[quote name=\'GSFan\' post=\'218557\' date=\'Jun 20 2009, 01:56 PM\']I felt that because they changed celebrities and contestants every show, there was no time to "connect" with anyone playing the game.[/quote]I felt the same way. Not having returning champions like previous versions made that stand out more. I think modern game shows have two extremes: they either try to be contestant-driven, with constant joking and sob stories (DOND, Millionaire, Lyrics) or just give them the name, rank and serial number treatment (Catch 21, Wheel, TP: AP). I think the best show for contestant interaction in a while was Lingo. Chuck Woolery made just about every contestant seem like the most interesting person in the world, and he and Shandi would mention it later, tie things into the words. They just had fun with it. Newlywed Game's good for that, by design, although the current format hamstrings things somewhat.
I would like to know if they thought we had to be reminded of how many subjects were "needed to win"?
Well, from watching reruns on GSN (especially the second season), they seemed to try to take as few wide shots of the big board as possible. If the pair run up the board normally, there's no problem. If they skip around and come back, I can see how someone at home might lose track.
As for 6-in-20, I can understand why they did that, if the reasoning was time. What I couldn't understand was why a time-strapped show insisted on making a big deal of the front game category reveals, and the laughs they generated...or didn't. I believe having normal categories and going to 6-in-25 would have saved they syndie version a similar amount of time. As for the upcoming CBS series, I'm a bit worried about it. The only other half-hour show CBS has in daytime is Bold and Beautiful, and that clocks in on most days at a little under 20 minutes. I have no idea how they plan on getting two front games and two Winners' Circles into that.
EDIT- Just saw the comment about the celebrities. The distinctly more casual atmosphere on Donnymid was part of that, because I don't think Pyramid (or game shows in general) drew a lot of "big" celebrities during the 80s. The 70s, maybe.