Playing devil's advocate, I think it's at least comparable to what happens over an entire game of the classic version. There could be a team that's a lock to get 21-out-of-21 (as we saw a lot of in the '80s), provided they pick only regular subjects. But in one game, they happen upon the Dreaded All Names Category, and now they have 18 total. Their opponents are a team for whom 18-out-of-21 is their normal ceiling. So on this day, they tie with their usually better rivals. And in a game where they create the tie, they get to pick first, and that day, they pick a tiebreaker set that they ultimately do faster. Or conversely, even if they don't get to pick, perhaps the better team just happened to get more difficult answers in their tiebreaker.

That's all to say there's at least an argument that some variables can cause one team to easily win the "total time" tiebreaker, just as some variables could cause a better team on paper to lose on the classic show.

-Jason

Quote from: chrisholland03 on Today at 07:20:17 AM

I'm 100% not complaining about anything that is going on right now.  I like a good rotisserie.

Yeah, but if it's from fear to commit to a schedule, it's rotisserie chicken.

But the people at Buzzr knew the job was dangerous when they took it...

At least Sony learned from their mistakes and incorporated some improvements to save time, like the best "overall" time tie-breaker, when warranted.

I think overall producers are recognizing the reformatting errors preceding the genre's collapse didn't expand the audience and pissed off the built-in audience. I really could not get into the Osmond Pyramid because the front game was just too frenetic (among other things) so I didn't watch.

I also realize that the old formats are now going to be templated, edited, and with added histrionics, but I do think they could have made more effort on the tiebreaker. The flaw I see is that a player who gives an illegal clue or struggles with just the last word of a round is rewarded.

I would have preferred that they display letter choices in the top 3 boxes of the front-game pyramid. This would speed up the selection, which would not rely on careful enunciation, and give the opposing team a choice. Count up without the constraint of 30 seconds, maybe allow a backup word for a pass/illegal clue. Hone in on the exact time in tenths of the first utterance of the 7th word, and count down. Trim all the preliminaries before the Winner's Circle and maybe a small amount editing to either half of the episode and you have a more satisfying resolution.

Ties in anything are exciting, but the lack of a true tiebreaker or even a meaningful reveal is a real missed opportunity.

However, it breaks the template. They also don't want Strahan to change his pace, they would rather edit, which would get too choppy. And any histrionics would have to be abbreviated as they quickly dump to commercial. But, I'm sure they tested it all out and couldn't do it to their satisfaction, as much as I'm not in favor of it.

Welp, now it seems Buzzr is using the noon-3pm block as a rotisserie of sorts, because Now You See It, Beat The Clock, and Super Password, respectively, inherit those time slots the following week.

Weird that they're starting NYSI with a seemingly random January 1975 week, then going back to the beginning on Thursday.

I'm 100% not complaining about anything that is going on right now.  I like a good rotisserie.

Yeah, but if it's from fear to commit to a schedule, it's rotisserie chicken.