TPiR Recap - 9/27/2013 (Plinko 30th Anniversary Special)

[Off_trak]

It was an ok show. They definitely should have mixed up the way they introduced the game each time though. Some bad bounces and only two chips twice did suck the life out of the show. By time the 4th IUFB came around, I was saying to myself "there feels like something is missing here". It lacked spark.

They most certainly should have had the 51 inch flat screen in the 1st IUFB displaying the first playing of Plinko. (But then again, a standard definition lo res image on a hi def TV, may have looked awkward.)

Nice experiment, at least they can say they tried.

[Shaymin]

I like the Big Mac analogy for the show - by the time the 5th one came around I was rolling my eyes heavily at the intro. Cutting it after the first one probably would have given the contestants a little more time to shine and could have alleviated the monstrous editing job (or allowed for some classic moments or more than 2-prize Showcases).

But yeah, they pretty much cheesed off the Plinko gods with this stunt and it's good to see they're seemingly going to keep the good elements (adding prizes) while never playing the same game 6x again.

[Chelsea]

As a one-time idea? I genuinely loved it.  Seeing variations on the Plinko gameplay was, overall, neat.  I'm not a fan of the relatively low winnings on the day, but that's been a consistent complaint of mine regardless of the games played on the day.

For my money, though, the variant with the two 4-digit prizes covering the $1K spaces? That was the true gem of a format for me. Absolutely loved the concept.  To be frank, they could make that a permanent rule change and I'd be A-OK with it.  Of course, then again I've never feared change.

That said, overall the show demonstrated why games are never duplicated in the same day.  Too much of a good thing even for the more fun games; with a less strong or less variable game the results would have been unwatchable. 

[shell_game]

I just don't understand the logic behind this episode.  The repetitiveness was one thing, but there's a bigger problem here. 

You produce a show, and you're fortunate that a large following loves a game despite it's routinely low payout.  So you set up a show that puts it directly in the spotlight, drawing attention to the typically dismal results?  What sense does this make?

Maybe the state lottery can follow suit and put on an hour program where we watch someone scratch off one lottery ticket after another, interrupted only by repeatedly bringing in each new ticket with a grand introduction.  That should bring in the ticket buyers, right?  But wait - we're celebrating the anniversary of the lottery - so does that make it okay?

I love TPIR, but I just don't get the thinking here.

[SonicWhammy]

Well, I'd have to say that this was a fun show. Maddeningly unlucky, yes, but I still have a lot of fun.

And you see, the luck had a lot to do with the perceived success or failure of this show. To me, I still call it a reasonable success, others here have obviously been calling it an epic fail from the moment it was announced. But I can't help but feel that our impressions today would have been much more favorable if the chips fell right for the contestants. Truthfully, for those that thought this was terrible, would you have felt better about the show came out with a big payday with 4, 5 or even all 6 people hit the center slot at least once? I know I would have.

As far as the prizes, I honestly didn't have a problem with them. True, it should not be a regular trick, but it was all right to mix it up a little. And hey, two of them got won, so cool beans to that. As for the suggestion of raising the other values, I've still been trying to figure it out. The farthest I ever got with the idea is have the 100's replaced with randomizers. You land there, you stop the randomizer, and it shows a value anywhere from 0 to 2500. Crazy, I know, cuz it would require a whole electronic refurb of the money displays at the bottom of the board, which wouldn't be too bad, actually (think Wheel's current readout system), but beside that, that's all I've got for updating the cash. *shrug*

The one thing I will say about all this, though: For a stunt like this to work, I don't think you could have tried this with any other game. I still leave from today satisfied.

[itonosato304]

Simply a bad, bad, bad week for the contestants on TPIR. Too many bad breaks went against the contestants who did everything they could do to put themselves in the best possible position to win, only to be snakebitten at the end, and plenty of costly mistakes.

We'll see what happens on Monday.

[jbtsouthwest]

Wait, wait...

How in the heck does a comedian of Drew Carey's stature miss saying SOMETHING about Erik Estrada and (Plinko) CHiPS???!?

Count me in the 'okay as a one time experiment, woulda been perceived as better with better wins' camp.  The Big Mac and the Lotto analogies are spot on.

Does anyone have the time on their hands to look back and see what an average Plinko win actually is?  And/or, at what rate does the $10,000 get hit, 1 out of every x drops?  Total pain in the butt, but could be interesting. 

I generally dislike the "Bob would have done better" stuff, but there were parts I was really missing how Bob would have handled the repetitive parts, bad luck, etc. (not that he ever would have okayed the idea in the first place).  I'm pretty pro-Drew but this was not his finest hour.  The lack of tie-ins in the showcase was equally disappointing, albeit unsurprising.

Plinko is nowhere near my favorite game, because of the extreme luck (variability) factor, that a perfectly played game could earn you zero or very little.  I know most do but give me 10 Chances, or Clock Game, when I'm onstage so I guarantee a win.  This unfortunately unlucky streak did nothing to make me like it more, and I'd have to think it highlighted its dirtly little secret (low winnings) more than highlight its greatness.

