" that Fremantle wants that will see it this way. Sorry to say, but most casual viewers will not view the show the way we do. I mean, even after the documentary about Michael Larsen aired, people STILL think he cheated, even though he was cleared of any wrongdoing. All he did was beat the system. That is exactly what Terry did, and I salute him. Most viewers, though, will not. They'll say he cheated, and that the show is rigged to bring in viewers. Sad, but true.

[Scott5114]

Let's say Ted had been picked as a contestant today instead of Terry. Assume Ted would have done everything that he recommended Terry do, and the outcome would have been the same. Ted would have used his own knowledge to score the $500, lose Switch?, and score the exacta. We can all agree this would have been okay, correct?

What actually happened was Ted directed Terry to do things the way he would have done them. Given that audience participation is legal under the rules of the game, and in fact encouraged, what's the big deal? Terry was free to disregard Ted and follow the fat guy with the beard in the sixth row aisle seat instead. Even if Ted had approached Terry before the game and said he knew the prices, Terry could have easily disbelieved him and followed someone else. Terry chose to listen to Ted and it paid off. Savvy move by Terry.

Now, there are some people who disagree with the question posed at the end of Paragraph 1. Some people say that violates the spirit of the game. Well, that's bull hockey puck, and you know it. If you have a chance at being on a game show, learning as much as you can so you can Be Prepared™ should you be called on to participate shouldn't be suspicious. It's smart. If you were going on Jeopardy! you'd memorize information likely to be useful on the show, right? You'd learn all you can about Potent Potables. If you didn't, you'd get your clock cleaned.

TPIR only really differs in this regard in that the questions are themed—they all involve prices in one way or another. So just like knowing that Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln as President would be useful information if you were going on Jeopardy!, knowing that V8 vegetable juice is $3.15 would be useful information to have if you were going on TPIR. As long as you have nothing like a price list or reference list of Presidents, neither one is cheating. On neither game can you be disqualified simply because of the knowledge in your head. On both games there are questions asked and defined answers that must be supplied to be considered correct. Knowing the correct answer is key to being a successful contestant.

*  *  *

All I can say about Drew's hosting of the final act of the show (which is all I've seen, on YouTube) is that it was atrocious. Come on, Drew, you sound like you're preparing your income tax return. You have to put some enthusiasm into it. Have! To!

[gamefro]

So me still being a week behind, I was getting ready to watch the 12/10 episode online when I saw this recap thread was up to *11* pages.  I'm glad I decided to watch this one right away...


This really was a great show.  It was one of the most enjoyable episodes I've seen in a long time.  There were great and very energetic contestants throughout the entire show, the pricing game lineup was great, the wins were good (too bad about bailing out in Baggy) and that One Away segment was awesome (gotta love the 5-horn win).  The first showcase was also really cool and creative, especially using CNAOS as models (that did well with little prep).  And what was topping it off was that Drew had really turned it on throughout the entire show: great interactions and good hosting (especially One Away).  The only things I did not like was Drew's "trashy" opening, the silly prize intros (of course), and the multiple tacky aspects of the "Every Trip in the House" showcase.  Otherwise, I'd say this is one of the best shows of the season since the show has entered its "new direction".


Re: the showcase reveal.  Kudos to Terry for his perfect bid...or rather, kudos to Ted to giving Terry his perfect bid.  After reading all 11 pages of this thread, I will say that there was nothing wrong with what transpired, although I can see where the average or casual viewer might think otherwise.  A loyal fan and audience member shouted a suggestion to an on-stage contestant, and it happened to be on the nose.  They use so many items on the show over and over that things get recognizable.  To the loyal watchers of Price, they're going to pick up on things.  I mean, I may not have the encyclopedic knowledge of all the prices like Ted does, but I know enough that I would have gone all the way on It's In The Bag without help, won Switch and One Away and Pick A Number, and I'd have come within about $1000 of that showcase myself--all because I watch regularly.  (I can recite from memory prize copy of certainly of their frequently used items, but that's for another thread.)  Nobody broke any rules here...the show was the unfortunate victim of its own predictability.

Whether there's the appearance of impropriety or not, if the show was to proceed with the taping and the reveal, it's Drew's job to play it up and make it an exciting and historic moment.  Instead, we just got a standard and mumbled reveal.  This was really disappointing, especially after all the energy that he'd shown throughout the entire episode.  In my observation, Drew's showcase reveals have been improving this season, so to see such a lackluster reveal on a perfect bid showcase is just disheartening and, frankly, inexcusable--despite anything that may have happened during the stopdown.  Heck, the casual fans that are crying fowl might have had a different take on this had it been hosted with a bit more professionalism and excitement. 

I've cut Drew and the new direction a lot of slack this season, but that showcase reveal left such a bad taste on the end of an otherwise exciting and enjoyable episode--but it doesn't mean I will stop watching.


By the way: did anybody else notice that the text of the DSW graphic seemed off center?

[MrPlinko]

I believe that everything about this show and this episode was on the level and fair.  One of Price's great things that not even Drew or Fremantle can change is that it is a RANDOM audience participation show, and if audience members have been practicing the pricing of grocery items, small prizes, large prizes, and even totaling Showcases, more power to them!  They (unlike what Drew has shown this season) are dedicated to their show and its beauty.

There is no way that Terry could have "cheated."  He was able to listen to a very experienced viewer who knew the Price of the Showcase exactly right who was in the audience.  Ted did not know in the studio what games were going to be played on this episode, Ted did not know what the prizes were going to be for any IUFB, games, or Showcases, I am also to assume that Terry and Ted did not have any conversations with regards to how the show was going to be presented.  Ted nor Terry had no price sheets or totals or anything with them.  There was also no pre-arranged notion in any way of knowing who would be called to "Come on Down."  With the Big Wheel totally luck in its spinning, there is no way of knowing who would even get to Showcases.  I just cannot see any form of cheating involved from any parties.

I am really wondering how the staff feels about this at Price.  I am pretty sure that Golden Road. Net's staff feels the same way that I do.

Joe

[Dietevil]

Congrats to Ted. Boo to Drew for that reveal.