Barker & 1994 nighttime price

[cmjb13]

According to this 1993 article…

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-11-29-ca-62177-story.html

Barker says he was offered to be host but turned it down. I presume the original idea was a 30 minute price similar to daytime and then when Barker turned it down, they tinkered the format?

I just couldn’t see Barker doing daytime Price and a different version at night at the same time.

[MSTieScott]

Barker says he was offered to be host but turned it down. I presume the original idea was a 30 minute price similar to daytime and then when Barker turned it down, they tinkered the format?

According to Barker's interpretation of the offer...

“I was offered to be host of that show,” he says, “but that would be one hour five nights a week.”

...it sounds like he was pitched an hour-long show, presumably the same format of the daytime show. Whether Paramount could have sold a one-hour show is a separate question, although I'm guessing the thought process was that if they could advertise the same Bob Barker viewers love but with more expensive prizes, it would be an easier sell.

[whewfan]

This may be why on Family Feud, when Bob Barker was on with Doug, he endorsed Doug hosting the syndicated run... they may not have settled on the format yet. It was only when the show was being promoted as "the new" version, and gave some viewers the impression that the daytime run was going away that Bob, on two occasions, cleared up that the daytime run wasn't going anywhere, and also, with Rod stating "This IS The Price is Right, Bob." clearly stated how the daytime staff felt about the syndicated version.

[steveleb]

My understanding from executives who built the sales plan is that a one hour version would have had limited ratings upside since the reality is you cannot clear a one hour strip on network affiliated stations in prime access nationwide.  In central time zone markets, particularly larger ones like Chicago and St. Louis, only a half -hour exists on most big three affiliates. And unlike Feud, which was offered in modular versions to accommodate those situations, Price’s structure made that option impossible. 

Once NBC offered up its prime real estate in LA, any thoughts of an hour were scrapped.  And they did not want Barker. 

[cmjb13]

Here’s Barker mentioning it

[SamJ93]

I can't even imagine what they were thinking advertising the Davidson version as having a "new host." They had to have known that Bob, between his ego and his "try-and-fire-me" attitude, would not react well to that.

[cmjb13]

Here’s a clip of Barker on Feud congratulating Doug Davidson on being the nighttime host