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ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 9:03 pm
by MWmetalhead
The network that has refused to air daytime game shows for the past 33 years and adding yet two more remakes of game show classics to its burgeoning summer game show lineup.

ABC already has the $100,000 Pyramid (returning June 9), To Tell the Truth (returning June 9), Match Game (returning June 12), and of course, Celebrity Family Feud.

Now, the number of prime time game shows on ABC grows to six. I was surprised the other day to learn that both Press Your Luck and Card Sharks are coming to ABC!

Press Your Luck and Card Sharks will each debut June 12.

P.S...The revival of Press Your Luck includes a pretty awesome sounding bonus round!!

http://buzzerblog.com/2019/05/25/detail ... k-revival/

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed May 29, 2019 9:17 pm
by sfpcc
Is the Gong Show coming back? I googled it but didn't get a clear answer, (though sources said unlikely.)

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2019 10:08 pm
by MWmetalhead
The debut of Press Your Luck has been pushed forward. It will now debut either Monday, June 10 @ 10PM ET or Tuesday, June 11 @ 10PM ET. The exact night will depend on the NBA Finals schedule.

Episode #2 will now air Wednesday, June 12.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:06 pm
by bmw
Just watched the new Press Your Luck. WHAT A TRAINWRECK. It is clear that the producers are completely clueless as to what made the original popular. The gameplay was boring. The host was boring. The design of the board is uninspired. The second round played more like a reality show than a game show with the contestant and his gay husband (the gay husband who busted out his klenex and cried at least 4 times during the game). And even the contestant's story aside, the gameplay was tedious and the commercial breaks were way too long. This was a reminder to me why I don't watch almost any modern television.

The one bright spot was the whammies and their animations. I thought those were solid.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:54 pm
by Mike
bmw wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:06 pm
It is clear that the producers are completely clueless as to what made the original popular.
If that were true, then the first half of the game wouldn't have had as much of a vibe that felt like the classic game as it did.

That bonus game is going to take getting used to - the only reason I don't suggest tweaking it (yet) is because I can't say I'd know how else to fill out the rest of the hour; the "classic" portion of the game is only going to take up so much time, even stretched out. I wouldn't mind making it a pair of games back to back in the 1-hour timeslot, but of course they can't go that route if the goal is to have somebody play for a "jackpot", as it were.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 12:37 am
by bmw
To be fair, the first half hour wasn't nearly as bad as the second half hour. I think the second half just ruined the whole thing for me. One flaw though in the first half (second round) there was a prize worth something like $40,000 - no prize should be that much because that can really change strategy. Biggest prize shouldn't be larger than about $15,000 value. Also a minor thing - one way they could have modernized the show was by widening the board to a 16:9 shape by adding 1 or 2 squares in the top and bottom row.

As to the second half hour - there really is no saving it. By its very design, the gameplay is going to take up far less than a half hour of time (could in theory take almost no time if the contestant quits early - which, we know that isn't going to happen, so in a way it is anti-climactic), so the producers load it up with reality-show-esque filler. Between that filler and the extra long commercial breaks, the bonus round is tedious.

I would format the show like this:

Length: Half Hour

Round 1 - same as the early 2000s remake - let the players take turns spinning, allowing them to freeze at any time or be knocked out of the round with a whammy.

Round 2 - Classic Question round

Round 3 - Classic final round

Round 4 - Losers each get one spin on a constellation prize board with no whammies - squares ranging from $500 to $5,000. Then the winner gets one big spin on a big money board with no whammies. I would still have some small money squares, but also some really big ones, up to $100,000, and also some winnings multiplier squares - like the classic double your money square. But I would also have a 3x, 4x, and 5x your winnings square.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 2:29 am
by Mike
Or, as we saw, it can be moot because the whammy can drive off with it! :lol (That is funny to me that, it's the first show back and already they have a car lost.)

Shifting those more expensive cars over to the bonus round might make that round more functional, though. As it stands, it's already going to be very difficult to actually achieve that $500,000 necessary to be doubled to 1 mill. (Yeah, it's supposed to be, but still.) Being able to hit a luxury car would certainly help with that.
bmw wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 12:37 am
I would format the show like this:
I'd say no on this if only because it effectively amounts to a remake of Whammy! the 2002 remake - which was mostly fine in and of itself, but aiming for that wouldn't work here.

For my minor suggestion, how about giving the first round its fourth question back? Round 1 did only have three here.

(Sidebar: I will say I was surprised that Across The Board, of all things - which only existed for the last six months or so of the original show's life in '86 - made the cut for the Round 2 board here.)

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:25 am
by MWmetalhead
The second round played more like a reality show than a game show with the contestant and his gay husband (the gay husband who busted out his klenex and cried at least 4 times during the game).
Yes; that was nauseating as hell. It's as if the douchiest elements from "Deal or No Deal" were carbon copied. I didn't need to watch a couple teary-eyed fruitcakes for nearly a half hour straight in prime time. Save that crap for an Oprah show circa 1994.

I liked the fact the design of the board was pretty true to the original design. I liked the inclusion of big prizes on the board during regular game play (the Jaguar, for example). BUT - if you are going to include $40,000 prizes on the game board, why not also increase the top cash prize during regular game play, too?

