Pyramid hour proposal

[Jay Temple]

Not too long ago, I heard that, after TPIR and WoF went to an hour, ABC talked to Bob Stewart about expanding Pyramid to an hour. This would have been shortly before it went from $10,000 from $20,000. Whether it\'s true or not, it got me to thinking how they might have worked it. I think the exact same format would get monotonous if extended to four games a day. I came up with this. I welcome your comments.

 

On Family Feud, which debuted the same year as the change to $20,000, families stopped playing when they reached $20,000, but they got to keep everything they won. The same interpretation of the winnings limit would be needed here.

 

Game 1: two new players

Game 2: two more new players

Game 3: winners of 1 & 2

All these are $10,000 attempts.

Game 4: winner of Game 3 vs. defending champion, with a $20,000 attempt

 

Some details that I worked out:

• If the $20,000 attempt is successful, that player retires and the loser of Game 4 takes his spot in the final on the next show, à la Now You See It. If the winner of Game 3 wins both of his $10,000 attempts, he retires, and the other winner takes on the defending champion.

• Celebrities: It was noted in another discussion that 20 games in one week is too much for the same two people, so we have two male celebrities and two female who each appear in two of the day\'s games. One male and one female play Game 1, and the other two play Game 2. In Game 3, each player is paired with the celebrity that he defeated in the first half of the show. Game 4 features the two winning celebrities from the first half, and the player from Game 3 is paired with the celebrity who was not part of his first two games.

• Who goes first? In almost every version, the female celebrity sat on the left, and a game with two new players would start with the female celebrity. I\'d keep that for Games 1 & 2. If the two winners win differing amounts, the one who won more goes first in Game 3. If they win the same amount, the winner of Game 1 goes first. In Game 4, the returning player always goes first.

 

I haven\'t decided what I\'d do with the Big 7.

[TLEberle]

That\'s not overly complicated. At all.

And who\'s to say that four games of Pyramid done in a tournament is more or less monotonous than just plowing through contestantry?

[J.R.]

I\'m suddenly getting flashbacks to Tim Connolly\'s old message board with the recent threads of game show proposals...

 

In all seriousness: Jay, that is a fine idea.

[TLEberle]

I think the exact same format would get monotonous if extended to four games a day.

This doesn\'t make sense. Whether you\'re right or wrong in assuming that four games of Pyramid would be monotonous (and just give me an\' Chris Lemon three minutes alone with that Philistine) you\'re still playing Pyramid four times in an hour, with a confounding tournament and letting the champion (or worse, champion pro tem) sit on the sidelines for 45 minutes.

Just let \'em play.

[WarioBarker]

Game 1: two new players
Game 2: two more new players
Game 3: winners of 1 & 2
All these are $10,000 attempts.
Game 4: winner of Game 3 vs. defending champion, with a $20,000 attempt

Chop out the third Winner\'s Circle, for a start. I\'ll explain why in a bit...
 

If the $20,000 attempt is successful, that player retires and the loser of Game 4 takes his spot in the final on the next show, à la Now You See It.

Makes sense.
 

I haven\'t decided what I\'d do with the Big 7.

Simple: have it in all four games, still worth $500.
 

If the winner of Game 3 wins both of his $10,000 attempts, he retires, and the other winner takes on the defending champion.

And hence my suggestion to ditch the third Winner\'s Circle, otherwise...

\"Mike, you\'ve won Game 3 and will be facing our champion Michelle in a few moments unless you win the ten thousand dollars here. If you do that, then Claudia will move on. Stand by. For $10,000...\"

If you\'re using a tournament-like structure, retiring a contestant who won $20,000 before facing the returning champ looks bad. It opens the door for the mindset of \"Well, I\'ve got $10K and the limit is $20K, so I have to throw this otherwise I won\'t get to face the champ.\"

The best way I can think of to fix this, and it might not work too well but hey...
* Game 1: one new player and the returning champ (if applicable)
* Game 2: two new players
* Game 3: winners of 1 & 2 to determine the day\'s champ
First two Winner\'s Circles are worth $10,000, third is worth $20,000. The champion keeps playing until s/he A) loses a game or B) wins the third Winner\'s Circle, since it\'s clear from the surviving episodes and recollections that ABC\'s \"x many days\" limit didn\'t apply to Pyramid.

[TLEberle]

Not only didn\'t it apply, the record number of attempts on the big Pyramid was 17.

Notwithstanding that, three games means that is a whole lot of stretching.

[Jay Temple]

 

I think the exact same format would get monotonous if extended to four games a day.

This doesn\'t make sense. Whether you\'re right or wrong in assuming that four games of Pyramid would be monotonous (and just give me an\' Chris Lemon three minutes alone with that Philistine) you\'re still playing Pyramid four times in an hour, with a confounding tournament and letting the champion (or worse, champion pro tem) sit on the sidelines for 45 minutes.


Just let \'em play.

 

I think in hindsight I should have rephrased the part you quoted. I sat through the Golden Pyramid Awards, which was seven half-hour shows. What I should have said is that I think the casual viewer would be unlikely to sit through four one-and-out games a day, five days a week.

[irwinsjournal.com]

Given the draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaging on of some current game shows, and the addition of more commercials, teases, flashbacks, human interest angles, were the one hour Pyramid to be proposed today, they\'d probably play just the same two games they played in the half hour in the original version...

[clemon79]

 

 I sat through the Golden Pyramid Awards

 

You misspelled \"relished\".

[TLEberle]

I just finished an examination and I haven\'t come down from the contact high so I\'ll let other members eviserate the dumbnity therein.

[clemon79]

I would, but I can\'t make a damned bit of sense of it. (Of course, I\'m at work and my brain is mush right now.)

[TLEberle]

Here\'s the nut graf: three games of front game-winner\'s circle, and the front games are now 6 in 20 instead of 7 in 30.

More evidence he was dropped on his head.

[J.R.]

GSN Ratings, Recaps and Rumors. Reporting for Game Show Network from our direct sources.

Do they come from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe?

[TLEberle]

Do they come from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe?

Does it matter if he can\'t even be arsed to spell Meredith\'s last name correctly?

[TLEberle]

Oh good lord.

\"There\'s an article I discussed about this\". Where\'d you learn to write?

By the way, Scott: that\'s two questions.