Today's Game Show Fix on SyndieBAM

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gsabc · #1 Post by **gsabc** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:04 pm

Steve Beverley discusses the changes in the returning syndicated game shows. This paragraph in the SyndieBAM section discusses the 50/50 departure (emphasis mine):

"Eliminating the 50/50 Lifeline takes out one of the three stalwart measures of assistance for a contestant from the show's ABC roots in 1999. Michael Davies and his team looked at extensive focus group research and determined the 50/50 was the most unpopular choice of the original three. Viewer perceptions indicated their frustration with the two removed choices frequently being the pair a contestant would have expected."
And who, exactly, created that perception, Mr. Davies, hmmm? Maybe the insistence on the prime time show that it was totally random, even after it was admitted in interviews that someone was choosing the obvious distractor as the other choice left behind?

We shall see what happens this year. I need to find a blank videotape and the manual for the VCR.

goongas · #2 Post by **goongas** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:21 pm

The prime time show never insisted it was random. Regis always said something to the effect of "Computer take away two of the wrong answers."

Meredith has always insisted it was random, but the contestants always questioned it.

TheConfessor · #3 Post by **TheConfessor** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:09 pm

The Regis version made it 100% clear to contestants that the 50-50 was NOT random. Michael Davies specifically talked about how he tried to leave the most likely distracter (or distractor - my spell checker doesn't like either choice).

The Meredith version specifically changed the rules to make 50-50 random. Paranoid people chose not to believe it. They preferred to believe that Michael Davies, Celador, ABC, Sullivan Compliance, and many others were risking their careers, fortunes, and reputations by perpetrating a vast conspiracy for no apparent reason.

MarleysGh0st · #4 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:37 am

TheConfessor wrote: The Meredith version specifically changed the rules to make 50-50 random. Paranoid people chose not to believe it. They preferred to believe that Michael Davies, Celador, ABC, Sullivan Compliance, and many others were risking their careers, fortunes, and reputations by perpetrating a vast conspiracy for no apparent reason.

Observer bias ensured that the TV audience remembered all the times the 50/50 picked the answer the contestant was thinking of and forgot all the times it didn't. Meredith's attempts to say the results of a particular 50/50 "proved" it was random--no matter what the result of that 50/50 was--were unpersuasive.

Kazoo65 · #5 Post by **Kazoo65** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:28 am

OK, how does one go about joining a focus group, anyway? Steve Beverly also mentioned in yesterrday's Game Show Fix that J! used focus groups to figure out that viewers want to know what happens to contestants after they leave the show-and since its' the 25th season, we're gonna find out-they're going to do lots of "after the show" type stuff this year.

ulysses5019 · #6 Post by **ulysses5019** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:34 am

I keep reading that word "fix" concerning game shows......

Ritterskoop · #7 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:35 am

Prime time never said it was random. They insisted they would leave the correct answer and the next-best one. No one "admitted" anything, as they had said this all along.

It was a reason I played one of my questions the way I did, believing the distractor answer they would leave was the obvious next-best choice. In fact they left a different choice, because they are not so smart about science questions.

A was the correct answer
B was obviously wrong
C was obviously wrong
D was the good distractor, I thought, and so did the audience

But when I 50/50d, they left A and B when they should have left A and D.

Had the rules been that the remaining answer was random instead of the best other answer, I would have 50/50d immediately and saved two LL.

I am not complaining. I am showing how the 50/50 being random or not makes a difference, and confirming that it was not random on prime time, and no one ever said it was.

SportsFan68 · #8 Post by **SportsFan68** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:36 am

Kazoo65 wrote:OK, how does one go about joining a focus group, anyway? Steve Beverly also mentioned in yesterrday's Game Show Fix that J! used focus groups to figure out that viewers want to know what happens to contestants after they leave the show-and since its' the 25th season, we're gonna find out-they're going to do lots of "after the show" type stuff this year.

It's been my (very limited) experience that focus groups are hand picked. I don't think you get to volunteer to join up.

secondchance · #9 Post by **secondchance** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:33 pm

If you'd like to try becoming involved in focus groups, in general, you can search for some on Craigslist. Search "focus group" and "market research."

They are usually posted under "gigs." Sometimes they're listed under "jobs" or "community."

themanintheseersuckersuit · #10 Post by **themanintheseersuckersuit** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:34 pm

ulysses5019 wrote:I keep reading that word "fix" concerning game shows......

rec!

secondchance · #11 Post by **secondchance** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:08 pm

Second Chance wrote:If you'd like to try becoming involved in focus groups, in general, you can search for some on Craigslist. Search "focus group" and "market research."

They are usually posted under "gigs." Sometimes they're listed under "jobs" or "community."

Oh, I neglected to mention- you will normally receive "monetary compensation for your participation." Can't beat that with a stick.

frogman042 · #12 Post by **frogman042** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:37 pm

Second Chance wrote:
Second Chance wrote:If you'd like to try becoming involved in focus groups, in general, you can search for some on Craigslist. Search "focus group" and "market research."

They are usually posted under "gigs." Sometimes they're listed under "jobs" or "community."
Oh, I neglected to mention- you will normally receive "monetary compensation for your participation." Can't beat that with a stick.

Robert Klein used to do a routine about exactly that during the Art Flemming days on how the celebrities were playing for charity but they never told anyone that the celebrities were paid for their appearance. Aside from making fun of the soft-ball questions, the part of the routine I particularly remember is when they would announce the charities , he would mock buzz in and say 'What is 200 Dollars?!'.

---Jay (Robert Klein On Broadway appeared this many years ago - if you know that then you know how many days to go...)