To the best of my knowledge, Price's ratings were holding steady before Barker announced his retirement and may even have been going up. They certainly weren't declining.
[quote name=\'CarShark\' post=\'202081\' date=\'Nov 20 2008, 02:41 PM\']And I'm still waiting for an answer from Gavazzi or CGJ about playing TP, GR and 3X first AND the "first half, second half" deal.[/quote]
Roger simply didn't like to play certain games in certain slots. I believe some of the restrictions may have also had something to do with Bob, as some of them appeared to disappear during Season 36.
As for playing Triple, Strikes, and Road first...certain games, even though they are likely to be lost, have an excitement factor about them that makes up for that and makes them decent "first games." It's in the Bag, with its numerous stopping points, low success rate, and not-that-huge top prize, just doesn't possess it.
And if you think that's a bad explanation...well, I agree. There's just something intangible about this whole process that I don't really know how to put into words.
[quote name=\'jalman\' post=\'202075\' date=\'Nov 20 2008, 01:45 PM\']Also, who would be a bigger draw than Drew and would ensure to preserve the show as if it were the "good old days"?[/quote]
I'm not expecting the host, whoever he would be, to be the draw. The draw would be that the host wouldn't be Drew Carey anymore.