What happens during the commercials?

[Casey]

Having never been to a game show taping even, I've always been kind of curious what happens during the commercial breaks, especially as far as the contestants are concerned.  Does the host leave the set right away and not come back until the taping is about to resume?  If you are playing with a celebrity, do they chit-chat with you?  That sort of thing...

[PPatters]

For the game show I was on, commercial breaks were usually quick. They may adjust cameras, set contestants where they need to be, and touch up makeup and hair. The host and celebrities did stick around and talk. The producers came up, too, to discuss strategies, what you did well and what you may adjust, etc... (That sounds like a lot, but seriously they were literally usually just 2 minute breaks.)

[jage]

I'm surprised S&P would allow for talk of strategy, etc.

[TLEberle]

PP: what were you on?

Jags: producers are trying to get the most out of their players so talking to them about voice modulation, pacing and the like would be things to go over during downtime.

[whewfan]

Having never been to a game show taping even, I've always been kind of curious what happens during the commercial breaks, especially as far as the contestants are concerned.  Does the host leave the set right away and not come back until the taping is about to resume?  If you are playing with a celebrity, do they chit-chat with you?  That sort of thing...

I've never seen the host leave the set on the shows I've seen (Baldwin MG, Card Sharks 2001, J!, TPIR, Hollywood Squares) Only Bob talked with the contestants and the audience. With the other shows, that's left up to the warmup person. Alex does talk at length with the audience, but the tapings I've seen, sometimes he did have to talk with the producers about whatever was supposed to be done. I haven't seen a Pyramid taping, but I can imagine there's almost no talking between celebs and contestants. It might be a standards and practices issue. I know none of the Squares chatted it up with the players. There's always that fear of contestants getting material important to the game, as it's assumed that the celebs may know some of it in advance (that is true of HS as answers to questions are supplied) Regarding the warmup person, the MG tapings I saw, the warmup guy wasn't so much involved except in the beginning. The Warmup guy for HS was obnoxious, and his schtick was primarily making prank calls, and assuming this was legit, he's prank called some of these people more than once, as the people that answer know right away it's him and hang up.

[PPatters]

PP: what were you on?

It hasn’t aired yet, and the producers and the contract I signed have scared me enough, so I can’t quite say what I was on. But, I will say about discussing strategy during commercial breaks: a specific part of the contract made it clear that individuals associated with the show may discuss strategy and, if so, we couldn’t use that as an excuse as to why we didn’t win. (So, if someone said “it may be best to do X,” and then we did X and we lost, we couldn’t complain.) So, they built on the discussing strategy piece into the contract itself. I’ll gladly tell all after the episode airs

[TLEberle]

Good enough.

[Loogaroo]

For Funny You Should Ask, they essentially go straight into the next act, since they like to keep the audience energy up coming back from the break.

[SuperMatch93]

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me goes right into the next segment; they usually re-record a couple things after the show is done, which takes about 5 minutes.

[Joe Mello]

Leaving the stage is probably not the right phrase but IIRC Pat and Vanna head out of sight to get prepped for the next round(s).

Having a "think out loud at your own risk" thing in the agreement is rather novel, I think.

[cmjb13]

Leaving the stage is probably not the right phrase but IIRC Pat and Vanna head out of sight to get prepped for the next round(s).

Having a "think out loud at your own risk" thing in the agreement is rather novel, I think.

Vanna goes behind the puzzle board.

Pat will do the same or visit the producers table.

[PYLdude]

I don't know what it was like for hot seaters on Millionaire but for the standees, the podium was the center of attention. Once the break hit, they brought out some water for me and Cedric and the director talked to him about how he was doing while Geoff Rosen did pretty much what PPatters described with me. We also got touched up by the makeup lady right before we resumed.

I'm assuming that's how everyone did it afterwards; if anybody can vouch/offer new info, please do.

[GiraffeBoy]

Water break. The hot lights and dry atmosphere in the studio dehydrate you quickly. On WOF, they gave each of the players a water bottle (colored dot on the top to indicate which player's bottle).

I still remember on Millionaire being reminded to speak more loudly. I have a soft voice, so I needed to be made more conscious of this. Also, during my first break, Chris talked to me about setting up the interview that started the next segment.

They love to play pop music during the breaks at Wheel. When Millionaire would bring in a new contestant, they'd play something at the player's request (e.g. "Roar" by Katy Perry was mine, because of course, I am a champion!  )

--Charlie

[Card Shark]

Having seen TPIR once with Bob as host and 3 times with Drew, this is what I've seen. Bob took questions from the audience during the breaks and the breaks were limited to a few minutes so as to maintain the live to tape format. Drew tends to spend more time between segments shmoozing with the audience. After the first showcase showdown, Drew leaves the stage to take a water break and the stagehands move the turntable wall out a bit more. I can't remember if it's angled differently, but it's re-positioned. But, Drew does tend to spend more time really trying to strike a rapport with the audience than what I remember of Bob's interactions with the audience. I'm not suggesting that Drew is "better" than Bob or vice versa by any means, but just reporting my observations. Others may have had different experiences depending on when they may have attended tapings. I saw an episode hosted by Bob 20 years ago, and ones by Drew in 2013, and 2017. So, there it is.

[Brian44]

(...because of course, I am a champion!  )

Just when I think you've stroked your ego enough on this forum...