Today's show

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peacock2121 · #1 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:28 am

Some guy had this to say:

Meanwhile, "Millionaire" has done some tweaking. It has added a time clock (that's a good thing) and an ask-the-expert lifeline (which sort of wastes the time the clock saves).

You'll root for tonight's contestant. Her husband lost his job on the same day she learned she'd be on "Millionaire."

Hope she makes enough to tide them over.

NellyLunatic1980 · #2 Post by **NellyLunatic1980** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:52 am

"Millionaire" is in a new timeslot in the Lexington market. It used to air single-run at 12:30 PM. It now airs double-run at 9 AM, an hour before Louisville airs it.

starfish1113 · #3 Post by **starfish1113** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:54 am

peacock2121 wrote:Some guy had this to say:

Meanwhile, "Millionaire" has done some tweaking. It has added a time clock (that's a good thing) and an ask-the-expert lifeline (which sort of wastes the time the clock saves).

You'll root for tonight's contestant. Her husband lost his job on the same day she learned she'd be on "Millionaire."

Hope she makes enough to tide them over.

Where did some guy say this?

peacock2121 · #4 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:58 am

starfish1113 wrote:
peacock2121 wrote:Some guy had this to say:

Meanwhile, "Millionaire" has done some tweaking. It has added a time clock (that's a good thing) and an ask-the-expert lifeline (which sort of wastes the time the clock saves).

You'll root for tonight's contestant. Her husband lost his job on the same day she learned she'd be on "Millionaire."

Hope she makes enough to tide them over.
Where did some guy say this?

I think in Lansing Michigan.

I have a google alert that tells me news and blogger people who mention the show.

kayrharris · #5 Post by **kayrharris** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:12 am

It's a good thing I switched to backup transcribing, which will also change, as my normal 8AM airtime has been changed to Rachel Ray.

Maybe it will show up somewhere else, but I doubt it. I checked on the wwtbam website and it shows a 9:30AM airtime on the same station as before (which is 8:30 my time), however Rachel Ray was in that time slot as well.

gsabc · #6 Post by **gsabc** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:24 am

kayrharris wrote:It's a good thing I switched to backup transcribing, which will also change, as my normal 8AM airtime has been changed to Rachel Ray.

Maybe it will show up somewhere else, but I doubt it. I checked on the wwtbam website and it shows a 9:30AM airtime on the same station as before (which is 8:30 my time), however Rachel Ray was in that time slot as well.

Check the station's website for their schedule. Might be updated more recently than SyndieBAM's.

cindy.wellman · #7 Post by **cindy.wellman** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:07 am

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:"Millionaire" is in a new timeslot in the Lexington market. It used to air single-run at 12:30 PM. It now airs double-run at 9 AM, an hour before Louisville airs it.

Weird... Now we're in a different time slot, there is only one episode, and it is on a different network. Grr... I set the dvr to record!

peacock2121 · #8 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:16 am

Spoiler

One contestant - gets to $16,000 and walks and the show is over.

They have found another way to not give away much money.

Bob Juch · #9 Post by **Bob Juch** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:28 am

peacock2121 wrote:
Spoiler
One contestant - gets to $16,000 and walks and the show is over.

They have found another way to not give away much money.

Spoiler

Yeah. Ugh!

MD did say that they'd given away more money in the first few weeks that they ever had, so there's hope.

MarleysGh0st · #10 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:37 am

peacock2121 wrote:
Spoiler
One contestant - gets to $16,000 and walks and the show is over.

They have found another way to not give away much money.

Hmmm.

I haven't seen it yet, but even giving Meredith a few minutes to explain the changes, I'm guessing they had to add a lot of chit-chat to compensate for the now tightly-timed trivia Q&A.

TheConfessor · #11 Post by **TheConfessor** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:00 pm

I just watched the first episode. There was a lot to take in. The clock adds a heightened intensity, which gives the impression of a faster pace, and yet, today's episode had a total of only 10 questions asked, so the overall result seemed to be less actual game play. Maybe some of that was just the need to explain the new rules on the first show. Maybe future shows will have more questions.

Today's contestant's run incorporated all of the new elements of the show, including Ask An Expert (Bill Nye), the new PAF (three photos shown on screen), the clock, which definitely is a big factor, even on the easy questions, the menu of upcoming subject categories (which doesn't seem to be a big factor, since it's only shown briefly and doesn't really have much impact on strategy), and the brief introduction of the contestant on deck, even before the current contestant is finished.

