The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: PYLdude on April 04, 2017, 05:08:29 AM
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So I was watching the early CBS Feud episodes tonight and I had this thought going through my head.
Over the years there's been dozens of examples of shows having editions that aired on a network and a concurrent edition for local stations.
In these particular cases, when someone decided to go audition for a program that fit these descriptions, would the searches be conducted separately or would they draw contestants from the same pool? And if you were picked, would you then have the choice of which edition you wanted to play?
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I doubt they'd have let you have the choice of which to play, because then why would anybody pick the $25,000 Pyramid over the $100,000 Pyramid?
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Or daytime 'Wheel' over the nighttime show after they went to all cash.
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I know I've said this before, but when I auditioned for Sale of the Century, the contestant coordinators decided whether they wanted you for the daytime show or for the syndicated show. You had zero input into that decision.
When they had the pool of us that they selected for the syndicated version, they implied pretty strongly to us that they chose what they thought would be their better contestants for the syndicated show. I can sort of see that, since there's more money to be made by the producers if the syndicated show is a success. Still, it's entirely possible they told their daytime contestants exactly the same thing! :)
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Fair points all and much appreciated. I figured it was simple enough but I was all curious just the same.
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IIRC, when Barry/Enright had auditions for TJW and TTD, contestants were auditioning for both shows -- they couldn't choose which show they wanted to do.
Those who were tops in testing were invited to compete on TJW, while those "one level down" were invited to play TTD.
JD
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Those who were tops in testing were invited to compete on TJW, while those "one level down" were invited to play TTD.
JD
It wasn't the other way around? TTD seemed to have harder material. Maybe it was a budget-saving move?
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It wasn't the other way around? TTD seemed to have harder material. Maybe it was a budget-saving move?
I don't find one to be materially harder than the other, but it's interesting that the better contestants are going on the show where lady luck is queen, and the weaker contestants are going on the show where you can stay on for a month at a time and win much more per game.
From what I recall, the daytime and evening editions of Wheel of Fortune were almost exactly alike in terms of wheel layout and the only way you would tell them apart would be the round two goody, $5,000 space, and returning champions or not.
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I wondered about that. Because in LA Law, when Brackman told CJ that he wanted to go on Wheel of Fortune and her old firm that Pat Sajak as a client, he asked her to hook him up and he ended up on Goen's version.
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I doubt they'd have let you have the choice of which to play, because then why would anybody pick the $25,000 Pyramid over the $100,000 Pyramid?
It has been years ago since the post was made, but I seem to recall someone saying the better contestants ended up on the nighttime version. I can't confirm this either, so I'd be happy to be corrected...after 1985 scores on the daytime version went down to the 16-17 point range.
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Remembering back to 1986 auditions on Wheel of Fortune, if you were from out of the L.A. area, you would call them up and let them know when you will be in the area in the next 18 months. Based on that, they put you on whatever version was scheduled to tape them, if any. (Teens like me had no choice, the nighttime version had no teen weeks then).
My sister made it through auditions in 1989 and was told the same thing. She ended up on the nighttime taped the following August, as that's what was taping at the time. They tell you this on the phone when you call them.
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IIRC, when Barry/Enright had auditions for TJW and TTD, contestants were auditioning for both shows -- they couldn't choose which show they wanted to do.
Those who were tops in testing were invited to compete on TJW, while those "one level down" were invited to play TTD.
So Thom McKee was considered to be "one level down." Interesting.
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I wondered about that. Because in LA Law, when Brackman told CJ that he wanted to go on Wheel of Fortune and her old firm that Pat Sajak as a client, he asked her to hook him up and he ended up on Goen's version.
Wouldn't read too much into that. It's still a work of fiction. :P
Not disputing Barry & Enright's word, but I too would think it would be the other way around. Joker seemed a little simpler in difficulty...it also seems like it focused more on current events or recent entertainment than Tic Tac Dough or Bullseye. I could be wrong there.
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there's more money to be made by the producers if the syndicated show is a success.
Why is that? And do we have any dollar figures we can peg on the difference between network and syndication to put it into perspective?
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Nick, I don't have numbers, but consider it this way: the market leans in the direction of whichever side is smaller. If there are more sellers, it's going to be a buyer's market. If there are more buyers, it's going to be a seller's market.
There are a LOT more buyers in syndication.
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Again, no hard numbers, but I presume that Merv made a bundle with the one-two syndication punch for about ten years.
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IIRC, when Barry/Enright had auditions for TJW and TTD, contestants were auditioning for both shows -- they couldn't choose which show they wanted to do.
Those who were tops in testing were invited to compete on TJW, while those "one level down" were invited to play TTD.
JD
Kind of has me wondering what kinds of contestants they sent off to "Bullseye" or "Play the Percentages"....
/almost added "Hot Potato", but remembered that it had teams with common traits
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Nick, I don't have numbers, but consider it this way: the market leans in the direction of whichever side is smaller. If there are more sellers, it's going to be a buyer's market. If there are more buyers, it's going to be a seller's market.
There are a LOT more buyers in syndication.
