Chris Tarrant and Bob Barker Talk About “Millionaire” and “Price”
Things are changing for game shows all over the globe. We’ll start with the better of the two for now. We’ve been covering The Great Who Wants to be a Millionaire Evolution 2010, covering the globe, for the past few weeks. The British edition of Millionaire is getting its first ever game change and shifting towards the American format. Well, the previous American format. The host, Chris Tarrant, spoke about what to expect and how he feels about the changes. If it means anything it’s clearly evident they looked at the American version and said, “Hey, this is working.”
For the record I really do agree about the clock and I still get mystified about the massive complaints about it. It’s really not changed the game at all except for a handful of nervous contestants who couldn’t take the pressure. Getting rid of Phone A Friend and changing the money chain has made stuff harder, not the clock. We’ll see what else happens with the new season and its new, exciting changes. But in the mean time, can’t wait to see the new edition of UK Millionaire when it begins in August.
And now we get to Bob Barker. If anyone expects him to really like Drew Carey’s Price is Right a lot you’re a bit delusional. But regardless the net has lit up about Barker “ripping” Carey. I don’t see why anyone really cares what he thinks as long as they enjoy the show or they have their own opinion, but there we go. Just because Barker says it doesn’t make it true necessarily. All opinions. Click here to see the video.
Before I comment, I must say that the fact the link came from TMZ made me feel kinda dirty.
:-D
Now, to the serious point; from what I observed, Bob said Drew doesn’t try to amp up the excitement when contestants win. Is this really something nobody knows? If Drew had tried to copy Barker’s way of hosting, then the Price fans would’ve been on him even more (“he’s copying our legend! He stinks!”). This is nothing anybody who has watched Price more than three times could’ve observed; it’s just the fact that it came from Bob that everybody is going “Whoa!”. Calm down, people.
I agree with you on that one. You can’t win for losing. If he did copy Bob’s style, he would get ripped for it, and if he didn’t, he would still get ripped for it. The way I see it, it would be open season on Drew Carey.
Gee, wasn’t that Drew’s reason for not wanting the job in the first place??
;-p
…and I LIKE Drew on TPIR!
Eh, if Bob doesn’t like Drew, then that’s just his opinion. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but it’s simply an opinion.
Also, I LOLed at the Adam Sandler/Regis Philbin comment. Well…it wasn’t a laugh as much as it was a snort. XD
No idea why anyone cares about what Bob thinks, but if you look at the video, he was saying Drew did not make the games exciting, and that he (Bob) did. The comment was not focused on when contestants win. Bob should just say the truth — “it’s not my show anymore, and the show is bigger than any one host.” But that would not be consistent with his ego.
I’m pretty sure Regis could beat up both Bob AND Adam Sandler. :)
I remain steadfast in saying that the clock is the most indefensibly stupid thing ever to be inflicted. Sure, you get rid of the dull nothingness, but that’s what you pay your editing department for. The “much, much later” lady took what? 45 minutes? An hour? Slice it down to thirty seconds or so. What our version has now lost is the serious, thoughtful deliberation that made most of the high-level questions, and even the mid-level ones, so intense. Now, it’s either “I know it. (answer) Final.” or “I don’t know it. I walk.” There’s little to no serious effort to try to figure it out or remember any useful facts. Just quick, quick. Make a decision. NOW! QUICKLY! That’s fine for the ADD-riddled lowest-common denominator. But I enjoyed the somewhat more subdued pace on the third tier. It made Millionaire stand out in the quiz show crowd.
And that’s what you’d pay your entire crew OT for, too…to just stand around while a player second-guesses themselves to death.
The clock is a cost-saving measure, pure and simple. Especially here in the States where they tape 5 or more shows-a-day, the producers simply don’t have the luxury of letting players take forever to deliberate. It may have been quaint and suspenseful when they just taped one hour-long show a night, but those days are over.
Few winners, short schedules and the like is why I enjoy the show less, and that’s why I don’t watch it. It’s all about the budget, and the enjoyment comes a distant second.
sort of the same thing David said regarding Bob, the fact that it came from TMZ, I don’t think anyone should read too much into this. Bob has his style, Drew has his style. Bob’s better at bringing in the excitement, Drew’s better at bringing in the laughs.
Looks like Bob has issued a retraction of sorts… http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/07/27/bob-barker-drew-carey/
It wasn’t really a retraction, so much as a raising of a white flag. He made what he thought was a fairly innocuous statement, and now he wants the issue over with. It didn’t sound like he slammed Drew to me. Just that Drew prefers not to do the building up that Bob loved to do. Drew rarely does it, and only if he thinks the contestant is right.
Someone at a certain TPIR fansite described it the best… Bob is better at creating excitement while explaining the rules and during the game’s playing and reveal. Drew is better at creating excitement once the player has won (i.e. Taylor and Lucky Seven).
It’s a trade off on both sides, but IMO, both of their styles work well.
Honestly, the whole “Bob was the master of the reveal” stuff escapes me. Dear Lord, my two-year-old would be able to smell Bob’s set-ups from a mile away, they were so predictable (and after that many years, not the least bit suspenseful any more). How many times could we see him do the same fake over and over and over again?
Anything to keep his name in the headlines – that’s all Barker is about these days, especially since his enemy Betty White is getting all of the attention!
Even if that is his motivation, I’m kind of willing to take sizable donations to veterans’ affairs and saving the whales in exchange for his supposed ‘revenge’ against Betty White.
Whoa!! What’d I miss?? Bob and Betty are enemies???
…alright Lucy, ‘splain!!
Barker wouldn’t do his ‘icon’ thing on the GSN Game Show awards last year if Betty White appeared on the show, and with GSN wanting ‘the ego’ to appear, Betty agreed to tape her dedication to Mark Goodson instead of appearing on the show. This all had to do with Billy the Elephant – an elephant that Barker wanted shipped off to a refuge, while Betty wanted his area enlarged at the LA Zoo. Betty and the zoo won, and Barker was pissed, so she became his enemy due to that event, and instead of Betty giving the award to Mark Goodson’s daughter, Alex Trebek did so instead. Yet another example of Barker being a crybaby if he didn’t get his way!
Ahhhhh…..cool, thanks for the info :-)
….and all this over an elephant.