Meredith spills new lifelines

Message

Bob Juch · #1 Post by **Bob Juch** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:50 am

From her blog today:

We’ve added a clock to game play, which has ratcheted up the pressure on contestants. We also have two new life lines called ‘Double Dip’ and ‘Ask The Expert’. I’ve started to have nightmares about the whole thing, where I can’t even remember the original lifelines…I really need to ‘phone a friend’…

themanintheseersuckersuit · #2 Post by **themanintheseersuckersuit** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:52 am

http://meredithtoday.ivillage.com/entertainment/

christie1111 · #3 Post by **christie1111** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:00 pm

Eeeek! A clock?

That would not help me at all!

peacock2121 · #4 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:04 pm

I like it!

peacock2121 · #5 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:04 pm

I like it!

AnnieCamaro · #6 Post by **AnnieCamaro** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:04 pm

The clock seems okay to me.

Are these lifelines in addition to the four previous lifelines? If so, then the name of anybody who wins big should go into the record books with an asterisk.

peacock2121 · #7 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:04 pm

LOL Doublemint twins.

gsabc · #8 Post by **gsabc** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:05 pm

Unless it's turned off for questions above $25K or $50K, all a timer does is eliminate really big winners, barring extreme luck for the player in the stack's subject matter, and shorten the 'BAM employees' work schedule. They must have gone over their budget for overtime last year.

We'll have to await word on whether these new LL's are true additions, or just replacements for the earlier ones. Obviously the PAF is still around.

themanintheseersuckersuit · #9 Post by **themanintheseersuckersuit** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:12 pm

I ain't afeared of no stinking clock

peacock2121 · #10 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:13 pm

gsabc wrote:Unless it's turned off for questions above $25K or $50K, all a timer does is eliminate really big winners, barring extreme luck for the player in the stack's subject matter, and shorten the 'BAM employees' work schedule. They must have gone over their budget for overtime last year.

You don't even know what the time limit is and you are saying this?

really?

Ask Nancy and Ed how long they think they took thinking about their question higher in the stack.

Appa23 · #11 Post by **Appa23** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:14 pm

double

Appa23 · #12 Post by **Appa23** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:17 pm

AnnieCamaro wrote:The clock seems okay to me.

Are these lifelines in addition to the four previous lifelines? If so, then the name of anybody who wins big should go into the record books with an asterisk.

Would you have asterisked anyone who used the STQ lifeline?

gsn309 · #13 Post by **gsn309** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:17 pm

Hmm... I'm tapping (sp!) my watch!
The changes are out!
The world is still spinning!

Joy!!!!!

peacock2121 · #14 Post by **peacock2121** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:18 pm

gsn309 wrote:Hmm... I'm tapping (sp!) my watch!
The changes are out!
The world is still spinning!

Joy!!!!!

Made me laugh!

Really snorting kinda laugh.

AnnieCamaro · #15 Post by **AnnieCamaro** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:22 pm

Appa23 wrote:
AnnieCamaro wrote:The clock seems okay to me.

Are these lifelines in addition to the four previous lifelines? If so, then the name of anybody who wins big should go into the record books with an asterisk.
Would you have asterisked anyone who used the STQ lifeline?

Admittedly, it helped put some major extra money (or annuities) in the pockets of a few contestants.

Maybe. Probably. I don't think there have been any million-dollar winners since the STQ was provided, so that's a moot question. My mom would have liked the STQ, but she says she's just happy they didn't have the lower prize structure in the middle tier when she was in the hot seat.

slam · #16 Post by **slam** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:32 pm

Any chance that the addition of the clock will mean more contestants per show? Or will contestant appearances still be edited down to the same length as now producing the same number of contestants?

jsuchard · #17 Post by **jsuchard** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:34 pm

It'd be nice to know how much time they are giving.

If they wanted to be cruel, they'd use the same time limits as for WWTBAM-Play It! If I remember correctly, it was 15 seconds for the first tier, 30 seconds for the middle tier, 45 seconds for the next four, and 55 seconds for the million.

Just guessing, I would say that the time-limits are probably more in the "couple of minutes" range, mostly to reduce the amount of editing they have to do when someone really takes a long time.

AlphaDummy · #18 Post by **AlphaDummy** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:42 pm

slam wrote:Any chance that the addition of the clock will mean more contestants per show? Or will contestant appearances still be edited down to the same length as now producing the same number of contestants?

The cynic in me says that this will free up more time for Banter.

The optimist in me says that this will be worth it if is the price we will pay for the new lifelines.

