WWTBAM Bored

I've seen several people claiming the game has become more difficult this year. I can't speak for everyone, but just to compare some of my personal stats:

last year, I had 86.3% of all questions correct; this year I have 89.2% correct. This happened as last year, 97.4% of all questions were lower than $100k while this year, 94.5% of all questions are lower than $100k.

So far this year, I am only at 44.4% correct at $100k+; last year I was at 54.8%, but the season is young.

I have seen 4/18 contestants make it to $100k (22.2%). This isn't a bad rate. With the shuffle format, I'm not sure how many contestants were on, but there were 32 $100k questions in the 165 shows I saw (19.4% of shows, so fewer players making it there).

I have seen 18 shows (or at least entered that much on my spreadsheet) and there have only been 18 players. Looks like this is playing out as I expected (and others doubted) and we will see fewer contestants this season as they will be there for more questions with the return to the full ladder.

I think the ratings we have seen so far this season aren't bad considering the poor time slots, especially in the major markets; but it remains to be seen if the show will go another season. If this is making a profit or only has a small loss, and enough stations will show it at the price Sony is willing to take, it will come back. Sony does want the show to remain alive in the US as they feel it helps the property's value around the world.

triviawayne wrote:Looks like this is playing out as I expected (and others doubted) and we will see fewer contestants this season as they will be there for more questions with the return to the full ladder.

Fewer contestants hasn't necessarily meant they are there for more questions. The pace has definitely slowed down from last season. There was one episode that featured only five questions, and at least one other that only featured seven.

What's slowing the pace of the show is, if there's a math question, the players have to take their shoes off if the answer is over eleven.

Ray

9.2 questions per episode this season vs. 10.3 last season.

That 5 question episode was I believe the Tony Hightower episode where we saw his level two questions and then the next contestant.

The show has done this for years when a contestant got to really high numbers to stretch things out. These are the questions that require more thought. We've had two players make it to $500k, and another to $250k, so this 9.2 will come up as the season goes on. I see two episodes on my list with 13 questions, and 6 of 18 have 11 questions or more.

Pacing looks to be equal in number of questions asked. I think the illusion of the slow down comes not only from those high-dollar episodes, but from the slowing of the pace in questions 5-10 because the pace from 1-5 is faster. Last season, I believe we would see 3 and maybe 4 questions prior to first break, now we see the full first five if the show begins with a new contestant.

At this point, I will stand by my original fewer contestants belief.

Anyone know how many contestants were on last season, and in how many episodes?