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All classic fans of Let’s Make A Deal be alert.  We previously said that Monty Hall was returning to the show.  CBS gave us a date.  The original host, Monty Hall, will be returning to Let’s Make A Deal for a full week starting March 22nd.  Monty was the original host and creator in 1963 and hosted through 1986.  He again hosted in 1990 and made a guest appearance on the ill-fated 2003 NBC remake.  This makes the sixth decade for Monty hosting the show.  He will host one game each show along with current host Wayne Brady.

So are we excited to see this?  He’s still a pro.  I talked to him a bit at the Game Show Awards, which was a giant thrill.  I’ve not heard a single bad thing about him.  I got emails from people auditioning to host about being unbelievably excited to meet him and how great he is, and I can see why.  Like Bob Eubanks on Newlywed Game, Monty is the true pro of Let’s Make A Deal.  Wayne is a great host, though, and it’ll be great to see these two act together.  Here’s some of Monty at his best.

The current group behind Deal has done a great job keeping the classic vibe in the current version, when you look back to the old ones.

Both The Price is Right and Let’s Make A Deal will be having some great specials coming up in March.  Two of which in particular are special.  Let’s start with Let’s Make A Deal which is doing well in the ratings and seems to be getting better each day.  The show, hosted by Wayne Brady, will be celebrating its 100th episode on Wednesday, March 3rd.  That’s next week.  To celebrate they will have the first annual “Dealie Awards”, given away based on the contestant’s costumes.  The catch is people can trade their awards back for a prize if they want to.  Given how these big episodes go, I’d be expecting to see some big prizes given away.  Not only that, I’m hearing rumors that the legendary game show host and original Let’s Make A Deal host Monty Hall may be appearing on this episode on the show soon.  I’m still trying to get confirmation, but I’ve heard multiple reports of it.  Stay tuned for that one.

The Price is Right has two events coming up.  First is host Drew Carey’s 500th episode.  Those 500 episodes went by pretty quickly, didn’t they?  I’m a bit shocked.  This celebration will take place on Wednesday, March 10th.  To celebrate this each contestant who gets on stage will receive a $500 gift, so more money available.  Some popular games like “Hole in One” and “That’s Too Much” will be played also.  Not only that some of the most popular prizes such as trips to Las Vegas via private jet and giant home theater packages will be given away.  Again, Price tends to do really well with these special shows so this isn’t one to be missed.

Finally, that next Wednesday, March 17th, will see Price is Right having a special St. Patrick’s Day episode where everyone gets a shot of whiskey on stage.  No, but it’ll still be fun.   Special prizes like Mini Coopers and, of course, trips to Ireland will be given away.  The set will be decked out for St. Patrick’s Day.

So just about each Wednesday afternoon on CBS will have some special event.

Quick ratings update for you all, per a press release sent by CBS.  The Price is Right and it’s new companion Let’s Make A Deal seem to be doing incredibly well right now.  Both are posting double-digit gains compared to a year ago.  While that’s good for Price, it’s even better for Let’s Make A Deal which hasn’t been officially renewed yet, but it’s looking likely.  First, though, is Price.  The Drew Carey hosted game, currently in its 38th season, is up 12% from last year; from around 4.5 million viewers to five.  In the important demographics, Price is up 15% in women 25-54 and up 18% in adults 25-54.  Fantastic news for the show which came off a rocky season last year.  The show’s been improving and it just keeps getting better.

Let’s Make A Deal is a place for some celebration, though.  Remember, it replaced the canceled soap opera Guiding Light.  It’s definitely cheaper, and the ratings have gone up considerably.  Deal, hosted by Wayne Brady, has increased by 12% from last year.  That’s a gain of around 300,000 viewers to a 2.42 million viewership.  Even better is the increase of 20% in women 18-49.  Again, couple that with the show being cheaper and I’ll be a bit amazed if it doesn’t get picked up for a new season.  This success is probably why we’re seeing so many game shows up for grabs for the As The World Turns slot.  If this new one works out, more networks may jump ship as well.

A bit delayed, sorry, but I think the last two are givens.  I think I can speak for many by saying I never expected a game show to appear on daytime television again.  I don’t watch soap operas and I don’t know that genre of television in the slightest, so I had no idea the industry was going down for them.  One got canceled, and I figured its time slot would just go to another court or talk show.  To my surprise and the delight of many (It’s still our most popular thread ever), it was announced that a game show was a serious contender.  The $1,000,000 Pyramid was thought to be it, but in the end the winner of the afternoon slot, and the first daytime game show in over 15 years, was Let’s Make A Deal.

