New WWTBAM Season, Day One

[TheConfessor]

Today's the day for new game shows, and in Austin WWTBAM is now on at 3 pm instead of 1 am. So I just tuned in halfway through the first episode and they're asking some fairly hard questions at mid-level. This woman is randomly guessing her way to the big money. So for 30K, here's her question:
As of today, one of these famous people is 45 years old, one is 46, one is 47, and one is 48. Who's the baby of the group, at 45?
A Tony Hawk
B Paul Rudd
C Ted Cruz
D Tina Fey
I guessed right, feeling somewhat confident, but it seems ridiculous to have only a one year difference between four people, unless maybe it's for a million bucks.
Also, what do they mean by "as of today"? The tape date or the broadcast date? I assume it would have to be the tape date, since they generally don't know the broadcast date very far in advance.

Turns out they were safe as long as they broadcast the episode by December 21st of this year.

[bazodee]

I was also kind of surprised by this question. Seems more like what would have been a Question 5 on the Original Phone Game.

[jaybee]

I would have totally flamed on that one as the one who I 'thought' could be the youngest was the oldest and the one that I was fairly sure was the oldest was the baby in the group.

Can't get much more wrong than that.

Even discounting my sucky abilities at this question though, this is way too close in numbers to be only a $30K question. A good reason why there hasn't been a million dollar winner in .... um.... well .... however long it's been.

[basketball_junkie]

My youngest brother is 46 and I think Ted Cruz is younger than him by one year. It's a tough $30,000 question.

[Snaxx]

Are we still doing the transcripts? I have pretty much fallen off for reasons including reduced interest in the show (maybe the lack of winners and impossibility of the questions are a factor) and it being at various times during the 1AM hour now.
Transcripts are being done here, although sometimes questions are skipped or paraphrased.
https://bobbymgsk.wordpress.com/

[ghostjmf]

I wish I'd known today was 1st day. Oh well. VCR *now* set.

[Snaxx]

Besides the close difference it seems WGAS who is 48 and who is 45? There seems to be no point to this question except that someone researched Wikipedia or other sources and pulled names.
I had a question in the prime time phone game to put the Beatles in age order, but that made some sense since they were together and would be solvable w/ good knowledge of them.

[triviawayne]

Yeah, this was a really bad question at any level.

[MarleysGh0st]

This is a textbook example of a WWOQ. And the "as of today" phrase begged for clarification, "today" when you taped or "today" when the episode aired?

[Bob Juch]

This is a textbook example of a WWOQ. And the "as of today" phrase begged for clarification, "today" when you taped or "today" when the episode aired?

Well the question really is, "Who is the youngest?" which won't change.

[rgcviper]

Are we still doing the transcripts? I have pretty much fallen off for reasons including reduced interest in the show (maybe the lack of winners and impossibility of the questions are a factor) and it being at various times during the 1AM hour now.
Transcripts are being done here, although sometimes questions are skipped or paraphrased.
https://bobbymgsk.wordpress.com/

I, too, have not watched the show for years, due to being busy and a general lack of winners. However, I've vowed to keep up more this season. I can't find when the show airs in my area on the official BAM site (I'm in a tiny mountain town), but hope to stay up-to-date via the Bored.

Like Snaxx, I'm also wondering about the transcripts here. I assume they won't start until we progress through this week's premieres, and I'll check back to see. Thanks for the other link, Snaxx, and to the Transcript Team for (hopefully) keeping things going. Bring on a new season of BAM ...

[TheConfessor]

This is a textbook example of a WWOQ. And the "as of today" phrase begged for clarification, "today" when you taped or "today" when the episode aired?

Of the four, the next birthday is Ted Cruz on December 22, so they had to air this episode before then, assuming they care about accuracy.

[Snaxx]

Things are looking up. I discovered on my DVR that it was on at 2PM with a second airing at 1AM. That second airing is from this season too as the contestant, Rick Beltaire, said he is a Cleveland Browns fan and Chris Harrison said that the Cavs did bring a championship this year. That contestant could be a Bored ringer as he auditioned or more than 30 times in the 16.5 years since the show began.

[AndyO92]

Things are looking up. I discovered on my DVR that it was on at 2PM with a second airing at 1AM. That second airing is from this season too as the contestant, Rick Beltaire, said he is a Cleveland Browns fan and Chris Harrison said that the Cavs did bring a championship this year. That contestant could be a Bored ringer as he auditioned or more than 30 times in the 16.5 years since the show began.

