“Phone A Friend” Lifeline Removed from “Millionaire”
Edit: I’m sure I made it clear in the post, but I wanted to specify that this is really not the end of the world or the downfall of the show like many are claiming it is. I just think it’s a bit of a cheap way of solving a problem, whatever that problem may be.
Yeah, I defend the show a lot through the changes it’s made when others hated them. I’m not sure I can defend this much. I can’t give you the date yet, but the ever-popular Who Wants to be a Millionaire lifeline Phone A Friend is being removed from the show. Nothing will replace it, and Ask the Expert will be available at the start of the show. So, again, from the beginning your three lifelines are Double Dip, Ask the Expert, and Ask the Audience (the only thing really surviving from the original show ten years ago). And it kinda sucks. I wish I could defend like I’ve defended other changes, but I can’t. There’s really nothing positive from getting rid of it. I can understand why they are doing it from a production standpoint, but from my fan standpoint it’s a bit lame.
I’m just going to take two wild guesses at what this could be about so we can think from a production standpoint before we move into critical mode. The first thing (and the more probable) is that they have to do some extra production work with Phone A Friend which, you guessed it, costs money. They have to get all these people, make the graphics, organize it all, keep them on the phones, and then they have to edit down the dead time on set between when the lifeline is activated and when you actually see it on TV. The second is about Googling. At least half the Phone A Friends Google the answer which guarantees a right answer. So that’s a lot more money than they’d give away normally, thus saving money. So either way it boils down to money. I wish I had the right answer but I’d have to Phone A Friend for that and apparently it’s not allowed anymore.
It’s the only thing I can think of, though. It’s not like it wasn’t that popular, like 50:50. It is basically a cultural catch phrase. If they are going to keep toying with it in an effort to save money, whether that be production costs or prize budget or both, I’d really just like to see the show play around with the Australian Millionaire: Hot Seat format and bring it here. It only has one winner each show and that win averages around $20K usually, with $50K+ some other days. This is not, “That’s it, I’m done watching!” change. This is just more, “OK this is a bit dumb,” change.
I feel dumb for complaining about something as small as a lifeline, but it makes it so much harder to win money now. Ask the Audience stops being helpful at around the $12,500 or $15,000 question. People don’t like to do gambling with Double Dip much so that’s left on the table later. Ask the Expert is completely useless half the time when we get celebrities and Entertainment Weekly editors on the panel. I’d rather see the show start from scratch with the Hot Seat show than continue the endless stream of $15,000 or $25,000 winners with basically no one having a remote shot at a million dollars except for tournaments like the Tournament of 10.
With this move
Millionaire Jumped The Shark
Millionaire Jumped The Greedy TV Executive Behind Him
Millionaire Jumped ABC
Millionaire Jumped John Carpenter, Dan Blonsky, Joe Trela, Kim Hunt, David Goodman, Bob House, and Kevin Olmstead Millionaire Millionaire Bernie Cullen, Ed Toutant, Kevin Smith, and Nancy Christy, hell, even Ken Basin
Millionaire Didn't Just Jump The Shark, the Jumped the Whole Damn Ocean
oops let me post that again
With this move
Millionaire Jumped The Shark
Millionaire Jumped The Greedy TV Executive Behind Him
Millionaire Jumped ABC
Millionaire Jumped John Carpenter, Dan Blonsky, Joe Trela, Kim Hunt, David Goodman, and Bob House
Millionaire Jumped Kevin Olmestead, Bernie Cullen, Ed Toutant, Kevin Smith
Millionaire Jumped Nancy Christy and, hell, even Ken Basin
Millionaire Didn't Just Jump The Shark, the Jumped the Whole Damn Ocean
Shall we name it MilliVillionaire, you think it's the same show, but it isn't
Um, no. They're not backstage. Whatever you think you figured out there is wrong.
While I disagree with the choice, I think it's likely false that 'no one even thought about the implications.' Disagreement over a policy doesn't mean the other side hasn't thought it over.
W.T.F.!?! Seriously…
I'm not sure which pisses me off more: the mere fact that they're getting rid of this Lifeline, or the fact that money was apparently a factor. Has this economic recession caused people to go overboard with saving money and cutting costs!?!
