WWTBAM Bored

I watched the show this morning. The second contestant is a 19 year old who got stumped on a question about something that will be happening in the near future, and that she should have heard about by now.

Spoiler

They asked "Because it's in the southern hemisphere, it will be technically winter when this city hosts the summer Olympics in 2016? All four choices are in South America, so I guess the writers were trying to make sure the contestant who saw this particular question was aware of where the Olympics will be next year. She had zero clue, called her Plus One, who thought the last Olympics had been in BUENOS AIRES (good grief, were these people living under a rock???) She decided to walk. I was screaming "RIO!!! YOU IDIOTS!!!" at my TV.

It's stuff like this that makes me shake my head.

I took a picture of them as it was hard to believe what I was seeing.

That picture sums it up. Both the contestant and the Plus One were both staring at the question trying to pull an answer out of thin air.

I'm beginning to think that IF they bring the show back next season, they should dump the Plus One lifeline because it's proven to be unhelpful most of the time. I think they should bring back the 50/50 or the Double Dip.

Not everybody in the universe is enamored of the Olympics. I think you're being quite harsh.

And the Plus One is essentially the Phone a Friend with the PAF being right there in the studio with you.

The reason he/she has probably been unhelpful is because the contestants probably don't do good quality control on the Plus Ones they pick.

Just like the PAF's effectiveness depended on good quality control (even if your PAF was Googling, he/she had to be a good fast Googler).

Jeemie wrote:Not everybody in the universe is enamored of the Olympics. I think you're being quite harsh.

And the Plus One is essentially the Phone a Friend with the PAF being right there in the studio with you.

The reason he/she has probably been unhelpful is because the contestants probably don't do good quality control on the Plus Ones they pick.

Just like the PAF's effectiveness depended on good quality control (even if your PAF was Googling, he/she had to be a good fast Googler).

The Plus One is like the PAF, but with far greater restrictions and burdens. We on the Bored know all the details about the burdens of being a PAF that the general audience never did understand (the five, later three, PAFs being preselected and having to make themselves available by a land-line phone for a several hour taping window, etc.). Now there's one and only one Plus One, who must be preselected by the contestant, give up a day or more work, and bear all the costs of travel to CT.* (Not so much of a burden for the still predominantly Where Else contestant pool, but still...) What that all adds up to is the Plus One is almost a family member or close friend, and almost never someone chosen for their trivia skills.

*Even Bob of Many Numbers might have a hard time volunteering to be a Plus One, these days.