We start this week
with the return of the now 7 time Emmy winner for best reality
competition show, "The Amazing Race." The 15th edition of the
reality stalwart returned to CBS this past Sunday. 12 teams started
at the Los Angeles River and had to search through a wall of license
plates to find 11 Shinagawa District Tokyo License Plates. In an
Amazing Race first, married yoga teachers Eric and Lisa were
eliminated at the starting gate. They couldn't find the license
plate and didn't get to go along to Tokyo. I know I might be in the
minority, but I loved that the game was on from moment one.
When the teams got to Tokyo, the Amazing Race gave a loving tweak to
ABC's "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" by putting the teams through
Sushi Roulette! Every time I heard "EAT WASABI!" I was laughing out
loud. When the oversized wheel landed on a team, one member had to
finish a "wasabi bomb" in 2 minutes to get their next clue which
involved escorting Japanese tourists through the very congested
Shibuya Crossing. Maria and Tiffany didn't escort all their tourists
to the Pit Stop at Konnō Hachimangū Shrine, and came in last after
leg one. Lucky for them it was a non-elimination leg. They suffered
a 2 hour penalty for losing 2 Japanese tourists. While they waited,
the teams went to Vietnam where they had to venture to a remote
fishing village called Cai Be. While in Cai Be, the teams traveled
by boat to fertilize fruit trees in deep thick cement like mud.
After getting down and dirty, the terms had to herd ducks. After all
of that, dating couple Garrett and Jessica were the 2nd team
eliminated.
Everything that has made the show work is back including the
continued high production values and editing that are hallmarks of
the show. You have the likeable and non-likeable characters,
including Lance and Keri who are clearly edited to be the villains.
The only quibble I have is that three of the teams are "celebrity
teams". They include professional poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany
Michelle, Miss America 2004 Ericka Dunlap and her husband Brian
Kleinschmidt, and Harlem Globetrotters Nate "Big Easy" Lofton and
Herbert "Flight Time" Lang. Canaan Smith is a musician and wrote the
country song "Runaway", which charted in March 2009. He is playing
with his girlfriend Mika. I wish the casting department would find
more qualified people that are "non-celebrity" teams than a 25%
ratio of Celebrity Players to non-celebrity players.
But overall, the Amazing Race might just have to make room for an
8th consecutive Emmy. The show is back in a big way. And I loved
every minute of it.
We have lots of
Price is Right news to report: Firstly, the Price is Right Live is
back at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Connecticut from October 30th
to November 18th. Alan Thicke takes over host duties for the live
version of the show.
Second of all, the
official website of TPIR, priceisright.com is holding a survey
through October 16th where you can vote on your favorite prizes of
2009. Those prizes will be featured in a "best of 2009" New Year's
Eve show.
Finally,
Tvsquad.com's Joel Keller published an interview on September 24th
where Drew Carey reflected on certain issues related to Price:
On The Perfect
Showcase bid:
--"It didn't look
good. I thought it was a really dark day in the history of the show,
actually. I wasn't happy at all, obviously. And I didn't, you know,
they showed it in December when the audience was supposed to be
the...Yeah, they showed it out of order. They showed when there was
(supposed to be) our lowest audience watching, during the couple
weeks before Christmas. I mean, you'd think, if they were really
happy with it, they would've showed it in the fall."
On calling
certain golden-road.net fans '"telephone pole screamers" after
reading the webpage:
--Yeah. (I read the
webpage) because there was a producer on the show who followed it
very closely and was concerned about what they were saying, what
they thought. And as far as they were concerned, those were the real
fans of the show. And the problem was, The Price Is Right
had no website. And won't until a couple weeks from now. By the end
of September, they promise Priceisright.com will be up. (J-Note: It
is.) You know, this is the year 2009. And they haven't had a
website. And as a matter of fact, the night before I met Barbara
Bloom and (CBS entertainment president) Nina Tassler about hosting
the show, I went to their website because I thought 'Oh, I'll go on
their website and I'll look, so I don't look like an idiot when I
show up.' Because I didn't watch Price Is Right every
single day. And there was no website. I was just shocked. And the
CBS website, at the time, was horrible. It's way better now, but at
the time, it was like honestly, like a Geocities page. It was
really, really bad. And that's when they just had decided to revamp
everything to be fair. And it's really so much better now. But at
the time, it was nowhere.