There's more to game shows (and the performing arts, and art in general) than money!!! I'm all for cutting production costs and everything, but there comes a point when you cut too much, and I think Michael Davies crossed that line here. While artists, like the rest of us, have to make money, when you start doing it solely for the money (as appears to be the case here), you become what's known as a "sellout"! And no artist wants that dreaded label applied to them! Would you want to be compared to Metallica or Jim Davis (creator of "Garfield")? I don't think Michael Davies would! D:
Let me try to illustrate my point. Back when there was a "trilons vs. monitors" debate on this site a couple months ago over a $1,000,000 Pyramid pilot, Alex Davis successfully argued that monitors were better due to lower production costs. And, presumably, so did whoever was behind Wheel of Fortune's puzzle board redesign in 1997 and whoever was behind the addition of plasma screens on The Price is Right. Those were good ways to cut the budget. They lowered costs, but they didn't lower the fun, and with WOF, the less money they paid on production, the more money went into the hands of contestants!
Getting rid of Phone a Friend, however, is more along the lines of Bob Goen's Wheel of Fortune or the cheapening of TPIR's Showcases, and Golden Road, Three Strikes, Triple Play, and Million Dollar Spectaculars seemingly going MIA. Oh, and don't get me started on that "perfect Showcase bid" scandal back in December 2008 that resulted from them using the same prizes over and over again…
Budget cuts are like surgery: if you make a mistake, you could cut into a vital organ and kill the patient! Here, the "vital organ" might be (we don't know for sure yet) the Phone a Friend Lifeline on Millionaire. Some could argue that Ask the Expert is a replacement, but the Expert is chosen by the show, and if the person's expertise is mismatched with the question, problems could result. With Phone a Friend, however, YOU choose the "experts", and you choose a pool of them. And when you use the Lifeline, you pick one out of that pool. Oh, don't get me wrong, as was shown in the early days of the show in 1999, the expertise could still be mismatched, but there, theoretically, is less of a chance of that happening with more people to choose from. If it turns out that Millionaire did in fact cut into a vital organ, like daytime Wheel of Fortune did in 1989 when they cut the budget drastically to switch to the syndicated version's all-cash format, then Millionaire will "bleed to death" or get "complications". On the other hand, this could end up like daytime Deal or No Deal and the loss of Wheel's shopping format in 1987: the "vital organ" was, in fact, cancerous and removal makes the "patient" better.
We should watch this and see how it all ultimately plays out. As much as I abhor the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra, I personally believe that, in this case, they did remove something they shouldn't have. :(
W.T.F.!?! Seriously…
I'm not sure which pisses me off more: the mere fact that they're getting rid of this Lifeline, or the fact that money was apparently a factor. Has this economic recession caused people to go overboard with saving money and cutting costs!?!
There's more to game shows (and the performing arts, and art in general) than money!!! I'm all for cutting production costs and everything, but there comes a point when you cut too much, and I think Michael Davies crossed that line here. While artists, like the rest of us, have to make money, when you start doing it solely for the money (as appears to be the case here), you become what's known as a "sellout"! And no artist wants that dreaded label applied to them! Would you want to be compared to Metallica or Jim Davis (creator of "Garfield")? I don't think Michael Davies would! D:
Let me try to illustrate my point. Back when there was a "trilons vs. monitors" debate on this site a couple months ago over a $1,000,000 Pyramid pilot, Alex Davis successfully argued that monitors were better due to lower production costs. And, presumably, so did whoever was behind Wheel of Fortune's puzzle board redesign in 1997 and whoever was behind the addition of plasma screens on The Price is Right. Those were good ways to cut the budget. They lowered costs, but they didn't lower the fun, and with WOF, the less money they paid on production, the more money went into the hands of contestants!
