Need I point out that the Variety writer cheated Howie out of four models.
The Hollywood Reporter article:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/conten...1065e6093c47523Just says that the future contestants will stand with the models and doesn't say how many. Now there may be 22 cases in the syndicated version, but Mr. Dempsey didn't indicate that.
Other suggestions on speeding up:
If you're going to have to open with the models' walk (and if you're having civilians in the group, that may be dangerous), do it within ten seconds of start--run the animation, when the circle goes through, have Howie say "Ladies, please," and do the walk. When that ends, have him do the "hi, ladies--hi, Howie" bit and then start the show.
Have the contestant already up there on stage--the Million Dollar Mission thing has revealed that the contestants are not in the audience during the show, since if they were, they would know all about the whole Million Dollar Mission and not be so surprised when Howie tells them (yeah, I know some of you think that's staged, anyway, but still...)
Howie intros the peanut gallery wherever you want to have it without chatting with them. (You'd say get rid of them completely, but it's not going to happen.)
At this point, he does not need to explain the Banker's function--just go right to the phone ringing and "here's the Banker." He does need to say frequently that the case packing is random, but not every day--and he doesn't need to make $250,000 a big deal every day.
And since they won't be straddling, they won't need to use my suggestion of having Howie do the recap instead of going to Joe Cipriano and the tape package (which I assume no one sees in the studio anyway).
And most importantly--cut down the pause between "open the case" and the case opening. Those pauses get so ridiculous...