[CJBojangles]

I've given my input, and I've read others' impressions of the show, which are largely unfavorable. But I have to wonder...

Would the reviews be this wildly negative if a lot of winning had happened today? If nearly every contestant hit the 10K slot once, and nearly all the prizes given away, would everyone still be so upset?

Here are the average win amounts in Plinko for the last 10 seasons, as well as how many chips of all those dropped landed in the middle slot:
41: $4,918 ( 1 in 9.6 )
40: $8,000 ( 1 in 5 )
39: $5,273 ( 1 in 7.9 )
38: $6,515 ( 1 in 5.9 )
37: $5,692 ( 1 in 8.8 )
36: $9,288 ( 1 in 5.0 )
35: $7,034 ( 1 in 7.9 )
34: $7,181 ( 1 in 6.7 )
33: $7,119 ( 1 in 7.8 )
32: $6,667 ( 1 in 7.3 )
31: $7,740 ( 1 in 7.2 )

Holy crap, Plinko was awful last year. It was HOT in Season 36, much like everything else that year.

[BD]

The show would have been much better if they had more big winners but that was really out of their control; especially since there were a decent amount of players that won 4-5 chips.

I had a few problems with the way the show was handled too. I think it would have been better if Drew didn't mention Plinko at all during the beginning of the show and just have the show start out as it usually does -- would have been better in terms of getting the in-studio audience more excited to see the game (that is, unless the audience already knew the show would be dedicated to Plinko).

Having the big reveal for Plinko during the second playing is fine, but having it for playing number 3,4,5, and 6 was a bit too much/silly. After the second playing Drew should have just mentioned that they would be playing Plinko all day (and that all contestants in contestant's row would have an opportunity to play it). No need for the big reveal over and over again.

So overall it was okay. But the disappointing amounts won as well as the repetitive/unnecessary Plinko reveals made the show not live up to the hype. Oh, and I also liked how they incorporated the prizes into the game. Maybe they could do that for regular playings of Plinko in the future.

[BD]

2) I really hope they never try Plinko with any prize but cash again, but I have a sad feeling they will. Just, no. Plinko wasn't broken for 30 years. The appeal is winning $50,000. I agree with those that adding the small prizes in place of $1000 is better than replacing $10k. People don't play Plinko to win a car.

Heh, how is adding a car to the game a response to something "that's broken"? It's just them doing something a bit different.

Also, of course people don't play Plinko to win a car -- a car has never been offered in any previous playing of the game before this episode. However, do you think people will actually refuse taking a shot at a new car on top of $40,000 since "it's not $50,000"? No way.

[thepriceis_J]

1) Drew, I thought you stopped making fun of pricing games back in Season 38. Even if truthful, please stop.

This was the first time he's ever done this in a long time and it kind of made sense since we were only playing one game. It was a special circumstance and I highly doubt he'll do it again. This wasn't that bad.

I'll rank this as much of a bad idea as the Million Dollar Spin in Bob's MDSes. You take something that largely relies on luck and depend on it to deliver big results in a short amount of time. Granted the Million Dollar Spin had numerous episodes to pay-off, while Plinko only had one, it's still asking a lot of the probability gods to make great TV when you ask for it.

It was a snoozer after the 2nd playing. I do agree with Torgo that the first reveal that went to George to reveal the prize was really nice. Unfortunately, since this was the first playing of Plinko this season and it was on a special episode, it isn't clear if this is permanent. I hope it is.

It was fun watching the actual idea of the show played out and seeing how exactly reveals and staging would be handled, but disappointing otherwise. Like others said, since this was probably the first, only, and last time anything like this would happen, it was an okay episode.

For me, the best way to have celebrated Plinko's anniversary would've been to play the game once on its actual anniversary, but have it played for $100,000 or $150,000 (the center slot being $30,000).

[whinbaby]

The 7,882nd episode (10th for Season 42)

Showcase #1

• Trip to Turks & Caicos:  $10,507
• Kawasaki STX 15F:  $10,784

My bid:  $20,768 (Difference of $523)

Showcase #2

• Outdoor Sofa:  $2,727
• Ford F150:  $25,725

My bid:  $26,422 (Difference of $2,030)

Modeling Totals:  September 27, 2013 (OSAD 10/4)
Highs and lows among shows for the OSAD in previous years
High:  $76,897 (10/4/2002)
Low:  $13,911 (10/4/2002)

Rachel Reynolds
Total:  23/$77,777.00--New OSAD high! (13/$17,453.00, 10/$60,324.00)
Cars:  2/$46,310.00 (0/$0.00, 2/$46,310.00)
Trips:  2/$20,668.00 (1/$10,507.00, 1/$10,161.00)
Cash Prizes:  0/$0.00 (0/$0.00, 0/$0.00)

While the show itself was all Plinko, Rachel was all 7s!