As with any revival of a classic, loved game there were many doubts cast.  The show was going to be stretched to an hour, it’s very clearly derivative of The Price is Right, and things like that.  The first week was a little rough but it’s improved to be the little show that could.  Ratings are a bit up from the previous slot and it’s much cheaper.  It’s success is causing a bit of a chain reaction.  We’re seeing other soap operas disappear or have rumors of being canceled, and game shows are being placed in any of those slots.  We may be getting Pyramid or another show back in September 2010.  Let’s Make A Deal’s surprise pickup and success may cause a new era of game shows no one saw coming: the return of daytime network games.  Only time will tell.  I guess we’ll really see in September its true effects.

I know there were some sore feelings that Pyramid didn’t get picked up, and instead Let’s Make A Deal did, but it’s hard to flat out deny that Let’s Make A Deal hasn’t been a really good, really funny, really entertaining show.  It took two or three weeks to find its groove but it’s there and I’m hoping the ratings are equaling the quality of what we’re seeing.  They’ve also already provided one of the most memorable moments of 2009, and one of the most memorable game show bloopers in a very long time.  Here’s advice to all those dressing in costume for Let’s Make A Deal: make sure you are wearing proper support if you’re going to be wearing something very thin, like spandex.  You’re going to do a bit of jumping and moving around.  Marilyn didn’t realize this and ended up bringing the most hysterical moment of the series thus far.  Wayne Brady and co-host Jonathan Mangum, as well as model Alison Fiori and the camera men, handled this so perfectly it deserves special mention.  The way the entire cast and crew interacts is what’s making Deal so great.  Here’s Perpetual Motion Marilyn.

We’ve finally got some good news for basically all the syndicated game shows.  But first I want to start with Let’s Make A Deal which is really the show to watch.  As we reported on last time the ratings are not that bad.  Obviously they aren’t fantastic but they aren’t bad.  We’ve got some more figures for you courtesy of TV MoJoe.  The ratings of LMAD versus the ratings of what it replaced, Guiding Light, are up 7%.  It’s at an average of around a 1.6.  That’s the good news.  The not-so-good news is that it’s down in the key women demo.  In women 18-49 it’s down 13% and in 25-54 it’s down 20%.  It’s flat when we look at women 18-34 though.  So the old housewives are a bit bitter I suppose.  The interesting thing is it’s up a tenth of a point in the men demographic so that’s nice.  I’d be curious to see if Let’s Make A Deal is doing anything with Price is Right’s ratings since they’ve been up also.  But regardless the show’s not doing unbelievable so don’t get your hopes up for a complete retooling of network daytime everywhere.  This could have gone so much worse, though.  It’s a positive that ratings are up and we’ll have to see how it does the rest of the season.

As for syndication everything is up for flat, as the title suggests.  The newest show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, is flat a 1.6 rating.  We talked about it a bit last week but I’m really curious as to the episodes only airing in syndication and not on MyNetwork.  It’s just bizarre that we went from a 0.9 rating in the debut to a 1.6 in one week.  Something’s up there.  Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune continue to dominate with a 5.9 and a 7.2.  Both are up 9%.  Also up 9% is Who Wants to be a Millionaire at a 2.5.  The Tournament of Ten begins soon and it’s guaranteed at this point that someone wins the million dollars.  Let’s see if this has a positive effect on the ratings.  Deal or No Deal had the largest increase at a 1.3, up 18%.  People just seem tired of this format at this point.  Family Feud stayed flat at 1.2.

A bit ago we got some ratings for Catch 21 and Newlywed Game from Friday, October 16th.  That showed Newlywed Game at .38 and Catch 21 at .46, the highest rating of the day for the network.  The primetime reruns both got a .33.  The only things coming closer during the day were Deal or No Deal in 3rd place and John O’Hurley’s Family Feud in 2nd, at a .43 and .45 each.

