I went to see the late afternoon taping on Monday, August 3rd. Had to report at the studio at 3 pm. Got a ticket and came back at 4:20. Didn't get in till about 6 pm, the early taping ran late. The taping finished at 8:45 pm. I saw the seventh of eleven shows, it will air Monday August 17th.
Here's who appeared so far:
Show 1 -
Show 2 - Vanessa Williams
Show 3 - Sherri Shepard
Show 4 - Lauren Conrad
Show 5 - Shawn Johnson
Show 6 - Rachel Ray
Show 7 - Patricia Heaton
Show 8 - Snoop Dogg
Now for some tidbits:
The celeb questions are the last feature on each show. They are NOT timed, like the contestant questions are. The celeb can ask the expert or the audience for help.
The questions have the same time limit and amounts as Meredith's version. So the 10th question is $25,000, not $32,000. I figured for prime time it would've been $32,000.
The "Ask the Expert" Lifetime comes into play after the $1,000 question. The other lifelines are Ask the Audience, Phone a Friend and Double Dip - no 50/50.
A "whoosh" sound effect now accompanies the contestant's name and hometown when it appears and disappears from the screen.
Jodi Piccoult, best selling author was the "expert" at the taping I saw. She was called on twice and appeared via Skype from her New Hampshire home. There was "dropout" several times during her segments. Ken Jennings is the expert on Show # 8.
Patricia Heaton was supposed to be the celeb on the show I saw, but she taped her segment earlier. We saw Snoop Dogg. He asked the audience for help on his question - I will say no more.
On later shows, Regis will be seated at the beginning. This is because he pulled his groin because his misjudged the distance between his chair's footrest and the floor at an earlier taping. He told this to the audience before the taping began. So on later shows, Regis will do a "Cullen opening." He still walks to the chair and hops in it when a new contestant takes the hotseat.
The "fatest finger" segment IS back.
The top prize is $1 million. No escalating top prize.
So there you have it. I don't believe any of this reveals the outcome of the game.