Wasn't there almost a deal to bring the Tom Kennedy hosted versions (from Ralph Edwards Productions) to GSN?
I would presume such a move would be nothing more than fleeting discussions, based on the fact that the GSN Pyramid cuckooed
and censored any whiff of a harmony for as little as two words.
As for this awkward reveal, I remembered that was the way it originally aired from the unusual way it played out. Also, they reordered in post the yawn-inducing Grand Prize Footage (™ Sandy Frank Productions, all rights reserved) to appear before the endgame in order to condense the time from the end of the game to the reversal.
Based on the video, it looks like the awkwardness started from the producer's table, and Jim Lange's maladroit ad-libbing skills couldn't pull it off. With both looking offstage, and then the contestant's reaction, Lange would have had to explain why the contestant is suddenly cheering over the band playing. Possibly, the band stopped playing for a bit, making it even more awkward, and they decided to not re-create the reaction (actually a good thing). I think Sandy Frank was judge, jury, and executioner, and he had varying degrees of inconsistency throughout. Still, the answer was wrong, and couldn't be brushed off as a minor word in the title, as they occasionally would allow.
The people in the audience that were leaving were in the contestant section. This would lead me to believe this was the last taping in a session, and a couple of frustrated wannabe contestants just bailed out when they weren't going to be called. It probably bumped them out of the contestant pool for future tapings.
