[font=\"Verdana\"]¡Fan4Sure Is the Piñata!
Producer: Don Howard Productions/Good Productions
Host: Jim McKrell
Announcer: Randy West
Taping Info: January 21, 2010 at WKAR Studio #2 in East Lansing, MI for Telemundo
Other Pilots: Not yet
Made It to Air: Not in the United States, but ¡Aficionados seguros es la piñata hoy se presenta para Goya! has been airing on Televisa in Mexico and other Latin American countries since 2002.
As the 2000s progressed, the bottom lines of traditional broadcast networks began to lose ground to both cable and the internet. Instead of trying to emulate or adapt their success to the broadcast model, the networks instead tried making cheaper fare, hoping to reap the same kind of gross income as they were currently receiving, but improving their net profit because the costs were lower. One trend in that area was to try bringing in foreign stunt shows and translating them for American audiences. One attempt was tried by Don Howard in 2010 with a Mexican show, but introducing a special twist. Jim McKrell is your host.
Unlike the Mexican counterpart, which brought new contestants every day, this version had a singular returning contestant. Also, instead of traveling to local villages to allow townspeople a crack at whacking the contestant, this version promised a panel of "Whacking Wizards", who would rotate in and out of the "Hitting Heptagon", trying to win prizes for home viewers. The "Whacking Wizards" on this pilot included game show legend Matt Ottinger, [/font]radio personality T. Jay Dexter and JoAnne Worley.
The prize structure for the game may have been too generous. On his first hit, Matt Ottinger won $2,500 for his home viewer, and the other panelists quickly followed suit, causing the total amount of prizes given to cross the $2 million mark. During one of the commercial breaks, the producers replaced the cricket bat with a swimming noodle, which seemed to lessen the bleeding (both monetarily and contestant-wise) somewhat, but the producers could not be happy with the amount of money they were going to lose.
Although an exciting show to watch, it may suffer from the "what can you do next" syndrome. Although Mel Brooks is right that comedy is tragedy happening to someone else, without some variance, the show will likely get stale fast. One idea would be to allow the panelists to choose a new piñata. Other ideas include extra money for hitting the "secret organ", or allow the piñata to earn money for a home viewer by not screaming in agony, much like Make Me Laugh.