That sounds very familiar- I think we was in the green room with me and recorded on the film day prior to mine. Looking forward to seeing how he did.

Found this video clip from a few years ago, it looks like him and fits the bill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sl9GitE3lY

[Pastor Fireball]

Although it is well-known that I stopped following WWTBAM years ago, I do have to mention a couple of WWTBAM-related items that came up this week.

1) According to Philip Cousin (one of my Facebook friends who was a big winner on both The Price Is Right and Wheel of Fortune), Yolanda Allen was a contestant on three previous game shows (Match Game, Super Password, and The $25,000 Pyramid) before appearing on WWTBAM this week.

2) Andre Hereford, who was a contestant on last night's Jeopardy!, won $64,000 on WWTBAM back in October 2003.

[Bob Juch]

Although it is well-known that I stopped following WWTBAM years ago, I do have to mention a couple of WWTBAM-related items that came up this week.

1) According to Philip Cousin (one of my Facebook friends who was a big winner on both The Price Is Right and Wheel of Fortune), Yolanda Allen was a contestant on three previous game shows (Match Game, Super Password, and The $25,000 Pyramid) before appearing on WWTBAM this week.

2) Andre Hereford, who was a contestant on last night's Jeopardy!, won $64,000 on WWTBAM back in October 2003.

Yolanda was on Monday and guess her way to $50K. She mentioned that she had been on other shows but not which ones.

[earendel]

Speaking of transcripts, what's the protocol for markets where two first-run shows are being shown each day?

[Bob78164]

Speaking of transcripts, what's the protocol for markets where two first-run shows are being shown each day?

Up to the transcriber, but I don't think anyone would object if the transcriber chose to transcribe and post both shows. That happened with some frequency when they first went to two-a-day. --Bob

[jarnon]

Speaking of transcripts, what's the protocol for markets where two first-run shows are being shown each day?

I'll take both Wednesday shows this week. (The second show will eventually be broadcast in the first time slot on a Wednesday, so I'm saving myself future work.)

I didn't know Millionaire was on in the afternoon till I read it here. (Thanks, Snaxx!) 6ABC hasn't publicized it at all.

[AndyO92]

I didn't know Millionaire was on in the afternoon till I read it here. (Thanks, Snaxx!) 6ABC hasn't publicized it at all.

I'm in Philly and this is the first I'm hearing of it too. Previously it was only 1:05AM, but sure enough the site now says 2PM and 1AM.

[K.P.]

I would say this $30K question was unduly hard if the answer wasn't Ted Cruz. In this presidential election where two of the nominees (Sanders and Trump) stood to be the oldest president ever, and Clinton not too far behind, the idea of Ted Cruz being the third youngest president ever makes the answer very topical. (I don't remember, but I imagine his age had to have been brought up in debates at least once or twice.) And the idea of him being younger than Tony Hawk, Paul Rudd, and Tina Fey makes it, at least in my opinion, a very interesting fact.

I feel like they went to that well a few times last season for $30K and $50K questions in particular. The fact itself is something you probably wouldn't know cold, but the answer that feels the most right has been right. Another example is this....

Spoiler

....$50K question from Wednesday's show:

While generally not enforced, the constitution of Mississippi states that all elected state officials must do which of the following?
A: Not leave the country B: Be married
C: Shave regularly D: Believe in a Supreme Being

ETA: An even better example from last season was a $50K question about the most downvoted video on YouTube. The answer: Justin Bieber.

[Bob78164]

I would say this $30K question was unduly hard if the answer wasn't Ted Cruz. In this presidential election where two of the nominees (Sanders and Trump) stood to be the oldest president ever, and Clinton not too far behind, the idea of Ted Cruz being the third youngest president ever makes the answer very topical. (I don't remember, but I imagine his age had to have been brought up in debates at least once or twice.) And the idea of him being younger than Tony Hawk, Paul Rudd, and Tina Fey makes it, at least in my opinion, a very interesting fact.

I feel like they went to that well a few times last season for $30K and $50K questions in particular. The fact itself is something you probably wouldn't know cold, but the answer that feels the most right has been right. Another example is this....

Spoiler

....$50K question from Wednesday's show:

While generally not enforced, the constitution of Mississippi states that all elected state officials must do which of the following?
A: Not leave the country B: Be married
C: Shave regularly D: Believe in a Supreme Being

That one (the one in the spoiler) is one that I did know. --Bob

[SportsFan68]

Thanks to this thread, I realized that the show in my market is airing right now! OK, right now as of 30 minutes ago. I did get to watch the Question of the Day.