The clock tends to eliminate any discussion of the question, or explanation of what the contestant is thinking. The clock actually starts counting down as soon as the four choices are on screen, and Meredith reads the answers while the clock is ticking, which leaves very little time left at the end of a 15 second question. I'd be inclined to interrupt Meredith to stop the clock if I was sure of the answer (assuming that's allowed). Any unused seconds are added to the 45 seconds allowed on the $1 million question, which is probably a non-issue for most contestants. I think it would work better to start everyone with a bucket of seconds (maybe 250 seconds or whatever) and let them use the time however they want. I don't think they can ever ask certain types of interesting questions they have used in the past, which required counting or calculations.

Even when you use a lifeline to stop the clock, e.g., to phone a friend, as soon as the call is over, the clock starts ticking again. So if you stop the clock with 2 seconds left and use PAF, you'll have to say "final answer" really fast when it's over, to avoid the clock running out.

I noticed that Bill Nye (the "Expert") had a big periodic chart on the wall behind him when he was shown on the webcam. I wonder if he would have been allowed to turn around and look at it, if there had been a relevant question.

Overall, it had a different feel than it has had in the past, not necessarily good or bad. There's more tension during the actual game play. If they can pick up the pace and ask more questions per show, I think it will be interesting.

By the way, what is the historical average of questions per show? I should probably check wwtbam.biz and see if that info is listed there.

MarleysGh0st · #12 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:14 pm

TheConfessor wrote:IThe clock actually starts counting down as soon as the four choices are on screen, and Meredith reads the answers while the clock is ticking, which leaves very little time left at the end of a 15 second question.

Sheesh!

I hope TPTB are willing to adjust some of the rough edges in this new clock gimmick after they see it in action.

gsabc · #13 Post by **gsabc** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:33 pm

MarleysGh0st wrote:
TheConfessor wrote:IThe clock actually starts counting down as soon as the four choices are on screen, and Meredith reads the answers while the clock is ticking, which leaves very little time left at the end of a 15 second question.
Sheesh!

I hope TPTB are willing to adjust some of the rough edges in this new clock gimmick after they see it in action.

Wasn't this how the Fastest Finger worked? The answers came up all at once, and the RoF punched buttons while Regis read them off.

If you can't interrupt Meredith, you're losing at least five seconds on each question between the time you can read them yourself and the time she finishes reading them aloud. That's over a minute of potential extra time at the $1MM level. How about adding a buzzer for the hotseater to shut Meredith up if they know it before she finishes?

How are they going to do this for "Wedding Week"? Half the so-called fun there is the interplay of the couple discussing the question.

TheConfessor · #14 Post by **TheConfessor** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:39 pm

gsabc wrote:How are they going to do this for "Wedding Week"? Half the so-called fun there is the interplay of the couple discussing the question.

Good point. Even more so for the Three Generations theme week.

MarleysGh0st · #15 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:44 pm

gsabc wrote: Wasn't this how the Fastest Finger worked? The answers came up all at once, and the RoF punched buttons while Regis read them off.

Yeah, but the ROFers were competing against each others' times, not against the clock, itself. If you had to go the full 15 seconds, you weren't likely to win.

TheConfessor · #16 Post by **TheConfessor** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:52 pm

MarleysGh0st wrote:
gsabc wrote: Wasn't this how the Fastest Finger worked? The answers came up all at once, and the RoF punched buttons while Regis read them off.
Yeah, but the ROFers were competing against each others' times, not against the clock, itself. If you had to go the full 15 seconds, you weren't likely to win.

As I recall, it was 20 seconds max on the Fastest Finger. Anyone who entered the correct sequence without hitting the enter button automatically got a 20 second time. I think that happened a few times.

dimmzy · #17 Post by **dimmzy** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:55 pm

Overall, it had a different feel than it has had in the past, not necessarily good or bad. There's more tension during the actual game play. If they can pick up the pace and ask more questions per show, I think it will be interesting.

I agree. I thought it was more suspenseful, too. Speaking as a former contestant, I MIGHT not have second-guessed myself ...

MarleysGh0st · #18 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:01 pm

TheConfessor wrote:
MarleysGh0st wrote:
gsabc wrote: Wasn't this how the Fastest Finger worked? The answers came up all at once, and the RoF punched buttons while Regis read them off.
Yeah, but the ROFers were competing against each others' times, not against the clock, itself. If you had to go the full 15 seconds, you weren't likely to win.
As I recall, it was 20 seconds max on the Fastest Finger. Anyone who entered the correct sequence without hitting the enter button automatically got a 20 second time. I think that happened a few times.

