Deep down I was more curious how they arrived at "The couple hundred dollars tops (if that) being made from this 2:00 direct response spot absolutely justifies hacking out a minute and a half of the show that's actual content and creates a noticeable on-air edit".
I'll say this, I'm thinking like business strategist here, but I'm betting it was simply part of an overall ad revenue optimization strategy: all the time's worth of non-essential / non play-along chopped content from each series adds up cumulatively, and this was just part of it. If today's audience wants to know who the panel are and what they're known for, there's Google for that.