Disappointments

[beatlefreak84]

I think a lot of you took the ones that were going to be mine, but I'll echo some of them while adding two of my own:

I second the disappointments of:

Temptation US (so excited to have some form of Sale back on the air only to be so underwhelmed by what we got)
TTD GSN (first bona fide revival in over 30 years, but playing for points?  Playing a solo speed round?)
Card Sharks ABC (so...slow...must every game end in sudden death?  Joel McHale also looked so bored to be there)
Deal or No Deal NBC (enjoyed the temptations being made at first and still think Howie was an excellent host of the show, but too many sob stories/gimmicks taking away from the game got me to stop watching this shortly after the initial run)

I'll then add the following two disappointments:

Family Feud w/Steve Harvey (loved the breath of fresh air he brought the show when he started compared to Karn and O'Hurley, but the jokes are now predictable and I absolutely loathe that the third question's value will be changed to ensure that a fourth question must be played and pretty much will determine the winner)
Name That Tune FOX (first bona fide revival since Lange, but no Melody Roulette?  Even less songs per half-hour?  Beat Shazam seems to be the better iteration, honestly)

Anthony

[Stackertosh]

Hollywood Squares 2025— The show is slow-paced, the jokes are lame, and the "laughter" is so artificial that it's laughable.

Card Sharks, the show moves so slowly, and I thought the set was too large, and Joel McHale looked like he was bored hosting the show.

The Chase ABC—I wasn't a fan of Sara Haines hosting. (Chaser, did you know this answer?) after every question, and the show was just too over the top, and the suspenseful pauses and the theme music were terrible.

Weakest Link 2020—I thought the show was going to be fantastic with Jane Lynch hosting. The questions are way too long, the writing is terrible, and the contestants come off as actors. The updated music is fantastic.

[wdm1219inpenna]

Lingo with Bill Engvall as host.  I liked Bill well enough but disliked that now they were giving Scrabble like clues to the contestants. 

Wasn't crazy about the giant balls either behind the players...much more fun when they'd reach into the hopper and pull them out instead.

The best Lingo was with Chuck and Shandi, $5,000 for Bonus Lingo and a growing jackpot if a Lingo was made on one pull.

I wish they could have had returning champions and also dollars instead of points during the front games.

[Card Shark]

For me, it was Joel McHale himself. Zero energy or excitement.

[Card Shark]

I was thrilled that Card Sharks was revived in 1986....only to see it hosted by Bob Eubanks. I realize that Jim Perry was engaged in several projects, but Bob's attitude came off as too obnoxious at a contestant's expense all too often, and just rather obnoxious in general--especially in the last year and change. There's my 1.5 cents.

[BrandonFG]

Forgot one: NBC Password. I’d seen Jimmy play it several times on Late Night/The Tonight Show and was always impressed - if not blown - by the efforts to make it look like the 60s version, all the way down to the intro.

I forgot Fremantle finds stuff like that too boring, because they turned everything up to 11 and did silly things like give a standing ovation for every single correct guess. Not because someone won the big money or anything; just for simply playing the game correctly. And because Jimmy Fallon acts like a 5-year-old who just ate a Pixy Stick before bed, everyone else acts that way too.

Anyway, I made it through the first half of the episode. Shame, because I love the current format and even the pacing. But again, Fremantle modernized it in all the wrong ways.

[Neumms]

Temptation and Joker’s Wild ‘90. I was pretty excited for a Press Your Luck reboot and felt let down by Whammy! Season premieres of The Price Is Right without a new pricing game.

[Ian Wallis]

Hollywood Squares 2025— The show is slow-paced, the jokes are lame, and the "laughter" is so artificial that it's laughable.

I agree about Squares.  It's great to have it back, but the couple of episodes I've seen I've been underwhelmed.

The Chase ABC—I wasn't a fan of Sara Haines hosting. (Chaser, did you know this answer?) after every question, and the show was just too over the top, and the suspenseful pauses and the theme music were terrible.

The thing that bugged me about The Chase is that there's too much money being thrown around.  Even the lowball offers are still pretty big money and much more enticing than they were on the GSN version.

[Chief-O]

McHale "Card Sharks" was quite the letdown for me, for reasons others have cited.

The current "Squares" didn't thrill me either, and also (perhaps solely, in my case) because of the pacing. Other than that......it *does* have a bit of potential.

