Play The Percentages

[Don Howard]

Of the various formats Play The Percentages used during its brief broadcast run (which at least never included adding celebrities) which did you prefer and how come? I'm guessing you didn't care for the solo player format, but I could be wrong.
For me it was what they used during the first week--too bad the big damn percent sign's near destruction of the stage floor spelled the end of that format. I liked the fact that the bonus round was played for all cash ($2500 or the jackpot for an exact percentage call and not the usual B&E prize package).

[The Ol' Guy]

Another vote for the first format - some byplay between the couples as they decided and the floor prop made the game seem a little better than it was. 2-player later game was very dry. The idea was interesting - here's a question 80% of the audience missed, can you beat the odds and answer it - but the staging was poor. Not a lot of suspense.

That's strange - hadn't noticed it before. The 3rd edition EOTVGS doesn't even note the format change from guessing the audience's percentages of right answers to the straight quiz.

[Adam Nedeff]

Of the various formats Play The Percentages used during its brief broadcast run (which at least never included adding celebrities) which did you prefer and how come?

I preferred the modified format starting with the second week of shows. That jackpot was NEVER going to be won in the bonus round because it was a true blind guess between 1-100. At least in the main game you hear the questions beforehand, so your thinking can be, "Well, I KNOW more than 60% didn't say that" so you can narrow your range somewhat.

[Desperado]

I'm with Adam.  The format beginning with week 2 seemed best.  The original bonus game took way to long, although it was neat to actually see the giant % being used as was intended.  Geoff seemed a little out of place trying to host the show once it became more of a trivia contest...although he made it much more fun than it was.

Watching the series from the beginning, it was also fun to watch how the giant % (Big Bertha) took longer and longer to make its descent after each bonus game.  They kept raising that thing for quite a while after they stopped using it, but it got to the point that they'd be halfway through the main game before that thing ever settled back down.  Always wondered what the problem was.

[dmota104]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Mar 19 2005, 03:47 PM\']Of the various formats Play The Percentages used during its brief broadcast run (which at least never included adding celebrities) which did you prefer and how come? I'm guessing you didn't care for the solo player format, but I could be wrong.

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The "degree of difficulty" format was a true case of "jumping the shark".

I never saw original broadcasts -- so the PT% reruns on USA were "new to me".  The atmosphere of the couples format was more lively and fun.  And the huge cash payoffs for matching a percentage exactly certainly helped.

Just an educated guess: The reason why PT%'s couples version didn't last too long was because it was seen as a ripoff of CS and FF, which (of course) relied heavily on the outcomes of surveys.

[sshuffield70]

I never saw them in that way.  I thought the format was great.

I can understand your thinking on it, though there are differences:

FF, CS:  Both used 100 people.  FF gave an open ended question, while CS gave you two choices.

PTP:  Used 300 people per question (stated by Geoff) and used trivia questions.

I have tinkered with the formats before for GSN games and thought I came up with a nice little compromise.  The front game would be the original front game with the jackpot and all (though it was not hit in the three games played).  The bonus round looked more like the second main game format with the two players given a choice of two categories for each question.  If it was answered correctly, they got the points equal to the wrong percentage (80 points in the second main game = 80 percent wrong) with 200 points winning the bonus (which I arbitrarily set at $20,000....YMMV)

Now the PTP bonus game used was definitely FF influenced.  They took the top five answers, converted the replies to percentages to make them total 100%, and inserted a sixth answer and make it zero (PTP's equivalent to the dragon, devil, and lightning.)  Getting all five answers gave the player the prize package which included $1000.

[ChuckNet]

Personally, I liked the first-week format best, though the jackpot was near-impossible to win...giving $36K away for an exact match in the maingame, though exciting, struck me as Mo' Money.

The Q&A format wasn't nearly as good, though I did like how Geoff would joke around w/Judge Von Eric...it was prolly the saving grace of said format.

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Mar 21 2005, 08:57 PM\']

The Q&A format wasn't nearly as good, though I did like how Geoff would joke around w/Judge Von Eric...it was prolly the saving grace of said format.

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The questions asked in both maingame formats on PtP were a bit more challenging(the 50 and up percentage point questions in the Q&A format) than a lot of the questions of TJW and TTD at the time, I give B&E and Ronnie Greenberg credit for that.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Mar 21 2005, 08:57 PM\']The Q&A format wasn't nearly as good, though I did like how Geoff would joke around w/Judge Von Eric...it was prolly the saving grace of said format.

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Geoff knew he was stuck with a turkey and had to make it fly.  It's to Eric Warner's credit that he went along with the gag.  It sure made it hard for me to take off-stage judge voices on B&E shows seriously again.

"Jim--that's a regular blue box, you blithering idiot!"