It took a few episodes but CBS’s Let’s Make A Deal is really shaping up into an incredibly entertaining and fun daytime show.  In that first week they went really by-the-book with the format and didn’t try to mix it up at all.  But by this week we’re starting to have some fun with it and we’re seeing some different games thrown in.  Wayne Brady is also loosening up a bit and showing us why he is so popular from his Whose Line is it Anyway? days.  His co-host Johnathan Mangum is great with him as well.  Take a look at a game from this week involving three pinatas, some of which could be holding $5,000 cash or some candy that Wayne really wants.  If they can keep this up I can see Let’s Make A Deal lasting a while.

And no one takes Wayne Brady’s damn Reese’s.  We’ve now learned that.  If you go to the show you can apparently lure him to you with candy.  That or he’ll beat you.  Either way it should be entertaining television.

By now I’m guessing a good deal of you have seen CBS’s revival of the classic game show Let’s Make A Deal starring Wayne Brady.  I finally saw it online a bit ago and it left me with mix feelings.  If you know of the classic version at all then you know this.  It’s the same exact show, where people trade supposedly useless or hidden items for what may be behind a door, curtain, or box.  Prizes can range from cash, cars, camels, and more.  At the end of the show host Wayne Brady goes through the day’s biggest dealers and asks if they want to trade away what they’ve won during the show for a chance at the Big Deal which is in excess of $20,000 generally it seems.  Only one person can be selected and that person takes home whatever is behind one of the three big doors.

Starting with the positives: Wayne Brady and co-host Johnathan Magnum did fantastic together.  They had a great chemistry together which is needed.  It didn’t seem like a typical game show because of this.  It seemed like a Las Vegas stage show which is pretty appropriate since that’s where it tapes and it fits with the feel.  The set was really great and kept a classic look while updating it to 2009.  The prizes were fine overall, contestants were fine, games were fine.

I do have to comment on something a ton of people complained about, though.  In the classic version, two Dealers got a chance at the Big Deal.  In this version, only one does.  Is there a reason people are complaining about it so much because I don’t see it.  I think it’s a bit hypocritical for some of the people who complain about the Price is Right fans freaking out about really dumb stuff to complain that they aren’t doing this exactly how the classic version did.  It’s extremely obvious they are doing this from a budgetary standpoint and it makes sense.  Otherwise odds are they’d be giving away a $20K+ Big Deal plus $8K-$10K to the other player.  That’s a lot for the budget.  Is there some actual reason a lot of people are complaining or is this another case of, “I want this revived specifically as it was in the 70s,” because if this is the biggest problem for a lot of you, they did a fantastic job with the show.

I only saw two real issues with the actual show.  One of them was the money being tossed around.  I really can’t believe it’s 2009 and we’re tempting people with around $300-$1,000; which is basically the same amount they had in the 70’s.  I’m not asking to be trading $10,000 constantly but come on.  It made it seem like a joke.  Also the show stretched unbelievably long in that hour.  Half way through the show I was pretty bored and fast forwarding to anything that looked remotely interesting.  I get CBS’s logic with the 60 minute Let’s Make A Deal but it just didn’t work out that well.  But overall the mechanics of the show were as good as I could have hoped for.

Like I said, the mechanics were fine but something just felt really off with the show.  Let’s Make A Deal didn’t seem like a big deal or anything special.  The similarities to The Price is Right are bound to be drawn.  I know this came first but I couldn’t help but think Deal or No Deal constantly as well.  I kept thinking, “People are tossing away $30,000 like nothing on Deal or No Deal and they are trying to draw out tension in trading away $300 on Let’s Make a Deal?  No thanks.”  We’ve had the two elements of this shown driven into our skulls endlessly already.  Again I know LMAD came first but I just couldn’t help but think this was nothing that great.

It’s why I truly think CBS flat out chose the wrong game show for the daytime slot.  Watching this today made it unbelievably evident it should have been The $1,000,000 Pyramid instead.  This isn’t favoritism talking.  I mean Deal or No Deal is on so many times a day and The Price is Right is on right around the same time as this new show.  It felt like nothing that I need to be around to watch, and that is going to hurt the show in the long run.  There was nothing here that made me want to make sure I was around for the next show.  I’ll be watching when I can but it was just, “Eh,” for lack of a better grunt.  Pyramid is different enough from everything else on television right now to get a bit more attention and it becomes appointment television during the big money finals.  To repeat: I’m well aware that CBS chose this because it was the easiest to abuse at the hour time slot and the whole product placement, but it was just the wrong decision.

