Today's WWTBAM -- Tuesday 9/23/08

Message

TheConfessor · #1 Post by **TheConfessor** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:41 am

MINOR SPOILER

The second contestant felt the need to expound about his reasoning and thought processes on each question. On the first few questions, he got within a few seconds of the clock expiring. On the fifth question, the clock appeared to expire before he said "final," but they gave him credit for the answer. It will be interesting to see the reaction if they ever rule that a contestant was just a split second too late with the correct answer.

MarleysGh0st · #2 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:48 am

Most contestants are just saying the letter and not the full answer. I'm waiting for the first dispute about whether someone said 'B' or 'D'.

#3 Post by **Bob78164** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:59 am

MarleysGh0st wrote:Most contestants are just saying the letter and not the full answer. I'm waiting for the first dispute about whether someone said 'B' or 'D'.

You'll never see such a dispute on air. They'll go to the tape, like they do on Jeopardy!, and edit so that no one outside the studio will ever know there was an issue. --Bob

frogman042 · #4 Post by **frogman042** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:40 pm

Was the contestant's name George by any chance?

As I understand the time rule - clearly saying final before the time has expired is clean and clear-cut. But if you started you answer before your time has run out and as long as your answer doesn't include a pause then final or final answer can come after time has expired.

So saying 'D Elephant Final' all in phrase will be OK even if time runs out while saying Elephant, but 'D Elephant <pause> Final' would be a walk if the time ran while saying Elephant.

It would be interesting to see it pushed to the limit but I would guess that if it was somewhat ambigous that whatever way it went they may choose to reshoot that specific answer just so it is clear-cut for TV - once they reached a judgement call.

---Jay

goongas · #5 Post by **goongas** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:07 pm

He started his answer before the clock went to 0, but did not say final until after it went to 0. I thought they were going to disqualify him, but according to the rules Frogman stated he was fine.

Shade · #6 Post by **Shade** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:01 pm

I can vouch for those rules, they told me that would be the case on my taping too. I really hope we don't get a contestant who forgets to say final answer, if you forgot on all other seasons Meredith will ask "Final?" I'm going to miss the days when contestant could take their time and banter with Meredith.

tanstaafl2 · #7 Post by **tanstaafl2** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:44 pm

Problem can be easily solved.

Get rid of the damned clock.

Mere will just have to be late for her reservation to the latest shi shi restaurant on some nights...

gsabc · #8 Post by **gsabc** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:50 pm

tanstaafl2 wrote:Problem can be easily solved.

Get rid of the damned clock.

Mere will just have to be late for her reservation to the latest shi shi restaurant on some nights...

It'd be more like the staff and director with the restaurant reservations. Meredith is just heading home to her children and ailing husband.

Face it, it's all about the cost of production. Overtime for the union crew and any other salaried staff is expensive. The clock places limits on how long a day they'll have. The probability that they'll end up with lower payouts to contestants for the season is just a bonus.

MarleysGh0st · #9 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:04 pm

gsabc wrote:
tanstaafl2 wrote:Problem can be easily solved.

Get rid of the damned clock.

Mere will just have to be late for her reservation to the latest shi shi restaurant on some nights...
It'd be more like the staff and director with the restaurant reservations. Meredith is just heading home to her children and ailing husband.

Face it, it's all about the cost of production. Overtime for the union crew and any other salaried staff is expensive. The clock places limits on how long a day they'll have. The probability that they'll end up with lower payouts to contestants for the season is just a bonus.

Most contestants never took all that much time on most questions. Some of the time they did use on verbalizing their thinking could be made up by just cutting out some of the chit-chat with Meredith. And for those times when contestants just sit there for ten or twenty minutes not wanting the dream to end, TPTB could have unobtrusively tightened up the already extant rules about having to make apparent progress towards reaching an answer.