Changes you'd like to see

[dzinkin]

Hell, if shaving a few seconds here and there is so important, just fire Drew and have John Moschitta Jr. host instead.  And have John replace Rich too while we're at it.  Then the show can have six IUFBs, two Showcase Showdowns and full prize descriptions, and CBS can still have all the commercial time it wants.

[chris319]

Note to CBS: Eliminate 2-3 minutes of commercial time and charge more for the remaining spotsets!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! That's the funniest thing I've seen here in a long time. You're serious about this? Man, if I were eating soup it would be all over the monitor by now.

do you REALLY think that saving 90 seconds over the course of a show with this nickel-and-diming is going to make a difference?

(Hint: No.)

That is the correct answer. Scott will take you back to the warehouse so you can pick out your prize. BTW, what is the "problem" we're solving again? I can see there being a time limit to the One Bid bidding. Drew calls out "five seconds" and that is the contestant's time limit. It worked for Bill Cullen.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'159351\' date=\'Aug 1 2007, 11:34 PM\']
That is the correct answer. Scott will take you back to the warehouse so you can pick out your prize. BTW, what is the "problem" we're solving again? I can see there being a time limit to the One Bid bidding. Drew calls out "five seconds" and that is the contestant's time limit. It worked for Bill Cullen.
[/quote]
All of which could just as easily be solved with better contestant coordinators performing better interviews outside, weeding out the losers spending their time waiting by marking up a freshly purchased hanes t-shirt.

300 People in the studio audience. At least 9 of them have to have a brain in their head.

[Joe Mello]

I think there was one stretch of episodes where the contestants actually were firing out bids pretty quickly.  Reportedly, Rich was imploring the crowd during warm-up to be quick about it.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Joe Mello\' post=\'159358\' date=\'Aug 1 2007, 09:39 PM\']
I think there was one stretch of episodes where the contestants actually were firing out bids pretty quickly.  
[/quote]
Musta been finals week.

[chris319]

All of which could just as easily be solved with better contestant coordinators performing better interviews outside

How do you know this problem is solvable with "better" this and "better" that? From your firsthand observation of the interview process, where do you think it's broken? What question do you ask that'll ferret out the slow bidders from the decisive ones?

If you implement a "15 seconds to bid" rule, if they don't get their bids in within 15 seconds (including a five-second warning from Drew), they're S.O.L. Done deal.

[Dbacksfan12]

How hard would it be for them to show a picture of some item, say, a box of Frosted Flakes?  If they give some ridiculous answer, cross them off the list of potential contestants.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'159362\' date=\'Aug 2 2007, 06:03 AM\']

All of which could just as easily be solved with better contestant coordinators performing better interviews outside

How do you know this problem is solvable with "better" this and "better" that? From your firsthand observation of the interview process, where do you think it's broken? What question do you ask that'll ferret out the slow bidders from the decisive ones?

[/quote]
It's broken in the sense that the current contestant interviewers have resigned themselves into finding the exact kind of people that we're critical off here on this board.  The stoners, the ones with the bright and colorfol specially made t-shirts, the college kids who don't need a grandfather clock for the frat house, and of course, you have to pick a few from the groups that came in wearing the same shirt....

Some of us are old enough to remember that it wasn't always like that.

Can they pick 'better' people? You bet. Whatever questions they were asking prospective players 10-20 years ago, will likely still work today ... And , Gawd forbid, if the questions then were the same as the questions I was asked last year, then make a concious decision to slowly eliminate the loud tshirt wearing freaks. Over time, they'll realize that just by wearing a "I love Drew" t-shirt won't get an automatic pass to play, so they'll stop.

This is fixable.

(and yes, I think Modor's suggestion of holding up a box of corn flakes would weed out a LOT of losers)

[chris319]

I agree that the show needs to stop looking like LMAD, but nothing you've proposed is guaranteed to keep out those who take 30 seconds to come up with a bid. If you show a box of corn flakes, people will simply repeat the bids they've been hearing from others in line. People take 30 seconds to come up with a bid because they've been allowed to all these years and they know they can get away with it. A 15-second rule would fix that once and for good, whether the contestant is a 19-year-old frat boy or a 90-year-old grandmother.

[tpirfan28]

[quote name=\'chris319\' post=\'159369\' date=\'Aug 2 2007, 09:31 AM\']
I agree that the show needs to stop looking like LMAD, but nothing you've proposed is guaranteed to keep out those who take 30 seconds to come up with a bid. If you show a box of corn flakes, people will simply repeat the bids they've been hearing from others in line. People take 30 seconds to come up with a bid because they've been allowed to all these years and they know they can get away with it. A 15-second rule would fix that once and for good, whether the contestant is a 19-year-old frat boy or a 90-year-old grandmother.
[/quote]
To piggyback the above statements, I would also propose some set change to Contestant's Row so that the contestants themselves can see previous bids, so Drew doesn't need to repeat the bids.

[pianogeek]

Hmmm...to go well with the "15-second rule", it would be nice to have flashing lights around each price display in Contestants Row.  When the player is being asked to bid, the light would flash repeatedly.  When the bid is locked-in, the light freezes on.

Once the 15 seconds expire, the light turns-off, buzzer goes off, and Drew goes to the next bidder.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'pianogeek\' post=\'159375\' date=\'Aug 2 2007, 10:39 AM\']
Hmmm...to go well with the "15-second rule", it would be nice to have flashing lights around each price display in Contestants Row.  When the player is being asked to bid, the light would flash repeatedly.  When the bid is locked-in, the light freezes on.

Once the 15 seconds expire, the light turns-off, buzzer goes off, and Drew goes to the next bidder.
[/quote]

Seems to me 15 seconds is too long.  Drew comes to the contestant and if it's obvious they don't have a clue, he says "three seconds."  If they don't say anything in three seconds, buzzer goes off and he goes on.  If they're running over, Drew says after the copy, "when I come to you, you have three seconds."  It's worked for "Feud" all these years and it should work here.

[pianogeek]

I just realized.  Now what would happen if no-bids were locked in because each player's time expired, regardless of time limit length?

Back to the drawing board, yes.  Though the remedies are endless.

[MikeK]

[quote name=\'pianogeek\' post=\'159378\' date=\'Aug 2 2007, 12:05 PM\']I just realized.  Now what would happen if no-bids were locked in because each player's time expired, regardless of time limit length?[/quote]
The last person to bid would be booed out of the studio because that person couldn't say "one dollar" within the time limit.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'pianogeek\' post=\'159378\' date=\'Aug 2 2007, 09:05 AM\']
I just realized.  Now what would happen if no-bids were locked in because each player's time expired, regardless of time limit length?
[/quote]
What happens on Chain Reaction if the contestants are so piss-poor at the endgame that they want to stop partway through? Same idea.

(That said, your "flashing light" system is utterly unnecessary.)