Morning Buzz for July 8, 2011
Good morning, everyone. I’m sure you’re as happy as I am that it’s Friday and the weekend is just around the corner. Let’s start off the end of the week with some quick stories. Later today we’ll give you a review of ABC’s Take The Money and Run which I enjoy quite a bit.
*We were linked to a report of the new season of The Price is Right from fan site Golden Road. There are a few changes which no one beyond the hardcore people will care about, so we won’t get into that. One nice and needed change is an increase in money for the show’s popular game Punch-A-Bunch. Last season the show’s cheapness was shown in full force during this game, which, according to regular emails we received, rarely gave away more than $100. The new money layout includes one grand prize of $25,000; two $10,000; four $5,000; eight $2,500; ten each of $1,000; $500, and $250, and five $100. Pretty big jump from the old layout which had 40 of the 50 slips a contestant could win being $500 and under. Now that’s just 25 out of 50.
*Speaking of the new season, Drew Carey tweeted a picture of a new decoration hanging around the doors celebrating the 40th year of the show. They’re huge and impressive looking. Click here to see that.
*Some detains about NBC’s upcoming It’s Worth What?, the Cedric the Entertainer hosted game show, are finally coming out. During a press conference we eavesdropped on yesterday, Cedric gave some details. The game involves couples trying to bank up to $100,000 by placing items from least to most expensive. They are allowed to gamble their money on one final round for ten times their bank, for a grand prize of $1,000,000. It’s sort of like Card Sharks with actual items and a lot more money. We posted some previews the other day and as I said before I feel I may have misjudged the show initially. It sounds like it could be pretty fun. The show debuts July 19th on NBC.
*CBS is still doing some heavy casting for their upcoming game show Identity Crisis, based on the popular board game. If you live in or will be near Los Angeles and want to win up to $100,000, click here.
*The Dutch version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire had its first million euro question since 2006. Check it out below. Few things in game show history top a million dollar question.
*If you happen to live in the United Kingdom or can check out the show some other way, my friend Greg Scott is playing on the Channel 4 game show Countdown today, so watch that if you can.
Again, we’ll have a review of ABC’s upcoming Take The Money and Run later today.
Thank goodness that Price has altered the Punch-a-Bunch slips a bit. It was infuriating to see so many $100 “winners” in an era when doing nothing on different shows can get you $1000 before taxes. At least the possibility of that happening has been decreased.
But their total including the $100, the IUFB, and small prize(s) won is at least $510.
Maybe, but you’d think the cash prizes would be a bit higher given the times. And viewers don’t want to see the segment end on a bitter note all the time.
Do you know if they’re changing the big doors on TPiR. I really feel like a simple set decoration isn’t enough to commemorate a true milestone in television history.
The doors are the same as they were in Season 39.
No more $50 cards in Punch-A-Bunch, but are there still four second chance cards? That means that the fourth second chance card would be $1,000 along with $100, $250, and $500. That means you can win up to $26,850 for the top prize if someone was to get all four second chance cards along with the $25,000 card. I will be shocked and dumbfounded if they decide to not keep the four second chance cards.
Regarding Punch-A-Bunch, for the sake of duds, I would’ve preferred the lowest amount at $250. Still, a 50-50 chance to win at least $1000 is a step in the right direction.
Is Drew Carey going to stop wearing bow-ties or what? And I want to see Triple Play, Golden Road, 3 Strikes, those kind of games played more next season. Is Credit Card ever coming back either? I want to know!
I though Credit Card and Check Game were retired. I hope that pricing games such as Lucky Seven, 3 Strikes, Take Two, Grocery Game, and Pathfinder get moderized displays like Any Number, Plinko, and Temptation. Make the score display by the Big Wheel a computer monitor or LED display. I would rather see more computer monitors and LED displays instead of the old eggcrate displays.
When Mike Richards did his live chat a few weeks ago, he mentioned that Check Game and Credit Card were still on hiatus and they were looking to get them back in the rotation sooner rather than later. Granted you have to take that with a grain or salt or five, but this was the same chat in which he mentioned updating the payouts in Punch-a-Bunch, and since that has come to pass, perhaps there’s something to this as well.
In either case, neither game is at least officially retired at this stage.
As for updating other games, I would like to see a new Pathfinder ARP display, if only because HD is not its friend; it’s possible to squint and just make out what the unlit numbers are supposed to be, and be right more often than not. That’s not a good thing.
I see a lot of Punch-A-Bunch play when players always end up winning less than $500. I hope the new rules will change all that, hopefully we might get the first $25K win for this upcoming milestone season.
Here’s an interesting point about Punch-a-Bunch:
As it currently stands, the odds of winning the game outright are 1:50. That won’t change with the new slip distribution. Before the top prize was updated, the odds were 1:25 for nearly three decades (with two $10,000 slips).
Now here’s where it gets fun… Under the original Punch-a-Bunch rules, where you punched out first a number and then a “DOLLARS,” “HUNDRED” or “THOUSAND” multiplier, the odds of winning $10,000 were 1:50. (You had a 1:10 chance of finding the “TEN” slip, then 1:5 of finding a “THOUSAND” on the main Punchboard.) And in 1979, a $10,000 win was the equivalent in 2011 dollars of roughly $29,635. This remained the case when the current Punchy rules were adopted later in ’79.
Therefore, after the rule change, a $10,000 win was worth significantly more than a $25,000 win would be today — and it was easier to win besides.
I’m not sure what this means, except that the pursestrings are tied a bit tighter than perhaps they should be…
I disagree. Eggcrate displays need to be put back in those games that have been changed, Plinko, Temptation, and most importantly, the showcases. In Plinko, there should be six digits, inckuding the Dollar Sign and $0 should be shown at the start of the game. Same for the showcases, there needs to be six digits including the Dollar sign. And the bid displays there sould be at the bottom, and the showcase name should be on top. Somebody tell Mike Richards.
Technology has changed quickly. But use Egg Crate display but LED lighting.
Good idea! Mike Richards needs to know this right away and tell George Gray to wear glasses as well please. Bye!
Punch-A-Bunch (aka “The Punchboard”) is my favorite TPIR game, and i am ECSTATIC that the payouts were increased! I still would like to see two “$25,000″ slips (as was the case when the top prize was $10,000). But, I’ll take it. This is a BIG improvement. I kept thinking “$50 in 2011? Really?” So, I’m glad that changed.
Final Question: Which route, according to the Dutch Central Bank, could you follow if you laid all the guilders in circulation end to end?