Strategies and Fixes –
Part 2 - December 15
As I, Dr. Pepper, put on the papaya cap again, we look
at a show that amazingly is still on the air - Show Me
The Money. How this vehicle got into December and is
renewed for January is beyond me, but I'm not the one
who makes the network decisions. I am, however, the one
who will give suggestions on how to fix this thing, so
here goes...
1. No Strategy - Answer 6 questions right and
win. Answer 6 questions wrong and you lose, but win
something. There is no other way to do anything except
answer questions. Even Jeopardy! gives you a chance to
be strategic with Daily Doubles. It's fun to answer
questions, but you can't really 'play along' in the game
besides answering questions.
2. ZZZZ, part 1 - There's one question left. Get
it right and leave with $260,000. Get it wrong and leave
with $220,000. Not very exciting, is it? What about
cutting the allotment to three or four wrong and if you
get them all wrong, you leave with nothing? Sounds more
exciting, no?
3. ZZZZ, part 2 - I truly do not believe that
this is William Shatner's fault (and I may be in the
minority here), but there is no way that it should take
45 minutes to go through 10 questions. We understand
that the format may not be an hour long, but you don't
have to stretch it that way. You could easily get three
contestants in and out of there in an hour, which would
make it a tighter show.
4. Killer Excitement - I'm not a big fan of the
Killer Card to begin with, but if you have to use it,
set it up so that if you get a question wrong, and the
card shows up, then it's game over right there. Having
to ask another question (which no one has gotten right)
only inflates the time and doesn't really bring anything
to the show.
5. Pick a Dirty Dancer - We all know that sex
sells, but 13 women dancing around with scrolls is still
too much like 26 women standing around with suitcases.
The reason why the show feels like a rip-off is because
it takes too many elements of Deal Or No Deal. This is a
show that needs it's own Identity...oh wait, that's next
week.
I would go into the strategy of this show, but there is
none. Just get questions right. Whoopie. Show Me The
Money should be shown the Cancellation Check.
But what came long before
the women on Show Me the Money and Deal or No Deal?
Barker's Beauties, of course. Let's go through three
more pricing games...
Cover Up - This is a weird strategy, but one to
take if there's a possibility of a zero as the last
number (and the five isn't there) PURPOSELY SCREW UP the
first number and get it wrong. (If you're real daring,
get the first two numbers wrong). If you get one of the
last three numbers right on the first try and get the
first two numbers wrong, then you are almost guaranteed
to win the vehicle, because you will get the four
chances to get the price right. Why? Because you'll
automatically get the first number right on the second
try because there's only 1 number), and assuming you
leave the second number wrong on the second try, that
will be the only number available on the third try, so
that number will be right. By the way, the 4th number in
this game is frequently (but not always) a 1.
Credit Card - Make sure that at least two of your
prizes that you select are on the bottom row. The top
row is reserved for the bigger sized prizes, which are
of course, more expensive. There are a number of times
where all three prizes are on the bottom row, but it's
very rare that both prizes on the top are inexpensive.
Danger Price - It seems silly, but common sense
will help you out here. If the Danger Price is low, then
go for the high looking (and big sized) prizes, while if
there's a high number, then you go for the inexpensive
prizes.
Gordon
Pepper did some dirty dancing on the TPIR line and
almost got the lot of us arrested. E-mail him at
gordon@gameshownewsnet.com. |