Getting rid of Phone a Friend, however, is more along the lines of Bob Goen's Wheel of Fortune or the cheapening of TPIR's Showcases, and Golden Road, Three Strikes, Triple Play, and Million Dollar Spectaculars seemingly going MIA. Oh, and don't get me started on that "perfect Showcase bid" scandal back in December 2008 that resulted from them using the same prizes over and over again…
Budget cuts are like surgery: if you make a mistake, you could cut into a vital organ and kill the patient! Here, the "vital organ" might be (we don't know for sure yet) the Phone a Friend Lifeline on Millionaire. Some could argue that Ask the Expert is a replacement, but the Expert is chosen by the show, and if the person's expertise is mismatched with the question, problems could result. With Phone a Friend, however, YOU choose the "experts", and you choose a pool of them. And when you use the Lifeline, you pick one out of that pool. Oh, don't get me wrong, as was shown in the early days of the show in 1999, the expertise could still be mismatched, but there, theoretically, is less of a chance of that happening with more people to choose from. If it turns out that Millionaire did in fact cut into a vital organ, like daytime Wheel of Fortune did in 1989 when they cut the budget drastically to switch to the syndicated version's all-cash format, then Millionaire will "bleed to death" or get "complications". On the other hand, this could end up like daytime Deal or No Deal and the loss of Wheel's shopping format in 1987: the "vital organ" was, in fact, cancerous and removal makes the "patient" better.
We should watch this and see how it all ultimately plays out. As much as I abhor the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra, I personally believe that, in this case, they did remove something they shouldn't have. :(
I just so happen to have just returned home from a taping of Millionaire today (10/7). I did not see this story before I got there so I was shocked and saddened to see game play without this lifeline. I gotta think it is saving money, cuz in the 3 shows I saw today, only 2 people won more than $5000. One won $15K and one won $10K. So….as long as we don't have that blonde ditz so called "expert" that we had a couple weeks ago (can't remember her name now…she did not get a question right till that week's Friday show) it will still offer some help.
Did I say the top prize would be a million? GSN HAS given a million dollars away in a sweepstakes, I believe, and there was that Think Like a Cat show. They could just make questions even harder than they are now if they had to, but it always could be 'Who Wants to be Rich.'
I saw a Korean Game show one time, and one of their "lifeline" was they can use the internet for 30 seconds :)
Let's just say, the tumor (PAF) wasn't a tumor after all, but now it's been removed
Like I said before, Millionaire didn't just jump the shark, it jumped the whole damn ocean
>_<
I thought that the point of game shows was to give away money. Wouldn't giving away less money defeat the purpose of a game show? And also, how will Meredith introduce this change? With a smile on her face, and a "we've got a big surprise for you – we're removing Phone a Friend! :D"?
>_<
I thought that the point of game shows was to give away money. Wouldn't giving away less money defeat the purpose of a game show? And also, how will Meredith introduce this change? With a big smile on her face, and a "we've got a big surprise for you – we're removing Phone a Friend! :D"?
I think it is a terrible idea to get rid of the phone a friend. The phone a friend is the signature to the show. I think less is going to win a lot of money if this option is taken away.
I don't know about you, but I DO know is that not only is this recession's hurting ALL of us, now even the higher-ups are starting to "get it" budget-wise. If this economy doesn't turn around soon, I fear game shows will lose their "value" in 5-10 years.
I beleive your theory is wrong. If the contestant is smart enough to have friends with computers in place and ready for the call they do Google the question. Its quite obvious when a question is asked of a friend and the answer comes a bit slow, than bam…here's the amswer 100% sure. Quite obvious what they are doing
I don't fear that, I hope for it. I am tired of even the syndicated deal starting out with an offer of $20,000 and people throwing it away like that is meaningless.-+
I think they will make a question or two easier and the show will go faster, so I don't think the game will give away less money overall, actually.
No, the purpose of a show, regardless of genre, is to make money for its owners. If the determination is that they can save some costs while not driving away the average viewers–the ones who don't kvetch on message boards, for example–then that's a legitimate business consideration, albeit an unpopular one with some of US.
I've never seen the show live, but I do know this, the show is taped. I would imagine at least once, they've gotten a machine and producers edited it out. that and I hear they tell the contestants make sure your phone-a-friends will be available.
While I'm sad to see it go, I think they were right – and in some sense, it's hard to justify the advantage some contestants have over others in having quick typers/Googlers as PAFs.
Other suggestions:
Ask a Stranger – maybe a random audience member, maybe someone on the streets, something similar to 1 vs 100
Pit Stop – a 15/30/45-second "pit stop" like Winning Lines
Risk – sorta similar to Save on 5th Grader (looks like I don't have any original ideas, eh) – if you use this and then miss the question you get to continue, however all values are halved except for upcoming questions (or if they really want to save money, all questions). e.g., you're at 7,500 going for 10,000, you use the lifeline and miss the Q, then you're at 5,000 playing for 12,500. If you're right on that one, you get 12,500 and continue. If you get it wrong, you'd fall back to 2,500 (since it's halved). and you can walk away with the 5,000 you earned as well. I suppose this lifeline could also be used to convince people to take more risks.
