[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Nov 29 2005, 09:54 AM\']"If you're selected you'll receive an appearance fee, plus if our panel of four fails to get your secret, you'll win a big cash prize."
NO NO NO NO NO!
No.
A "big cash prize" runs counter to everything that makes this show work, and was one of the few flaws of the Oxygen version. The "contestant" is meaningless insofar as the game is concerned. The game is being played by the panel, and to whatever degree the game is important, that's where the rooting interest ought to be.
Ultimately, the game itself ought to be secondary to whatever fun is brought to the show by the secret. Play the little game, get a few jokes in, don't even talk about a prize and then do something fun with the secret (a demonstration or video or at least a short interview). The perfect model for this was the syndicated WML?. Why doesn't anybody important get this?[/quote]
Could it be that, if they're still going by an old copy of the bible, they're too fixated with the "20 dollars down, 60 dollars to go" verbiage from the host?
I have to admit that from the $80 and a carton of Winstons of Garry Moore to $800 from Bil Dwyer is, in my mind, reasonable inflation (if it is that much--and not much smaller than the $1,000 Stephanie Miller offered). Where the Oxygen version made the mistake was in making a big deal out of the $1,000.
But you are right--just have coming out of a break whoever's announcing say, "in addition to a cash award, all of our contestants today will receive..." whatever and be done with it.