And I thought 'Wow, they don't have a website.' So the thing is, if
you wanted to get a message board message out, or get anything out
to fans that are already on the web, and already into all this
technology, there was nothing to do. And these guys from this
website were into it, and they were fans, and that became kind of
like the de facto official website for Price Is Right,
because there wasn't anything. The show didn't have anything. And
that's a really big problem, when you take your message of the show,
and you farm that out to somebody else."
On The Drewcases:
--I didn't like the
showcases the way they were. I never liked them. Yeah. Never liked
them. And soon as I had the chance, man, I was like, 'We're getting
rid of these.' I felt bad because I was making fun of the showcases
in some of them, because the prizes weren't connected together. It
was like a prize, and then an unrelated prize, and then a third
unrelated prize that was unrelated to the other two. And I was
thinking of funny ways to like link them together so it would be
funny. And now, the way the showcases are, one prize is tied with
the next, is tied with the next. The prizes are so good, you don't
have to do anything. You just say 'Hey, look at these cool prizes.'
I don't feel compelled to try to funny it up to make it more
interesting.
He continues: "I liked Rich in the dunk tank. I like the models
talking. There's a lot of good things, but you know, there's Rich in
the dunk tank, and then I forget the three prizes, but it was
because there was these three different prizes, you know what I
mean? And you try to think of, 'What can we do to connect it all
together? I'll put Rich in a dunk tank.' That'll be the connective
tissue.
And now, we don't have (to do that). Like today we had a baseball
one. It was a batting cage, an actual New York hot dog vendor cart
that you could tow behind your car, and you could have in your
backyard, for parties and stuff. So you had a hot dog cart, a trip
to Chicago at a nice hotel, money to see baseball games, and a trip
to Japan to see a Japanese ball club. So it's not a batting cage, a
trip to Chicago, and a trip to Japan.
The third prize (in a showcase) always had to be a car, boat, or a
trailer. That was the way it went. It was a prize, a prize, and then
a car, boat, or a trailer. Unless there was three trips. So it was
these great trips, and we just put them all together with this
baseball theme. And we had Rachel in a batting helmet and a bat, and
it was just great. There's nothing you need to add to that to try to
make it funny, it's just a really cool showcase."
Those are some
very interesting thoughts from Drew. He is not going to make
everyone happy, but that is not his way. He is going to make the
show in his own image. Let us see if this is the year he finally
makes it his own. The season is only two weeks old, but so far so
good when it comes to Drew.
Block Party Quick
Hits:
--NBC Greenlights 8 episodes of "Perfect 10". The concept:
Contestants will be faced with 10 tasks they must complete in 60
seconds. A lot of people are comparing this to the British Game Show
"The Cube." which debuted on August 22nd on ITV. On The Cube,
contestants have to complete 7 increasingly difficult tasks in a
3X3X3 cube to win up to 250,000 pounds. They are given 9 lives and 2
helps. The helps, which can be used only one time, are: "Simplify",
which makes the game easier and "Trial Run" which gives the
contestant a chance to complete the task with no penalty. Simplify
can be used at any time, but Trial Run can be used after the 2nd
game. Speaking of The Cube, news broke on Buzzerblog late Thursday
afternoon that Fox has picked up The Cube for a US Run in 2010. The
site quotes the UK website Broadcast Now where managing director
Andrew O’Connor said FOX plans to keep the ITV style that the show
is known for. Fox has yet to confirm or officially announce the
pickup at this time.
--Hell's Kitchen is casting the NY/NJ/CT/Philadelphia Area.
--Michael Kors returns as a panelist to "Project Runway".
--Call Genie signs with Endemol to make a sweepstakes for Deal or No
Deal.
--Germany joins in the 10th anniversary celebration of Millionaire.
--A new documentary "Wages of Spin", claims Dick Clark was more
involved in the payola scandal of 1960 than first reported.
--CT Governor Jodi Rell tours the set of Deal or No Deal.
--Mark Burnett is now producer of "The People's Choice Awards."
--In "Bachelor" news, the new Bachelor will be announced on Dancing
With the Stars on October 13th.
--Charlie Moonves is the newest member of the Moonves family,
courtesy of Julie Chen.
--Richard Hatch will stay in Jail until October 16th..
Jason Block currently owes the rest of GSNN no more than two
sushi dinners. E-mail him at jiblock@yahoo.com.