I don't remember if it was from Broadcasting or the Google News Archive, and I can't remember whether it was posted here, but I do remember stumbling across an article about the business of game show producing, and how syndication is more lucrative. The article is from the late-70s or early-80s, but if I can find it (or if someone else knows what I'm talking about), I'll post it.
I think this is it (http://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/18/archives/game-showstvs-glittering-gold-mine-game-shows.html?_r=0). It's a pretty lengthy article, so I understand if you feel TL; DR.
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IIRC, when Barry/Enright had auditions for TJW and TTD, contestants were auditioning for both shows -- they couldn't choose which show they wanted to do.
Those who were tops in testing were invited to compete on TJW, while those "one level down" were invited to play TTD.
JD
Kind of has me wondering what kinds of contestants they sent off to "Bullseye" or "Play the Percentages"....
/almost added "Hot Potato", but remembered that it had teams with common traits
Funny, I just thought of the one lady who was on both Bullseye and TTD, Wemkea whatsherface that also ended up on Press Your Luck. Can't imagine there were too many folks who got to be on two different B&E shows of the era, especially considering the info shown here.
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Match Game PM seemed to me to have more youthful and attractive female contestants.
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IIRC, when Barry/Enright had auditions for TJW and TTD, contestants were auditioning for both shows -- they couldn't choose which show they wanted to do.
Those who were tops in testing were invited to compete on TJW, while those "one level down" were invited to play TTD.
JD
Kind of has me wondering what kinds of contestants they sent off to "Bullseye" or "Play the Percentages"....
/almost added "Hot Potato", but remembered that it had teams with common traits
Funny, I just thought of the one lady who was on both Bullseye and TTD, Wemkea whatsherface that also ended up on Press Your Luck. Can't imagine there were too many folks who got to be on two different B&E shows of the era, especially considering the info shown here.
Scott Wyant was on TTD in 1978 and on the premiere episode of Bullseye in 1980. I believe shortly after that, he started working for B&E.
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IIRC, when Barry/Enright had auditions for TJW and TTD, contestants were auditioning for both shows -- they couldn't choose which show they wanted to do.
Those who were tops in testing were invited to compete on TJW, while those "one level down" were invited to play TTD.
So Thom McKee was considered to be "one level down." Interesting.
That's what I thought of. Perhaps B&E didn't want a super-smart, possibly dull contestant running for weeks at a time on TTD - so they were sent to Joker, which had much more luck involved. And perhaps that changed after McKee's run brought in ratings.
It would help if we had someone who was there to explain it. Has anyone asked, say, Mark Maxwell-Smith or Ronnie Greenberg?
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You've got this backwards. "Tic Tac Dough" was the top-level show, "Joker" was the one level down.
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You've got this backwards. "Tic Tac Dough" was the top-level show, "Joker" was the one level down.
If that's the case, I apologize for the mixup.
JD
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Funny, I just thought of the one lady who was on both Bullseye and TTD, Wemkea whatsherface that also ended up on Press Your Luck. Can't imagine there were too many folks who got to be on two different B&E shows of the era, especially considering the info shown here.
I think her surname was Sherman.
I don't recall a whole helluva lot, and her appearances were about three years apart anyway.
/as it happens, Dave Wagner was on in 1978 and again in the mid-80s, also a long period in between. So that makes three.
That does bring up something--if you've already been on the show you ostensibly can pass the test again but are they going to take Joker's Wild contestants and "bump them up" to Tic Tac Dough or the other way around? It's not like testing for Wheel of Fortune and being thrown to the wolves on Jeopardy. And Bullseye you could win more than on Joker's Wild and roughly equivalent to Tic Tac. I don't recall anyone who was so egregious where I said aloud "how did this assclown make it through the tryout gauntlet?"
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Funny, I just thought of the one lady who was on both Bullseye and TTD, Wemkea whatsherface that also ended up on Press Your Luck. Can't imagine there were too many folks who got to be on two different B&E shows of the era, especially considering the info shown here.
I think her surname was Sherman.
I don't recall a whole helluva lot, and her appearances were about three years apart anyway.
/as it happens, Dave Wagner was on in 1978 and again in the mid-80s, also a long period in between. So that makes three.
I don't know if either of the aforementioned ladies above was the one I remember, but there was one lady contestant who was an opera singer that appeared on 2 of the B&E shows, one being Bullseye for sure.
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Jan Kraepelien (Erik's brother) was on TTD in 1983 and then on TJW in 1986. I know Erik was in the audience for the TTD episodes. While Jan wasn't as successful as Erik, he did win several games on both shows.
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I don't know if either of the aforementioned ladies above was the one I remember, but there was one lady contestant who was an opera singer that appeared on 2 of the B&E shows, one being Bullseye for sure.
I think that was Royanne Richert...she was on the Bullseye premiere and then did TTD and lost to Kit Salisbury.
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Perhaps B&E didn't want a super-smart, possibly dull contestant running for weeks at a time on TTD - so they were sent to Joker, which had much more luck involved. And perhaps that changed after McKee's run brought in ratings.
I recall a couple of $100,000 runs before Thom came along, though, and they certainly liked long runs on Twenty-One. It's not hard to imagine them putting some dim contestants up against McKee to pad the streak.