It’s Official: “Let’s Make A Deal” to CBS Daytime Schedule
As people have commented a couple dozen times since I’ve been in New York for the Who Wants to be a Millionaire anniversary, I figured I may as well say something about it. CBS has officially picked up a new hour-long edition of Let’s Make A Deal for the daytime lineup. The show will premiere October 5th (check your local listings) and is hosted by Wayne Brady. “I am honored and ready to go; it is not every day that you get to be a part of a franchise like LET’S MAKE A DEAL,” said Wayne Brady. “I think it is a perfect fit.” “We are delighted to have LET’S MAKE A DEAL back on the air with CBS,” said Monty Hall. “I know the audience is going to welcome the charming and engaging Wayne Brady as the new host.”
First off, I think Wayne Brady is a great pick for host. But I’m still not exactly sold on this. There are several positives and negatives. The positives definitely include how well it fits The Price is Right. It fits it like a glove. It also can do a ton of product placement, as does Price, bringing in more money which is obviously necessary. The show will tape in Las Vegas so it’s a unique setting at least. The main negatives I have are that it’s almost too similar to The Price is Right in look and feel. Second I can’t help but think some people who have never seen the classic version will think it’s a giant ripoff of Deal or No Deal. That one may be a stretch, but I can see it happening.
But to be perfectly frank I’d much rather have had Pyramid on the lineup. And I have no problem saying favoritism plays a role in that. I simply like Pyramid more and at least for me it would make me watch. To be frank, I’m glad we’re getting another game show in the daytime but this is just simply not something I’ll be watching freely. For me this is more of, “Well there’s nothing else on,” viewing, but I know for others that it’s different. So there we go. I’m not really thrilled but hey it’s better than another talk show I guess.
I thought Sony made a big mistake by not putting a dollar figure in the title. "Pyramid" sounds kinda weak and generic. "The $100,000 Pyramid" gives it a grandeur, a sense of importance, a personality, if you will.
I kind of see this as them "taking the safe deal" (as Monty would say) It fits will with TPIR, obviously, and I guess that CBS is getting us re-educated into a daytime lineup starting with baby steps, i.e. by presenting something similar to what most modern audiences already know (and often, like) from Price, yet with just enough differences.
I do hope this isn't the end of Pyramid, though. Especially since it seems like it was being done by people who "get it". I'd hate to imagine them thinking it didn't work and confirming that they need to fix things that ain't broke. And then they would retool it to look like something like, well, Donnymid.
Vince Russo books the CBS daytime schedule, huh? I can see it now…Rich Fields does a Drewcase and then in the middle breaks character and says he's not going to do these ridiculous comedy sketches anymore. EVERYTHING IS FAKE EXCEPT WHAT YOU ARE WATCHING RIGHT NOW, WHICH IS REAL!
Or instead of re-doing the Montreal Screwjob, they book several angles based on the "cheat" perfect Showcase.
I don't know what they are going to do, but would this work for an hour LMAD, I wonder…Do each half like the standard format (various deals, two people play the Big Deal), then bring the BD winners (or if they didn't get the BD, the highest winners in each BD segment) and offer them the Super Deal? Of course that would probably depend a lot on whether or not the contestants would bite for a SD, which might mean no climax for some episodes.
Of course, with more commercial time, it might not feel like an hour so may not drag as bad as we think. It might give some space for contestant/host banter and all. If it was just 30 min, that would be rushed, I'd imagine.
Re #1…not that that stopped people trying to cast based on "personality" before on games that didn't need it…ironically I am thinking of GSN Chain Reaction…now who was the mastermind behind that, again? $1M Password suffered a little from this too.
I also wonder…would it REALLY work as a syndie? Assuming they'll cut it back to 30 min? (will we go back to 6-in-20 instead of 7/30, for example? Regressing back to Donnymid, again, *wince*)
If I can play devil's advocate here too…I agree that it takes a bit more than an old school look to the set. Not that that's bad! Let me put it to you this way…while the gameplay and the look is intact, the show needs a good host and good players. Otherwise you'll end up with GSN Chain Reaction. (now who was responsible for that again?) Controversial statement, I know, but really, CR sounded like it was pretty much the same game, except A) Dylan Lane wasn't that great, and B) they skewered young and "exciting" instead of "good players."
____Regardless, I still wanna see Pyramid back, especially if they DO "get it," and if they get the right host and don't just pick pretty faces as contestants. And I hope that it not being picked up doesn't force them to do things the 2000s way like Donnymid did, or make any other new hip and edgy changes. I do understand why they chose LMAD, as I explain way below in this thread. ____I also hope CBS really doesn't think so little of Pyramid. It would be funny, considering they made a long-standing word game format change its style so it was pretty much Pyramid without the pyramids (presumably so it wouldn't be "boring"). And it was successful for a while. Hey, maybe THAT'S it? Since MDPW's audience waned, they were wary of a similar program? __
Well, this will be one for the record books. Anyway, I'll be hoping to see if this will be good.
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I will be staying at the Tropiciana March 9-13, 2010. Will there be shows of Lets make a deal to attend during our stay?
Thanks, Dur Stell
Sorry, Deal is moving to Los Angeles that week, they open shop again in LA on March 18.
It's my favorite TV show.Casting is the best.
Keep up the great work.Thank you.
It's my favorite TV show.Casting is the best.
Keep up the great work.Thank you.