[BrandonFG]

The Chase ABC—I wasn't a fan of Sara Haines hosting. (Chaser, did you know this answer?) after every question, and the show was just too over the top, and the suspenseful pauses and the theme music were terrible.

So I loved the first couple seasons, but the Chasers started to become a bit of a caricature. The Beast works as a foil who you'd still have a beer with after the show, but I feel ABC wanted true villains. Ken and Brad could never pull it off, but I remember seeing a last-second Chase loss that made me more irrationally angry than it prolly should've.

And I think that plays into Ian's point about why making the show a high-stakes affair doesn't look good when the team loses so much with no safety net. I've felt bad for a contestant losing money to the Whammy, the Dragon, the Devil, the Gauntlet, etc. I've never said "Fuck you!" to the screen when they took someone's money. I think this is one of those shows where there should be an incentive for every step you earned. $1,000 per answer could still be a decent consolation prize even split three ways.

[Jamey Greek]

Match Game 1998-wow where do I start?  I was expecting a version like the 70s version and the theme song a reworking of the 70s theme like they had in 1990 but the categories, no A &B and technology instead of the sliding door method and well you get the idea.  At least the Alec Baldwin version was an interesting mix of old and new


Family Feud (Louie Anderson version)- I was hoping it would be like the previous two versions but it was not.  At least subsequent hosts slowly but surely got it close to the original version as possible.

Family Game Night-Burton Richardson was not as active in the first season.  All they relegated him to was the intro and the prize plugs.  Glad in the second season they had him doing more.  Introducing the contestants doing a play-by-play on one of the games and the ticket and contestant plugs.


I also do not like how the announcers were not recognized and not as active as much.  No “Thank you Burton” from Louie on Feud no “Thank you such and such” Also no live in-studio  anymore and the announcers are not doing warm-up’s anymore like they used to.  With the big three it is a different story but I’m just saying

[aaron sica]

To me, the headline solving element looked too much like Wheel

Those were my feelings exactly about $1M COAL. Reminded me of Wheel too much.

[TimK2003]

Match Game 1998-wow where do I start?  I was expecting a version like the 70s version and the theme song a reworking of the 70s theme like they had in 1990 but the categories, no A &B and technology instead of the sliding door method and well you get the idea. 

 I can still see the WTF looks and hear the gasps in the GSC '98 audience during our phone conversation with Jay Wolpert when Jay was giving us the details of the "revamped" show.   This was a few months before the show premiered. 

[wdm1219inpenna]

Tic Tac Dough disappointments include for me the overuse of the red boxes.  One per game would have been okay, then they went to two which was tolerable, but then when it went to three it was too much.

I realize they wanted to try to give the O player (the challenger) a bit more equal footing since the X player (the champion) always got to play first, and TTD had their fair share of super champions Lord knows...

I would rather the game start with a toss up question and the player who got it right first would get to start that game.  Do the same after each tie game too.

Was disappointed when Wink left.  More so that he did not say anything about leaving the show.  I can't help but wonder if the show might have lasted longer had he remained.  Jim Caldwell was so so, and I really hated how they changed the set during the final season...the original set was very cozy and warm and bright, the new one was dreadful to me.

And as much as I adored Bill Cullen, he will forever be #1 host in my eyes, I was disappointed when Dan Enright replaced the deceased Jack Barry with Bill to host The Joker's Wild instead of Jim Peck.  Bill was the very very best host but his final assignment with Joker was just such a mismatch.  A game that was fast paced was dragged to a halt by Bill.  His style worked on Blockbusters, Child's Play, Three on a Match (he kept things going on that show) but with Joker it was just a square peg into a round hole...I was disappointed that Jim Peck didn't take over, and was disappointed FOR Jim as much as I was for my own self.

[BillCullen1]

Match Game 1998-wow where do I start?  I was expecting a version like the 70s version and the theme song a reworking of the 70s theme like they had in 1990 but the categories, no A &B and technology instead of the sliding door method and well you get the idea.  At least the Alec Baldwin version was an interesting mix of old and new

Family Feud (Louie Anderson version)- I was hoping it would be like the previous two versions but it was not.  At least subsequent hosts slowly but surely got it close to the original version as possible.

Seconded. MG '98 had five celebs instead of six, a cheaper payout and questions where answers had to be bleeped out by the censors. As for FF, at times, Louie looked like he didn't want to be there and he mumbled sometimes so I couldn't understand the questions. Both are disappointments to me.