"$100,000 Pyramid" primetime this summer on ABC

[Mr. Matté]

Someone mentioned the camera shots cutting away from the two players/table during the clue giving; I don't mind that but I wish they kept the clock and the word being described on-screen during these cutaways.

With regards to Anthony's playing, I noticed during the last round of the female contestant giving the clues to Sherri, he was shaking her chair during the round as to distract her. I hope producers gave a stern warning to others not to deliberately distract the others during the game play like that.

[BrandonFG]

They can choose to receive, though the producers strongly suggest to the players they give so they don't lose the big money if the celeb fouls up...

Years ago on ATGS, I said that if I were to ever become a contestant, I'd give for that very reason. The late Randy Amasia offered a good counterpoint that we saw play out last night: you can give great clues, but the celebrity can still have a brain fart. Case in point: Sherri Shepherd during the second Winner's Circle. Even Michael noted how great the clues were; Sherri simply drew a blank. It happens.

[Johnissoevil]

With regards to Anthony's playing, I noticed during the last round of the female contestant giving the clues to Sherri, he was shaking her chair during the round as to distract her. I hope producers gave a stern warning to others not to deliberately distract the others during the game play like that.

Anthony was so busy being a class clown, it cost both contestants another possible trip to the Winner's Circle.  But overall, great revival, best Pyramid revival in decades.  Pyramid was the best show in the whole block.

[Clay Zambo]

Just finished watching the whole block on Hulu while ironing. I felt like such a 1975 housewife.

FEUD is Feud. I don't like the hyper-naughty writing, but it's what it is and has been for some years. And although this may seem heretical, I  prefer Harvey to Dawson's smarminess in kissing every female contestant.

MATCH GAME works very well. I'd like to see more game play, but given the constraints of time and the possibility of a tie, a 3-round game would be problematical. There's a bit of naughty writing here, too, but this show is on at 10 PM, and it doesn't have the word FAMILY in the title.

PYRAMID is a freaking gem, start to finish. If I have to choose one thing to quibble about, it's the tiebreaker--not the method of breaking the tie by using time, but that there's no prove-out of it. "You win 'cause you were faster by a half second" feels odd to me. I don't see any reason it couldn't be, "You got your 18 points in x seconds, and you got your 18 points in y seconds, so you win!" But, hey, ties are the exception rather than the rule, so it's really not a big deal.

Terrific work all around. It's going to be a fun summer!

[mystery7]

Some notes and observations:

- Nice update on the theme. Didn't know announcer Brad Abelle had such a resume. Had to look him up once I found out who he was.

- Strahan's a good choice for host. Had his fun but never forgot that there was a game to play. I guess I can get used to him only giving the description of the category once after all these years of Dick Clark doing it twice.

- Samples of original sound effects? Yes please. Music during main play and that drone under the clock? No thanks. Harry Friedman can have those back. He can also take those other camera angles during the main game.

- Anthony Anderson seemed to be having a lot of fun (maybe too much), and that made me have fun. Nice acknowledgment of Kathy Najimy's turn as a civilian on the '80s version.

- Am I just imagining that the judge missed Sherri's player cluing "a handshake" with "shaking hands" while Anthony was shaking her chair?

- My jury is still out on the set. Definitely not a fan of the distractingly low-resolution displays in the players' desks. Someone blew it there.

- 'Nuf said about the tiebreaker. I suspect they're doing it this way to avoid the potential for the double- and triple-tiebreakers that ate so much time in the older versions.

Overall, a solid 8.

[TLEberle]

- 'Nuf said about the tiebreaker. I suspect they're doing it this way to avoid the potential for the double- and triple-tiebreakers that ate so much time in the older versions.

There was enough clowning and down time that they could have done a Tiebreaker sprint: one team plays four words as fast as they can, measured to the tenth of a second. The other team then tries to beat that time. Done deal.

[Joe Mello]

I had two less-than-major gripes about the production, but that was pretty much it.

-During the celeb interview part at the start of the match, the camera seemed very intent on rapidly cutting back and forth between very tight shots of Michael and whoever he was talking to. It was a little annoying.

-The new tables look great, but the output looked decidedly lo-fi compared to the rest of the production. Text borders looked jagged and not very good. It was easy enough to not notice, but when I did, it stuck out.

[Kevin Prather]

In the first WC of the 2nd game, shouldn't she have been buzzed on "Things that Lift" for saying "heavy things"? Or is the word things not considered part of the category?

Only GSN Pyramid buzzed for use of the word "things". Otherwise, only the essence of the answer is forbidden. In this case, the word "lift".

[jjman920]

- 'Nuf said about the tiebreaker. I suspect they're doing it this way to avoid the potential for the double- and triple-tiebreakers that ate so much time in the older versions.

