CBS Looking to Develop “Let’s Make A Deal” for Daytime Revival
Pyramid isn’t the only game show CBS is looking at to bring back to daytime to fill the gap left by recently canceled soap opera Guiding Light. CBS is looking to develop the classic trading game show Let’s Make A Deal to place in the afternoon slot. Fremantle bought the the rights to the fan-favorite classic in early 2009 and has been bringing it back around the world. Australia shot a pilot for a revival for Channel 9 and a Craigslist posting was recently looking for Americans to fly to Australia to tape a pilot of a game show all involving trading and dealing. Hosts are being brought into Monty’s offices this week to do run-throughs.
Monty Hall hosted and co-produced the original version beginning in the 60s and lasting through the 70s. Several revivals have come and gone through the years; the most recent being an NBC primetime revival in 2003 hosted by Billy Bush which only lasted three episodes. CBS has been looking at alternative programming to replace the canceled soap Guiding Light. A revival of The $25,000 Pyramid from Embassy Row was originally announced to be in the running. Let’s Make A Deal is the second known game show to be developed for a daytime revival.
Actual journalism mode over and blog mode on. I can’t think of a better daytime game show block for the genre fans than Pyramid, Let’s Make A Deal, and The Price is Right.
In response to Steven, I’m not so sure daytime “WOF” would work nowadays. They are doing enough with it as is. Now that they have added the million dollar wedge, I’m not sure they would want to go back to daytime with it. It would probably look a little strange to the average viewer who doesn’t know much about the show’s history.
This is one of my favorite games of all time… as long as Monty is involved in some way, even making an appearance on the first show to introduce the host, this will be fine.
The models? Hey, if primetime Deal doesn’t return, you’ve got your pick of decent models who could look good in front of a curtain or a door. Tameka is involved with the daytime Deal, else she’d be good. Claudia did TPIR…
It’s will be very hard to replace Monty Hall as host for the new LMAD. I don’t know who could be host?. Burton Richardson or Randy West would be perfect announcer for the show. For the models, whoever is not doing any shows for the taping of TPIR should be the models on LMAD. And rotate them when they have to do TPIR. Do not have video screens or video doors, that will kill it. Have the announcer, bring out the table with a cover like they did in the old versions.
If CBS puts more game shows in the daytime slots(10:00-11:00) and possibly the Guiding Light time slot, that will definately give NBC a way to counter-attack CBS. NBC is down to one soap opera(Days of Our Lives and rumor that it could be cancelled in the near future).
I would like to also see Card Sharks, Whew, Srabble, Dream House, Hit Man, Press Your Luck, Hot Potato, Go and High Rollers come back to network dayime as well.
To MrQuiz: There’s gotta be a point when someone will say “There’s just too many talk shows on TV”, well, i’m saying it. Sure Springer and Maury will, eventually, run their course, but, worst case scenario, they’ll be replaced with even worst talk shows. As for those so-called “double runs”, they kill the integrity of game shows (see Weakest Link or Millionaire).
To Matt: I would love to see a revival of Card Sharks, but (as MrQuiz pointed out) Fremantle messed it up with that awful 2001 revival. If it’s to be done, they need to revert to the original (mostly the Eubanks/Rafferty end game) format mainly because this is one show that’s meant to straddle. As for Hit Man, Hot Potato, and Go!……likely won’t happen because of their short runs. Sure Chain Reaction did it despite the original lasted 13 weeks, but it was 1) on cable (USA Network), and 2) was a Canadian version of the show since it was based in Montreal.
To Steven: a Daytime Wheel likely won’t happen. CBS knows that if they do that, it will very much lower the nighttime version’s ratings. And a Daytime Jeopardy! not likely to happen either since most stations already airs Jeopardy! during the daytime anyway. And speaking of Jeopardy!………..
To Seth D: The one show you’d forgotten was Jeopardy!. J! has had 3 version of the show (1964-75, a short lived revival in 1978, and, of course the current one that premiered in 1984), which, if my math serves me correctly, is 5 straight decades. Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud will join it and the others that you mention this coming season.
Oh, and I forgot to mention Pyramid (if CBS go ahead and give it the green light) as another show that will join the 5 straight decade club next year.
IMHO, there are three things that this supposed new version of “Let’s Make a Deal” absolutely MUST do in order for it to work:
A) It focuses on comedic tension more than game play
B) It adopts the retro/kitschy feel of the original version, not the dark and dramatic style of shows like “Millionaire” and “The Weakest Link”
C) The host must be genuinely warm, approachable and gently funny; s/he must never make it look like contestants are being manipulated or allow the audience to laugh AT them
That being said, LMAD may well be one of those shows whose time has come and gone. One can’t help but wonder if the tone and spirit that made it such a runaway hit in decades past would would translate well in 2009. It’s also inextricably linked to its host. Like Bob Barker and TPIR, Monty Hall IS “Let’s Make a Deal.” The producers will likely find it well nigh impossible to find someone who can bring to the show what class and style he did.
CBS might be better off reviving a hard Q&A show. Since we’re talking Hatos/Hall shows here, “Split Second” immediately springs to mind. It absolutely screams for new life and would be perfect for today’s big money formats. However, finding a host as good as Tom Kennedy was would be difficult. I also remember reading somewhere that a revival of “Double Dare” (Alex Trebek’s short lived mid-70′s show on CBS) was in development. It was always an intriguing – if somewhat awkward – game, although it seems to be remembered now only for the brevity of its run (96 episodes) and its host. Still, it’s worth considering.
Someone mentioned earlier about the dream of “Concentration” coming back to NBC should “Days of Our Lives” bite the dust. Some time ago I seem to remember seeing something about a revival that was on the drawing board with Matt Lauer as host. It ended up getting scrapped in favour of a fourth hour of “Today.” What with the network guarding the master tapes of the Jack Narz and Alex Trebek versions of the show like a state secret, and (unless you believe the conspiracy theory claiming otherwise) virtually all of the tapes of the original run erased from history, it’s unlikely that NBC has any faith in such a thing. I’d feel like I’d died and gone to Heaven if it did return, but I’m not holding my breath.
If CONCENTRATION were to come back, I’d prefer to see it in its original format (for you younger fans, I’m talking when NBC first ran it from 1958-73). Sure, the pace was slower, the game board had 30 spaces, instead of 25; there was a bit more strategy, in that you had “booby” prizes to protect your “good” prizes, in the event you matched a “Forfeit 1 Gift” card (another strategy, albeit something of a trade-off..giving up a prize in order to see two more parts of the puzzle); and…NO END GAME! The original version proved a “bonus round” isn’t always necessary.
DeVares: as long as talk shows are cheaper to produce than game shows, and as long
as (collectively) we’re as voyeuristic a society as we are, they may NEVER go
away!
“Let’s Make a Deal” coming back to TV? Good idea. I hope that the new version is fun and exciting compared to the 2003 version hosted by Billy Bush. The Bush version was embarrassing and horrible and I hope that the new version doesn’t have stupid stunts, like digging under a hula skirt and toga. If the new version is a hit, then I’ll watch it everyday. Otherwise, good-bye LMAD. And I hope that the deal wheel returns, in which a contestant can either walk away with $1,000 or take a chance and go for a new car. That was very popular in the 1980s. Finally, the perfect host for the show, in my opinion, is either Todd Newton, Ricki Lake or JD Roth. Will LMAD ever come back. I hope so.
i would like to see cbs bring back the jokers wild game show with a new set and a new host