Yeah, 20 seconds.

Since the ROFers didn't have to talk over Regis, it didn't really matter how long he took to read the answers, anyway. Everyone just read their screens and started pushing buttons as quickly as they could, right?

TheConfessor · #19 Post by **TheConfessor** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:08 pm

MarleysGh0st wrote: Since the ROFers didn't have to talk over Regis, it didn't really matter how long he took to read the answers, anyway. Everyone just read their screens and started pushing buttons as quickly as they could, right?

Yeah, whatever Regis was saying was irrelevant. The goal was to tune him out and just read the screen. The only thing that mattered was the reaction time to hit five keys ABCD(Enter) after the four answers appeared on the screen.

TheConfessor · #20 Post by **TheConfessor** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:10 pm

According to the data at wwtbam.biz, last season had 175 episodes with 3110 total questions, for an average of 17.77 questions per show. This season is off to a comparatively sluggish start, with ten questions on the first episode.

sunflower · #21 Post by **sunflower** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:36 pm

Spoiler

I am watching the new episode right now and I am not a fan. I'm also stubborn and set in my ways. I know this, and feel I must disclose it.

She got through the first 5 questions within the first 6 minutes of the show (that included plenty of banter about how nervous she was and viewing of pictures of the children).

Then they talked to Bill Nye for a while. I had to fast forward it. He freaks me out.

I understand them wanting to explain it since it is new. However, as a viewer this is going to get old fast if I have to watch her explain things and comment on the ticking clock. It's weird that it seems slower now than when they didn't have a clock. Maybe it's because they edited out everything superfluous and now you're getting the whole thing unedited because of the clock.

Only through the $4,000 question at the next commercial break (13 minute mark). She used one life line, ATA.

On the $8,000 question she asked the expert. (Ewww freaky) No reading of the question - it was fed via Skype. There did not appear to be any time limit on the expert, so they had a bit of a conversation. Then Meredith did some commentary before starting the clock.

On the $16,000 question she used PAF. Pictures were shown, with a short bio of each potential PAF. Picture of the chosen stayed up on the screen. More banter. No answer from PAF. So sad. Clock restarted. Double dip elected. First answer wrong. Second answer right. Stress level - much higher than it would have been if she had time to work through these on her own. And another commercial break....(this is through the 21 minute mark).

And we restart and see the "on deck" person. Exciting, really. More banter on how scared the contestant is. Contestant walked away/although the clock ran out before she said final. Then the horn sounded at the 26 minute mark...and another commercial break before panning back to the audience.

So they've added an extra commercial break or two and a lot of chatter on the clock and the expert and the nervousness. Not a fan. I'm hoping it just needs some warm up time.

KillerTomato · #22 Post by **KillerTomato** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:49 pm

Spoiler

sunflower wrote: So they've added an extra commercial break or two and a lot of chatter on the clock and the expert and the nervousness. Not a fan. I'm hoping it just needs some warm up time.

No, they didn't add any more commercial breaks. They always had three.

goongas · #23 Post by **goongas** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:15 pm

I saw the show. They really need to cut down on the banter with the contestant if they now have to banter with the expert as well, otherwise I worry about the survival of the show. There just is not enough time to play the game anymore. The audience will root for almost any contestant in the hot seat, we don't need to know the contestant's life story or interesting anecdotes in order to cheer them on. Even NBC at the Olympics finally figured this out, as there were a lot less biographies presented of the athletes before their competitions.

While I was playing along, I felt the length of the timer is just too short. You pretty much have to go with your gut instinct without having much time at all to think about the answer. Adding more things to delay the game like showing PAF photos will not make the game more interesting, at least not for me.

NSAS · #24 Post by **NSAS** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:00 pm

Some may be disappointed, but we at the NSAS are pleased at the increase in squirrel references. A most excellent first question.

Winnamill · #25 Post by **Winnamill** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:14 pm

I should probably be in bed getting my beauty (or at least brain) sleep, but probably won't sleep much anyway. Up until I watched the show today, I have not been particularly nervous (and may still not be), but the butterflies are starting to fly. The key thing will be keeping them in formation.

Not sure I like this new format either, but I won't complain for now since at least I get to be on the show. I do think the questions were the sort of elevated difficulty level I noticed last spring. I most likely would not have gotten much further, but my PAF may have known the fireplace question.

Anyway, I'm off to making my fortune. Or at least not making a fool of myself.

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