There was enough clowning and down time that they could have done a Tiebreaker sprint: one team plays four words as fast as they can, measured to the tenth of a second. The other team then tries to beat that time. Done deal.

I think four words would come off awkward and still slightly rushed like the old version. I'm reading that as the producers having to tell the celebs and Michael to keep it down and play straight more often, which could make Michael more stiff than he already is (and I'm not saying that's he's a board or anything), and all of it would be to accommodate the possibility of a tie.

[chad1m]

- Am I just imagining that the judge missed Sherri's player cluing "a handshake" with "shaking hands" while Anthony was shaking her chair?

Sherri. the clue giver,  mimed a handshake and said "you... with your..." The contestant guessed "shake your hands." Both parts of the compound word were said, so she was dinged and went on to the Winner's Circle.

[GameShowFan]

Well, except that it sound like she's lying just to tell a good story.  Trust me, you remember your experiences on a game show.  If she was only on one episode, and she says she was on three episodes and made rent money for three years, that's not misremembering.  That's embellishing, and rather brazenly at that.  As lies go this one is fairly harmless, but I just don't see why it was necessary.

Maybe psychologically she didn't want to tell her partner she lost both of her games.  Wouldn't exactly inspire confidence.

One gameplay question--does the contestant always to give in the WC, or can they choose to receive and we just haven't seen it yet?

They can choose to receive, though the producers strongly suggest to the players they give so they don't lose the big money if the celeb fouls up...

One of the producers wrote on Facebook that they reminded the contestants that while they might have practiced the game, the celebrities haven't. That led to what we're seeing now. Didn't we see something similar on MDPW, or was that a set rule?

[colonial]

IIRC on Million Dollar Password, all but one contestant chose to give the clues in the bonus game (Craig Ferguson gave the clues to his partner in a bonus round).

Watched the show on DVR this morning and I liked what I saw. Pleasantly surprised that the ratings went up, in both demo and overall, from CFF. Definitely helps when O'Donnell and Najimy essentially delivered a doctoral course on how to play "Pyramid" in the second half.

Regarding the tie-breaker -- if you are worried about playing multiple rounds of tie-breaks, simply edit out the draws and only broadcast the final round, where a winner is determined. To me, playing another round is a more fair outcome than "who's the fastest".

Strahan was a nice surprise. He's become quite the natural behind the mic, and his transition from the gridiron to broadcasting has been nothing short of remarkable. He looked comfortable and understood when to step aside and let the contestants and celebrity players shine. The people who put this together understood the first rule of "Pyramid" -- the game is front and center.

Yes, Anthony Anderson was a dud as a celebrity player. You don't have the luxury that earlier incarnations had of a stable of capable players that provide consistently good play at your disposal. As the show continues and hopefully has future seasons, you can build that bank of good celebrities and bring them back, then pass on those who struggled.


JD

[TLEberle]

I think four words would come off awkward and still slightly rushed like the old version. I'm reading that as the producers having to tell the celebs and Michael to keep it down and play straight more often, which could make Michael more stiff than he already is (and I'm not saying that's he's a board or anything), and all of it would be to accommodate the possibility of a tie.

The one-question tie-break round from Card Sharks says "Hey, I realize that it would be easy for a person to forget I existed, but I'm here."

So is Showoffs, Blackout, Body Language, Family Feud and even Match Game. We could discuss whether what I've proposed would be better than the magic adding machine divining who the winner is, but it's not like I just made up a thing that's never been done before.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Yes, Anthony Anderson was a dud as a celebrity player. You don't have the luxury that earlier incarnations had of a stable of capable players that provide consistently good play at your disposal. As the show continues and hopefully has future seasons, you can build that bank of good celebrities and bring them back, then pass on those who struggled.

I'm going to catch some flak for this, but I don't think Anthony was a dud- let me explain.

Anthony obviously didn't know the nuances of the game, especially when yelling the same answer over and over again, but his energy and effort showed me that he could, with some practice (and a little focus), turn into a decent partner. I recall anytime I'd see bad celebs on the Clark version, they were lethargic, kinda slow to respond, and just not fun to watch at all. To me, Anthony is the equivalent of the 6 year old who's excited to finally play football, but runs the wrong way when getting a handoff.

At the end of the day, Sherri was markedly better, and because of that, both contestants got a shot at the Winner's Circle.


Re: the tiebreaker, if we can't do two, can we just auction the right to play Words Starting with M? Let both teams auction down the clock from 30 seconds to get all 7.

[BrandonFG]

From what I noticed in the commercials, Terry Crews showed a lot of that same enthusiasm. I guess we'll see if he's more successful as a player though...