TPiR Recap - 10/27/2020 (TPiR at Night: Season 49 Preview 1: Essential Workers)

[Spmahn]

I’ll be interested if as the seasons progresses with taping, if the producers figure out any games which just don’t work without audience participation, either because it just makes them entirely dull, or just unreasonably difficult to win. Cliffhangers almost seemed to be the latter on this show, although the choices that were made were also obviously bad  ones

[mrbrown2195]

It's been a while since I've actually watched the show and definitely wanted to see Price is the COVID era. It was also the first time in a long time that I've watched Let's Make a Deal.

LMaD worked better. I would've preferred Price to have a handful of members in the audience like LMaD did than completely get rid of the audience. Surely they could've re-designed the pit to have 10-15 people down there and not have it look empty - they did a great job with avoiding that on LMaD.

The fact that Drew was actually able to interact with contestants and talk to them was a nice change. I hope that continues through the season, even with reduced time in daytime.

Get off of Drew's back about the beard. There's nothing wrong with it.

Also, what the heck was up with the bids in Cliffhangers? $76 for a freggin' popcorn maker?! That made my head hurt. I imagine with the lack of an audience, we're going to see a lot of terrible bidding.

[Archviler]

I didn't really like this episode. I think they did a great job with what they had, but all the social distancing and the lack of an audience took me out of it. I wanted to watch it and forget about my troubles, but the changes kept reminding me of what's going on in the world instead. I couldn't get into it.

[TinoStar11]

Price did 4.92 million in the ratings for the show last night.
Pretty good for the show against competition like Game 6 of the World Series and the season premiere of This is Us.

[imhomerjay]

Good numbers, and the Bachelorette remains no slouch all things considered for ABC.

Solid show, great to have it back. Nice job all around.

[shell_game]

I agree that they look silly, but I'm just wondering if there isn't a production reason for the little dance numbers.

I didn't care for the silly come on downs either, but there is a logical reason to it: there is no surprise to the contestant that they are going to be on the show. Maybe the order is a surprise, but not that they will be called. So in lieu of sauntering out without energy, I guess this is the alternative.

[Teddy]

This is going to take some getting used to, but I can deal with the new studio setup.

Since there is no audience present, perhaps this is why George's calldown window is on hiatus right now. I didn't see it in either of the usual spots (before the third and sixth IUFBs), and I guess that it won't be used as long as the new method of calling contestants down is in effect.

I was pretty sure that the arrow shot would be used for all spins in the SCSD (including the first one when they do the shoutouts), since Drew is no longer standing by the Wheel, but surprisingly, they still use the two-pane version of the split-screen shot for the initial spin. Also, I sort of expected some changes in prop handling in certain games, like Rachel turning over both prices in Bargain Game, and Drew putting in the missing number in Pick-a-Pair.

That being said, I'm glad that at least the show's back up and running again, and Season 49 is shaping up to be the most interesting one ever.

[Roadgeek Adam]

I didn't care for the silly come on downs either, but there is a logical reason to it: there is no surprise to the contestant that they are going to be on the show. Maybe the order is a surprise, but not that they will be called. So in lieu of sauntering out without energy, I guess this is the alternative.

We literally are seeing what they'd do in an audience (and hearing it). It's literally nothing different.

[COINBOYNYC]

I didn't care for the silly come on downs either, but there is a logical reason to it: there is no surprise to the contestant that they are going to be on the show.

True, the element of surprise is gone, but it's replaced with a sense of eager anticipation.  Imagine: you've always wanted to be a contestant, you audition, the show calls you and says you're in, you're waiting backstage, and when that moment finally comes - George calls you to come on down - you're so excited that you run out on stage and head to your podium.  Any extra time that would have been eaten by the silly dance can be used for a few extra seconds of interaction with Drew, which I'm sure would be more meaningful to the contestant than whatever dance they were told to do.

Maybe the order is a surprise

If the order is a surprise, that just heightens the excitement backstage.  Who's going to be next?  Will it be me?  When is George going to call my name?

[COINBOYNYC]

We literally are seeing what they'd do in an audience (and hearing it). It's literally nothing different.

Has anyone ever done a somersault coming out of the audience?

[Chelsea]

Has anyone ever done a somersault coming out of the audience?

Video of a cartwheel from 2010?

And almost positive it happened at least a couple of times in the later Barker era.

[LiteBulb88]

Overall, I thought the TPiR production team did a really nice job given the challenges COVID-19 presented. Some specific thoughts about the show:

Contestants entering: I agree with others that the dance moves felt coached, or at least the contestants were told to do something like that upon entering and getting on stage. I hope that doesn't extend to the regular shows starting in a couple of weeks.

Grand Game: Nice win!

Cliffhangers: That was painful to watch. Since contestants know they're going to be picked, they really should study up on the show's patterns before they go on.

Cover Up: I don't know if James missed the second number on purpose on the first try, but if he did, good for him!  And that was very nice of the producers to make the last number a 0.

Bargain Game: Fairbanks and Maui are approximately equal distance from LA, so I'm not surprised Alaska was the correct answer due to the trip rule. Of course, the average contestant isn't going to know that, and the Hawaii trip price was a trap I'm not surprised Yesid fell for.

Balance Game: Ah, back to the old days when trailers cost about $1,000 per foot.

Pick a Number: Terrible choice for the last game, unless it replaced something. With the extra time they had due to being a primetime show, they could've played a real car game! But a nice win at least.

[moneygamelover]

I actually quite enjoyed this episode. It was nice just to have a new TPIR episode at all and Grand Game and Cover Up were both fantastic wins.

Grand Game was probably the most well played game on this episode and Cover Up had an exciting finish to get the win.

Going without an audience can actually work. I actually liked the look of contestants row better with the podiums NOT scrunched so close together. The thing that actually felt weirdest to me was the showcase showdowns having only one contestant at a wheel at a time instead of having them lined up together.

I don't really know what about trip prizes though. On one hand, they're a major part of the TPIR prize library and it would be difficult to do a season without them. On the other hand, they're not fitting prizes for the times we live in.

FWIW I actually liked Drew's beard.

[jhc2010]

Glad I'm not the only one who thought so.

Good episode, happy to have the show back!

I too noticed the Yellow podium was hard to read on the Primetime Special.  The Yellow podium became tough to read toward the end of the Barker-era podiums before the podium became digitized and now the problem is back again.  I also noticed the Green podium was difficult to read on the Primetime Special. Did anyone else think the same about the Green podium? There appeared to be some sort of glare reflecting off the readout. The red and blue podium readouts looked exceptionally clear and sharp.

[PimpinJC]

I don't really know what about trip prizes though. On one hand, they're a major part of the TPIR prize library and it would be difficult to do a season without them. On the other hand, they're not fitting prizes for the times we live in.

At least it’s not as awkward as Wheel, which is offering trips to countries which have us locked down.