So there we have it.  I’ll keep watching if I’m around because I really want to see new daytime game shows but they did nothing to really impress me.  It felt like the same old, same old.  We’ve seen this before and we see it for hours on end each day already.  In the end it just felt like a really missed opportunity for CBS to really get some more attention.  I wish Let’s Make A Deal all the luck in the world and I want it to succeed very badly.  Like I said, it’s a good show and they did just about everything they could correct with a few minor exceptions.  But it just felt like nothing special and irrelevant at this time.  Am I alone in thinking this?  Pretty good show all-in-all but just left a neutral feeling on me.

It’s a big day for game show fans!  The return of daytime game shows has finally arrived after a very long time.  Wayne Brady and Monty Hall have brought back Let’s Make A Deal today on CBS in daytime.  Check your local listings because it varies; in my area it airs at 10:00AM ET but I know it’s at 3:00PM ET in other places.  The show takes the classic look and feel of the original version hosted by Monty Hall and updates it for the 2009 audience with Wayne Brady as host.  Big cash, cars, prizes, and the infamous Zonks are all coming back.  I know I’ve repeated it but for all the people complaining that there are no daytime game shows: you have to watch this and/or comment to CBS on Twitter or email or letter or something saying how much you enjoy it and that sort of thing.  If this bombs you can kiss daytime game shows goodbye.  I don’t think it will and it should be a good companion for The Price is Right.  I’m extremely excited and can’t wait to see what they have in store since the PR is Deal-blocking basically everyone.  Please post what you think of the show here after it airs.  Spoilers are allowed so be careful.  To get you excited here are a few clips from the show.

Anyone else really excited for the new series of Let’s Make A Deal starting tomorrow?  I mean even beyond the show being fun and looking good, it’s the first daytime game show in a while.  There’s a lot of talk about more soap operas, specifically As The World Turns going dark soon.  If Let’s Make A Deal works out we may see some new ones pop up.  A lot of people, including myself, were very disappointed that The $1,000,000 Pyramid was not picked up.  We may see it down the line depending how this goes, so I’ll be watching when I can just for that.  If they see people will watch, they will make more.  Simple as that.  To get us more excited for Let’s Make A Deal, CBS sent us a link to a behind the scenes video of the show.  It offers a look at some of the games, the awesome set, host Wayne Brady, and executive producer Mike Richards.  Take a look.  Ready for the show tomorrow?

CBS uploaded a cool new video promoting their new daytime game show Let’s Make A Deal, starting October 5th.  Check what time it airs in your area because it’s apparently not at a general set time.  Drew Carey of The Price is Right and Wayne Brady, the host of Let’s Make A Deal, have some fun on the Price set.  Just like old Whose Line is it Anyway? times.  Ryan Stiles is on Two and a Half Men.  If they somehow get Colin Mochrie on the network they’d basically be ready for the new version of Whose Line.

We plugged it yesterday, but CBS has uploaded a video of Wayne Brady promoting his revival of Let’s Make A Deal, starting October in daytime.  Enjoy.

Watch CBS Videos Online

If you’re looking forward to seeing CBS’s daytime revival of Let’s Make A Deal coming in October, you’re in luck.  Wayne Brady, the new host, will be on CBS’s The Early Show tomorrow so be sure to watch.  However, if you’re in the New York City area and you’d like to stop down and see him, Adam Wurtzel, the audience coordinator for the show, has a special offer for all you game show fans.  Here’s what he has to say.

Fellow game show-fan and Early Backstage host Adam Wurtzel wants you to come see Wayne Brady at The Early Show tomorrow. Wayne will be outside on the Plaza promoting the all-new version of Let’s Make a Deal, on CBS premiering in October. If you’re in the NY area, arrive at 59th and 5th next to the Apple Store no later than 7:15AM to get VIP treatment.

Adam will be outside around 7:20 to say hello to the crowd. At that point, if you let him know you saw this on buzzerblog, he’ll immediately make sure you’re in the best spot to see, and most likely meet Wayne! You’ll also be able to meet Early Show anchors, and get a VIP backstage tour of The Early Show studio. It’s a great morning!

If you’d like to come, e-mail Adam at brguest@cbsnews.com with the subject line “Let’s Make a Deal,” letting him know how many people you’ll be. Wayne Brady and LMAD supportive signs and crazy costumes are greatly appreciated!