Let's Ask America season 3 with Bill Bellamy

[brianhenke]

   Well, WCPO just aired the season premiere of Let's Ask America that marked the debut of Bill Bellamy as host.

    First, the top prize has been decreased to $35,000.

   The maingame question values have been changed:

  Round 1: $100/$150/$200/$300 (last placed contestant is eliminated, same as before)
  Round 2: $500//$750/$1000 (last placed contestant is eliminated)
  Round 3: $1500/$2500 (last placed contestant is eliminated)

  The bonus round is played as last season (if contestant goes all in and misses, he/she gets nothing - which I didn't like last year, and still don't).

  Now, as for Bellamy, I found him a tad annoying. He started by saying, "WHASSSSUP?" Let's face it, I wasn't expecting him to imitate Kevin, but....let's give him time to grow into his host role.

   Brian

[clemon79]

(if contestant goes all in and misses, he/she gets nothing - which I didn't like last year, and still don't).

The solution to that problem on the contestant's end is quite simple.

[PYLdude]

(if contestant goes all in and misses, he/she gets nothing - which I didn't like last year, and still don't).

The solution to that problem on the contestant's end is quite simple.

I'm with Brian here. You want to make it enticing for the contestant to risk it all, I think you need to leave some fallback. $1,000 is fine.

[clemon79]

I'm with Brian here. You want to make it enticing for the contestant to risk it all, I think you need to leave some fallback. $1,000 is fine.

Well, I'm sure the two of you will be very happy together.

Do you feel that there aren't enough people going all-in because of this? Is there evidence to back that up?

(I'm asking that genuinely; they don't run this in Seattle.)

[PYLdude]

I'm with Brian here. You want to make it enticing for the contestant to risk it all, I think you need to leave some fallback. $1,000 is fine.

Well, I'm sure the two of you will be very happy together.

Do you feel that there aren't enough people going all-in because of this? Is there evidence to back that up?

(I'm asking that genuinely; they don't run this in Seattle.)

Potshot aside, and they don't air it here either, but from what I've seen so far there hasn't been too many people pulling the trigger since they eliminated the consolation prize. The season one eps seemed to have more risk takers.

I'd like to see more figures, if possible.

[clemon79]

but from what I've seen so far there hasn't been too many people pulling the trigger since they eliminated the consolation prize.

So they had one before?

[parliboy]

Yes.  A failed all-in gave you $1,000 for playing in the first season.

[BrandonFG]

but from what I've seen so far there hasn't been too many people pulling the trigger since they eliminated the consolation prize.

So they had one before?

IIRC, if you risked it all and lost, you went home with $1,000.

[PYLdude]

What Messrs. Platt and Foster-Gray said thirty and change seconds apart. Season two saw it become an all-or-nothing bet if the wad was shot.

[clemon79]

Hmmm, ok.

[Sonic Whammy]

As GSN was the first time I actually got to watch the show (and still is, the NY area doesn't have it either), I was under a false impression about season 2, and to be honest, I think said impression is what they should actually do.

To clarify, I'm a believer in how McGrath's Don't Forget the Lyrics played its bonus round, in that, if you wanted to guarantee yourself the $1,000 consolation prize, you had to play a perfect $10,000 game coming into it. The same argument could be made for LAA since, even with my limited view of the show, I think going 9 for 9 on these surveys that amount to guessing human nature is a lot harder than knowing all the missing factual words to 4 popular songs.

[TLEberle]

I have no idea what you're saying, Brian...that guessing survey answers means you should get to take home a consolation prize if you fail it on your Big Bet?

[Sonic Whammy]

No wait, you're misunderstanding me, Travis. I'm saying you should get that guaranteed consolation prize only if you answered every question right coming into the bonus round. Like on DFTL, if you gave the lyrics right to all 4 songs, you had $10K, and you went for the encore for the full $50K, but fail and you still left with $1K. But if you had failed any of those 4 songs, screwing up the encore busted you completely.

I'm saying that LAA should take a similar approach to that. If you play a perfect game and get all 9 surveys right in the first three rounds, going all in for the bonus round and missing would still allow you to leave with the $1K as consolation because hey, you did everything right up until that point, it deserved some credit. But if you even missed one of those first 9, then an all in on the final question is all or nothing, no guarantee, you screw it up, you bust, too bad.

[clemon79]

Erm, one of those is a test of knowledge, the other is a game surrounding the vagaries of surveys. How you think the two are analogs completely baffles me.

/neverminding that you want more than twice the number of correct answers

[PYLdude]

So why am I being penalized for missing one question?

By not allowing me to have that extra bit of leeway unless I've played the perfect game, you're just encouraging me not to bet big and just simply play conservatively and save my money.

As somebody who's taken a big gamble on a quiz show, having the fallback does make it sting a little less if you whiffed on it. As I did.