Danielle Demski
Total:  19/$56,574.00 (13/$16,871.00, 6/$39,703.00)
Cars:  1/$25,324.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$25,324.00)
Trips:  1/$10,161.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$10,161.00)
Cash Prizes:  0/$0.00 (0/$0.00, 0/$0.00)

All Prizes
Total:  47/$394,958.00 (26/$48,892.00, 21/$346,066.00)
Cars:  3/$71,634.00 (0/$0.00, 3/$71,634.00)
Trips:  2/$20,668.00 (1/$10,507.00, 1/$10,161.00)
Cash Prizes:  6/$270,000.00 (0/$13,800.00, 6/$256,200.00)

Season to date
Rachel Reynolds (5 shows)
Total:  79/$323,991.00 (52/$121,680.00, 27/$202,311.00)
Cars:  7/$142,488.00 (0/$0.00, 7/$142,488.00)
Trips:  10/$86,691.00 (8/$68,017.00, 2/$18,674.00)
Cash Prizes:  1/$16,000.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$16,000.00)

Danielle Demski (5 shows)
Total:  64/$339,576.00 (59/$188,678.00, 5/$150,898.00)
Cars:  8/$159,215.00 (4/$74,503.00, 4/$84,712.00)
Trips:  6/$44,258.00 (2/$16,256.00, 4/$28,002.00)
Cash Prizes:  1/$16,000.00 (0/$0.00, 1/$16,000.00)

All Prizes (5 shows)
Total:  154/$930,048.01 (99/$326,892.00, 55/$603,156.01)
Cars:  15/$301,703.00 (4/$74,503.00, 11/$227,200.00)
Trips:  16/$124,514.00 (11/$87,999.00, 5/$36,515.00)
Cash Prizes:  10/$307,500.00 (1/$15,400.00, 9/$292,100.00)

Career to date
Rachel Reynolds (1,210 shows)
Total:  11,380/$60,253,591.17 (7,084/$27,041,412.15, 4,296/$33,212,179.02)
Cars:  1,227/$27,734,918.00 (477/$10,295,085.00, 750/$17,439,833.00)
Trips:  997/$7,565,987.83 (523/$3,834,556.20, 474/$3,731,431.63)
Cash Prizes:  195/$2,260,227.00 (39/$397,198.00, 156/$1,863,029.00)

My viewing to date (2,371 shows)
Total:  61,831/$337,545,776.68 (38,493/$146,797,525.72, 23,338/$190,748,250.96)
Cars:  6,700/$144,385,771.51 (2,594/$54,606,831.51, 4,106/$89,778,940.00)
Trips:  4,969/$34,774,644.20 (2,556/$17,800,924.20, 2,413/$16,973,720.00)
Cash Prizes:  1,766/$38,205,982.00 (348/$6,242,690.00, 1,418/$31,963,292.00)

[TheBigAK]

I didn't want to comment on this until I saw the show.    I thought the idea might work, but was worried that 6 times in one show might make it boring.

The idea of putting a prizes on the board was interesting.   That didn't bother me at all.  Celebration of the anniversary of the most popular game on the show made perfect sense.   

Then I watched the show.
By the 4th time of the day I really didn't want to see it played again.   Terrible luck with the chips.   The prizes did work just fine.   The chance for a car + cash (al la Gas Money) I thought was a great plus.   I would have loved to see it happen, with the SUV + the money to pay some of the taxes.    Alas, that didn't happen.

My two cents, bad luck combined with too much of a good thing made this show a Stinko.

[MannyCav]

There's something else I just thought of--if they were going to do this anyway, wouldn't have been cooler to do it on, you know, January 3, 2014? The real 30th birthday of Plinko?

The 30th birthday was on January 3, 2013. They were considerably late, not early.

That's what I get for assuming the powers that be got the year right themselves. Too much to assume, maybe? 

[SteveGavazzi]

Well, that was...um...well, Plinko.  That was a whole hell of a lot of Plinko.

Frankly, it wasn't as bad as it could have been (although maybe that's because I was pausing it periodically to watch a football game), and I like what they did with the prizes much better than the goofy format every country in Europe besides Italy and Germany seems to like using.  Still, it was a goofy stunt that mostly served as a reminder of why trying to make Plinko the big, standout moment of the show is usually not a good idea.  (Seriously, how the hell many zeros were hit today?)

Setting up the second game to have the contestant only get two chips was just plain mean.

The format for the third and sixth games created an interesting paradox -- hitting either of the prizes made the game itself impossible to win.

Even with all of that set aside, though, I think the biggest problem was that when I got to the second Showcase Showdown, I didn't feel like I had watched The Price Is Right.  It just plain wasn't the show today.

Bizarrely, the highlight of the show ended up being the second showcase, which used the normal Department Store cue for the first time in a couple years.

Too many bad breaks went against the contestants who did everything they could do to put themselves in the best possible position to win, only to be snakebitten at the end, and plenty of costly mistakes.

...this statement makes absolutely no sense.