The whammy animations were good; I agree bmw.

The bonus round - which really was a game unto itself - drags on for too long and detracts from main game play. The $1 million grand prize is an idiotic gimmick. Even if you make it through all six rounds of the bonus round (the contestant last night stopped after five rounds), it's damn near statistically impossible to accumulate enough winnings (i.e. $500,000) to qualify for the $1 million grand prize.

One would have to land on the "Big Bucks" square - either on "Big Bucks" itself or the natural Big Bucks dollar amount - on at least half their spins in the final few rounds to even have a chance of qualifying!

A :30 minute format where the winning contestant gets, say, 3 - 5 bonus round spins to accumulate cash and then receives a grand prize for avoiding the whammy would be a much better format. The producers could eek out time for that bonus round in a :30 format by reducing the number "+ One Spin" squares on the big board.

(BMW's recommended bonus format ain't bad, either.)

As for the host - I liked her personality and enthusiasm, but her voice was grating at times.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:59 am
by MWmetalhead
Also, for the year 2019, the automation of the cursor (or whatever one wishes to call it) on the big board seemed subpar.

Why was the third square down on the right side of the board landed on so many damn times?

Also, why were there several incidents where the displayed cash amount or prize changed after the player yelled "Stop!" and pressed their signaling button?

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:26 am
by bmw
MWmetalhead wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:25 am
It's as if the douchiest elements from "Deal or No Deal" were carbon copied.
THIS. Thank you, that was perfectly put. Deal or No Deal is the first "game show" I remember starting this trend.

btw - can the winner come back for the next episode? If not, maybe that is the solution - just have 2 half-hour episodes back-to-back where the winner of the first half hour gets to play 2 new contestants for the 2nd half hour, and then at the very end of the show, if the same person wins both half hours, then they get some kind of a mega spin for big money.
Mike wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 2:29 am
bmw wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 12:37 am
I would format the show like this:
I'd say no on this if only because it effectively amounts to a remake of Whammy! the 2002 remake - which was mostly fine in and of itself, but aiming for that wouldn't work here.

For my minor suggestion, how about giving the first round its fourth question back? Round 1 did only have three here.
Reason I suggested that is because it would be difficult to cram 2 question rounds and 2 gameplay rounds AND some kind of final bonus round all into a half hour - especially with the constraints of 20-21 minutes of content (the original was closer to 23-24 minutes). That seemed like a more viable half-hour format. Otherwise the other option might be to just try to extend the classic portion to 40 or 45 minutes and have some kind of reduced bonus round for the winner. They certainly could add a few more +ONE SPIN squares to the second round to accomplish this. Later in the show's original run there were a significant number of +SPIN squares. That also increases the chances of infamous spin-passing wars - which were what made some of the most memorable moments in the original.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 10:42 pm
by bmw
Ok so tonight's episode was 100% better.

Also, felt bad for the guy at the end of Card Sharks - 3 aces in a row! I'm surprised they didn't count those as pushes. It was only early on in the original that those were losses - they eventually changed a tie to a push. But nope, not tonight. They guy literally couldn't win.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 6:32 am
by MWmetalhead
Overall, I think the Card Sharks reboot is much better than the PYL reboot.

Joel McHale (I think that's his name) did a fine job hosting.

Conspiracy theory time: I cannot help but wonder if the Money Cards round in the second half hour was rigged. To have three aces in a row be the very last three cards is bullshit. Did the producers fuck over that contestant intentionally given the fact the contestant during the first half hour won h-u-g-e?

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:56 am
by bmw
Had to be bad luck. No way it was rigged given the 1950s game show scandals that led to now federal law prohibiting the rigging of game shows. If it were rigged, somebody could go to prison for up to a year.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/509

btw - I did rough calculation of the odds of getting either 3 aces or 3 two's in a row (those are the only 2 cards that would be virtually guaranteed to break somebody if 3 in a row came up) anywhere in the final round is somewhere around 1 in 631. So not lottery-like, but certainly bad enough odds to look suspicious, especially in a premiere episode.

The math is very roughly (50.5 x 49.5 x 48.5) / (8 x 3 x 2 x 4). The exact calculation is more complicated than this but this is a pretty good approximation.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 7:47 pm
by fuzzpower
I saw Tuesday’s Press Your Luck and was disappointed. It drags on way too long, especially the unneeded bonus round.

Elizabeth Banks is very subpar. They could have chosen someone so much better.

Re: ABC revives two more game shows: Press Your Luck and Card Sharks

Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 2:19 pm
by bmw
Having now watched all 3 episodes, the format needs to be a half hour and the cash amounts in the final round (second round of the classic game) need to be increased. I would take the original amounts from the 1980s version and times them all by 10, so big bucks would be 30,000 / 40,000 / 50,000 plus a spin and all other squares would range from 5,000 to 25,000. Using that template the average win would be around $100,000 but amounts could get in to the 200,000 or even 300,000 range. It would also make it so people could conceivably lose $100,000 or more by hitting a whammy. Spin-passing battles become strategic and exciting.

The problem now is that the cash amounts just aren't high enough to make the main game particularly exciting, and the bonus round drags on way too much. However, seeing someone lose say $150,000 to a whammy on a passed spin - that would make the game more fun to watch.