Another 'Sale Of the Century' thread

[The Pyramids]

How do you think 2007's 'Temptation' feel short? It may simply her a matter that it had none of the look & appeal of the original (80's). I'm sure other s can come up with some specifics.

[Bryce L.]

To me, it just felt cheap, particularly because of no cash jackpot for a grand champion, and a five-day limit on champions, whether you've won the big prize or not... it also didn't sit well with me that there was no option to buy all the major prizes.

[joker316]

For me, because it offered items you could buy at home during the show, it came off as a home shopping show with a game show mixed in. It didn't help matters that the debut episode in most markets was an all D-list celebrity show. With at least two failed attempts at a home shopping/game show previously, you'd think the producers would have known better.

Just my 2 cents...

[Vahan_Nisanian]

This could have been a great revival. It appears this version had two options: Either be faithful to its Australian counterpart, or make really annoying changes to it. Guess which choice they made.

[SuperMatch93]

Not only did the prizes not live up to Australian Temptation or the original series (cosmetics kits and Bag, Borrow, or Steal subscriptions for Instant Bargains?) the format seemed really haphazard and felt like a bunch of other shows put in a blender.

[BrandonFG]

What SuperMatch said. I liked it at first, but the more I watched, the more it felt like Another Half-Baked Fremantle Revival (tm), and everything was all over the place. Forcing contestants to retire regardless of whether they had enough to buy a big ticket item was a joke.

[TLEberle]

This could have been a great revival. It appears this version had two options: Either be faithful to its Australian counterpart, or make really annoying changes to it. Guess which choice they made.

I reject your thesis.

[clemon79]

"Fun pop-culture questions."

That is all.

[Thunder]

It clearly went for a female audience so it had no appeal to me as a guy.

[Steve Gavazzi]

Having only seen the two "preview" episodes, it felt like the show was trying to stick as much of $ale of the Century into itself as possible without being $ale of the Century.

It sounds stupid, and it looked stupid.

[sotcfan2004]

It clearly went for a female audience so it had no appeal to me as a guy.

And in doing so, they thumbed their noses at 50% of their potential audience.

They made change after change just for the sake of making changes. They took a fast paced quiz show with shopping elements and turned it into an ADHD-infused casserole of borrowed ideas and watered down trivia.

If I sound ticked about it, it's because they've probably made it highly unlikely that we'll see the format revived again in the US in the next 10-20 years, if ever. And that's a crying shame.

[TLEberle]

How do you think 2007's 'Temptation' feel short?

You name it, Temptation failed to measure up.

It may simply her a matter that it had none of the look & appeal of the original (80's).

The appeal was you had a fun fast-paced quiz game with an interesting dilemma three times a show, and a bigger one at the end. Temptation was likely the outcome of focus-group metings and a desire to please everyone and instead ending up as a game show version of Mario Party.

I don't even mind pop-culture questions (cf: Hollywood Showdown), I do mind it when a game show patronizes their (withered and atrophied) audience. Sale of the Century didn't pretend to be Jeopardy and it didn't have to: easy-ish questions allowed for exciting buzzer races.

[Thunder]

...If I sound ticked about it, it's because they've probably made it highly unlikely that we'll see the format revived again in the US in the next 10-20 years, if ever. And that's a crying shame.

Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show. I should really just relax."

[BrandonFG]

I kinda agree with him, mainly because the show hadn't aired new episodes in close to two decades, and was probably long forgotten outside the forum. It was a bummer but nothing to get too upset about...GSN airing it is pretty sweet.

[gameshowcrazy]

Bad host, bad questions, bad prizes, bad studio set, and double runs in many markets giving the viewer shows from two different weeks of shows so it was difficult to "follow" a championship run...what could have possibly gone wrong with this?