The realist in me says that now, more than ever, prospective contestants would do well to stake out a seat at the nearest NTN/Buzztime venue...

gsabc · #19 Post by **gsabc** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:44 pm

peacock2121 wrote:
gsabc wrote:Unless it's turned off for questions above $25K or $50K, all a timer does is eliminate really big winners, barring extreme luck for the player in the stack's subject matter, and shorten the 'BAM employees' work schedule. They must have gone over their budget for overtime last year.

You don't even know what the time limit is and you are saying this?

really?

Ask Nancy and Ed how long they think they took thinking about their question higher in the stack.

Rumor was that it was 15 seconds in the bottom tier and 30 seconds above that. Speaking only for myself, time pressure might force me to a faster decision, but having more time might also let me figure it out for certain. IIRC, Ogi's description of his own thought processes in the hot seat, which sounded like they took much more than 30 seconds, helped him make the big bucks. Sixty seconds in the upper tier is more reasonable, and that may indeed be the case. But I can easily see more people, hitting a lower-level question on which they are uncertain, walking at an earlier level than they otherwise would, because the time constraint forces their perceived risk/benefit ratio too high.

It wasn't luck that Nancy's group had just worked on music based on "American Gothic"?

silvercamaro · #20 Post by **silvercamaro** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:08 pm

AlphaDummy wrote:
slam wrote:Any chance that the addition of the clock will mean more contestants per show? Or will contestant appearances still be edited down to the same length as now producing the same number of contestants?
The cynic in me says that this will free up more time for Banter.

IMO, the time limit virtually will eliminate the kind of spontaneous and often funny banter that came up during the questions, and that was the kind that best demonstrated what the contestants were really like. So, it will be interesting to see whether efforts to cast for personality are largely negated by a rules change that eliminates the best showcase for real personality and character. Responses to interview-type questions rarely are as interesting as the off-the-cuff stuff that comes out under pressure.

Banter-wise, it could go either way.

TheConfessor · #21 Post by **TheConfessor** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:39 pm

It would be more interesting if they gave the contestant 15 minutes to use as they see fit, to get through 15 questions. The more time you save on the early, easy questions, the more time you'll have left to use on the later, harder questions.

Some of the best questions that have been on the show, like the most common given name of US Presidents, or how long it takes for light to get from the Sun to Earth, would be too complicated to figure out in 15 or 30 seconds.

I assume that some lifelines will be wasted, just to stop the clock. That happened a lot at Disney Play-It.

LastMinuteRequest · #22 Post by **LastMinuteRequest** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:49 pm

gsabc wrote: Rumor was that it was 15 seconds in the bottom tier and 30 seconds above that. Speaking only for myself, time pressure might force me to a faster decision, but having more time might also let me figure it out for certain. IIRC, Ogi's description of his own thought processes in the hot seat, which sounded like they took much more than 30 seconds, helped him make the big bucks. Sixty seconds in the upper tier is more reasonable, and that may indeed be the case.

Geez, if Meredith is letting the cat out of the bag... what are we mere mortals supposed to do.

Yes, the time limit is what I think will make it much harder for people to score the very big dollars. At least, I would have been toast -- I needed a lot of time on the halfmillion and million dollar questions. And it appears they're still keeping "figure out the answer" type of questions, instead of substituting "you either know it or you dont" questions, and who wants to work through a million dollar question and make that big decision to pull the trigger in 60 seconds?

I've heard that in principle if you AskTheExpert, there's no time limit -- so if you needed more time on a question, you could just call the expert (which stops the clock) and chat him up. But in practice, I'm sure the producers will try to move the AskTheExpert along, too, even if there's no formal clock.

Someone told me that there's still 4 lifelines.

LastMinuteRequest · #23 Post by **LastMinuteRequest** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:32 pm

I also heard a rumor they might be revisiting the new changes over the August taping blackout.

Who knows, maybe the new clocked questions are too intimidating?

gsabc · #24 Post by **gsabc** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:44 pm

I have a vague recollection that the laws they put into place after the quiz show scandals, or maybe just network/TV regs, say that when you change the game play/rules, you have to change the name of the show. Am I remembering correctly? If so, what's the official name of our favorite show now?

The same vague memory says that one such change precipitated the removal of the question mark at the end of the show title. That was apparently sufficient to constitute a name change.

pcmaxey · #25 Post by **pcmaxey** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:55 pm

gsabc wrote:I have a vague recollection that the laws they put into place after the quiz show scandals, or maybe just network/TV regs, say that when you change the game play/rules, you have to change the name of the show. Am I remembering correctly? If so, what's the official name of our favorite show now?

The same vague memory says that one such change precipitated the removal of the question mark at the end of the show title. That was apparently sufficient to constitute a name change.

Gabbin' With Meredith