Author Topic: Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (Read 4081 times)

TLEberle · « **on:** March 20, 2006, 01:09:33 AM »

As is custom, I watch the nightly "Millionaire" at 7 each night. It's a nice lead-in to "Jeopardy!" and I enjoy the two different kinds of games. Over the last week or two, I have seen some strange stuff going down. Lifelines employed out of order, or when the contestant has a strong feeling for one answer, a phone-a-friend who won't shut up and time expires, and contestants leaving with $8,000, or losing with $1,000.

Are contestants not given a primer before they get to the chair? For example, in the first tier, it's better to go with Ask-the-Audience as opposed to 50/50? Or that you have the phone-a-friend give an answer as quickly as possible?

It annoys me that the coordinators are picking young attractive and expressive people to play, and they play the game stupidly. I would rather watch quiet, contemplative and smart contestants winning tens of thousands of dollars.

Hastin · « **Reply #1 on:** March 20, 2006, 01:58:53 AM »

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Mar 19 2006, 10:09 PM\']It annoys me that the coordinators are picking young attractive and expressive people to play, and they play the game stupidly.

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Wait, I thought this was the descriptor for DoND.

Don Howard · « **Reply #2 on:** March 20, 2006, 08:36:43 AM »

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 01:09 AM\']It annoys me that the coordinators are picking young attractive and expressive people to play, and they play the game stupidly. I would rather watch quiet, contemplative and smart contestants winning tens of thousands of dollars.

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Those who write the checks to the winners disagree with you. And that is why you see who you see in that hot seat.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #3 on:** March 20, 2006, 08:50:55 AM »

It doesn't really bother me that there hasn't been a big winner in three years, but it's always been a pet peeve of mine that the Phone-A-Friends time runs out before they give an answer so often. If I was a PAF, I'd know that there was only 30 seconds. What I'd probably do is write down the answers to the quesiton as they're given so the Hot Seat contestant doesn't have to repeat them, and make my best guess before the time runs out. It is kind of annoying when there's 3 seconds left and they ask for a repeat of the question.

Oh well...

Steve McClellan · « **Reply #4 on:** March 20, 2006, 03:59:17 PM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 05:50 AM\']it's always been a pet peeve of mine that the Phone-A-Friends time runs out before they give an answer so often. If I was a PAF, I'd know that there was only 30 seconds.[/quote]
When I was a PaF, I was not only aware of the time frame, but the first thing I did when I heard Meredith turn it over to my friend, was to start a 25-second countdown on my watch. That way, I'd have a warning to stop my Googling and come up with an answer and confidence percentage before time expired. It just boggles the mind that there aren't time management plans there with most contestants.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #5 on:** March 20, 2006, 04:41:11 PM »

[quote name=\'Steve McClellan\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 03:59 PM\']It just boggles the mind that there aren't time management plans there with most contestants.[/quote]
I think what we serious fans have to remember is that a lot of people get on game shows, even ones with huge payouts like Millionaire, just to have a good time. While many of US would go to great lengths to make sure everything was planned out to the last detail, a lot of people don't take the opportunity nearly that seriously.

It's similar to the number of people who play Jeopardy! without having taken the time to learn the basics of Final Jeopardy wagering. There are enormous advantages to knowing your options at the end of the game, but lots of contestants show up on Sony's J! board after the fact to say that it either never occurred to them or they didn't think it was a big deal. And these are theoretically the smart people!

TLEberle · « **Reply #6 on:** March 21, 2006, 01:38:14 AM »

Would you believe it, the first day after I post this topic, we get someone who played the game excellently, only to miss the $250,000. It's probably a rerun week, but not one I saw.

zachhoran · « **Reply #7 on:** March 21, 2006, 08:59:11 AM »

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Mar 21 2006, 01:38 AM\']Would you believe it, the first day after I post this topic, we get someone who played the game excellently, only to miss the $250,000. It's probably a rerun week, but not one I saw.

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It is a rerun week.

TLEberle · « **Reply #8 on:** March 23, 2006, 10:19:53 PM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 05:36 AM\'][quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 01:09 AM\']It annoys me that the coordinators are picking young attractive and expressive people to play, and they play the game stupidly. I would rather watch quiet, contemplative and smart contestants winning tens of thousands of dollars.

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Those who write the checks to the winners disagree with you. And that is why you see who you see in that hot seat.

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I think we had this chat before: either dull contestants winning big money, or good looking twits getting nothing. If they want to produce uninteresting shows, that's their call.

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 01:41 PM\'][quote name=\'Steve McClellan\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 03:59 PM\']It just boggles the mind that there aren't time management plans there with most contestants.[/quote]
I think what we serious fans have to remember is that a lot of people get on game shows, even ones with huge payouts like Millionaire, just to have a good time. While many of US would go to great lengths to make sure everything was planned out to the last detail, a lot of people don't take the opportunity nearly that seriously. [/quote] Then they're just plain stupid. You don't just say "I think I'll be on a game show" and expect to win anything remotely close to the big prize. It's not that hard to watch the show a few times, recognize the patterns, put together a decent Phone-a-Friend list, and do an eensy bit of math to figure out that guessing on the $25,000 is not smart.

Given a once-in-a-lifetime chance, I would be studying the show itself as much as reading up. It's like watching "The Amazing Race," and seeing teams that haven't at least considered which airports are international hubs. It's something so elementary that it should be foremost in their minds. And teams invariably end up in Irkutsk or something.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #9 on:** March 23, 2006, 10:35:11 PM »

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Mar 23 2006, 10:19 PM\'][quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 01:41 PM\']While many of US would go to great lengths to make sure everything was planned out to the last detail, a lot of people don't take the opportunity nearly that seriously. [/quote] Then they're just plain stupid. You don't just say "I think I'll be on a game show" and expect to win anything remotely close to the big prize. [/quote]
When I was on $ale of the Century, which offered one of the biggest potential jackpots of the 1980s, there were several people in my group who didn't even have any idea how the game was played and had simply answered a classified ad in the LA Times because they wanted a chance to be on television. It's not as unusual as you think.

JasonA1 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 23, 2006, 11:00:36 PM »

Quote

It's not as unusual as you think.

I think the number of people who were eager to play "Win, Lose or Draw," "Balderdash" and other low-budget classics are a testiment to that.

-Jason

Don Howard · « **Reply #11 on:** March 24, 2006, 01:58:41 AM »

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Mar 23 2006, 10:19 PM\'][quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 05:36 AM\'][quote name=\'TLEberle\' date=\'Mar 20 2006, 01:09 AM\']It annoys me that the coordinators are picking young attractive and expressive people to play, and they play the game stupidly. I would rather watch quiet, contemplative and smart contestants winning tens of thousands of dollars.

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Those who write the checks to the winners disagree with you. And that is why you see who you see in that hot seat.

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I think we had this chat before: either dull contestants winning big money, or good looking twits getting nothing. If they want to produce uninteresting shows, that's their call.

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Naturally. The program is in repeats this week so we're repeating a dialogue from the past. It's "Best Of" Week in the Forum.
Later, we'll discuss the issue of succession on The Price Is Right. Will it be Todd Newton? Rich Fields? Ricki Lake?

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #12 on:** March 24, 2006, 08:07:14 AM »

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Mar 24 2006, 01:58 AM\']Later, we'll discuss the issue of succession on The Price Is Right. Will it be Todd Newton? Rich Fields? Ricki Lake?[/quote]
In the very, very short term, it's the latter.