I guess to clarify on Risk (haha, I'm seeing all sorts of cool graphics they can do with this):
essentially, money tree looks like (in thousands)
0.5 / 1 / 2 / 3 / [5] / 7.5 / 10 / 12.5 / 15 / [25] / 50 / 100 / 250 / 500 / 1000
in the above example, right after the miss at 10k, the money tree gets changed to:
0.25 / 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / [2.5] / 3.75 / 5 / 12.5 / 15 / [25] / 50 / 100 / 250 / 500 / 1000
and the game continues as usual.
I could see that they wouldn't want to let you use this above 25k, because assuming you missed the 250k question:
0.25 / 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / [2.5] / 3.75 / 5 / 6.25 / 7.5 / [12.5] / 25 / 50 / 125 / 500 / 1000
you end up with 125k, which is MORE money than you last had (100k).
in all likelihood though, too complicated to be implemented.
Which is exactly why we Americans aren't good at math. Please, leave it to the pros. I like the money tree as is. Why would you use a Risk like that? I do like the Pit Stop idea. It gives players time to think it over a bit.
No just you Craig. Damn racist europeans assuming everything.
Ask a Stranger might work, the show could use a timeout, and Risk doesn't make any sense without a partner (like in 5th grader)
Ask a Stranger didn't work at the Disneyland attraction. Anyone who's been there can tell you that much. And who's to say that a random New Yorker knows more than a random Disneyland patron?
Pit Stop seems like it should have been naturally added along with the clock. I've seen about a dozen versions of this lifeline suggested here. I think if the show finds the right variation, it will add it as a successor to Phone-a-Friend.
Risk… is WAAY too complicated. If you need 303 words to explain how a lifeline works, it's too complex.
I agree with most of what you said except WoF isn't a good example since it is still thriving.
The german version actually has a lifeline similar to your "ask a stranger" that would work pretty well I think. When used, the lights come up and anyone in the audience that thinks they know the answer stands up, the contestant gets to talk to one of them. In Germany, that lifeline is only available if you play the "risk version" of the game which does not have a 2nd safe haven.
Here are the problems with the current setup of Millionaire:
1. The contestants. They're not as smart because there are less (and easier) stages to pass in the audition process and some of them are recruited. Number of contesants shouldn't be an issue because the primetime version ran two/three hours a week at some points, which comes out to about the same number per week. In fact, if they sifted through and found people willing and able to go far, more time would be spent per contestant. There are also a lot who don't trust their gut and want to check with the audience/expert or use Double Dip and get it right on the first try. The primetime version not only had smarter contestants, but contestants who made an educated guess if they needed to and didn't have to be 100% sure of their answer. You can blame that on the timer, but it's possible to take a few seconds to think and save a lifeline.
Here are the problems with the current setup of Millionaire:
1. The contestants. They're not as smart because there are less (and easier) stages to pass in the audition process and some of them are recruited. Number of contesants shouldn't be an issue because the primetime version ran two/three hours a week at some points, which comes out to about the same number per week. In fact, if they sifted through and found people willing and able to go far, more time would be spent per contestant. There are also a lot who don't trust their gut and want to check with the audience/expert or use Double Dip and get it right on the first try. The primetime version not only had smarter contestants, but contestants who made an educated guess if they needed to and didn't have to be 100% sure of their answer. You can blame that on the timer, but it's possible to take a few seconds to think and save a lifeline.
2. The lifelines. Specifically, the misuse of them. Of course, the Ask the Audience becomes useless after the first 10 questions, but a lot of contestants either use it on a question people don't know or they don't trust a high number. Double Dip tends to be used just to confirm an answer they're not sure about. Even if their instinct is wrong, that sometimes is their only thought and they're stuck taking a wild guess almost. They also compound it with another lifeline sometimes which really annoys me. Ask the Expert is used on a lot of questions that don't match their expertise, so they get mostly vague answers. A lot of them don't present certain answers, which only makes the contestant uncertain.