Has anyone here been watching the prime-time Price is Right lately? This version is the special Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular…aptly named because they've been giving out million dollar prizes the way Larry King gives out alimony checks. They've had three winners of that amount-plus since the end of February. (By that, I mean these people won a million bucks in cash plus whatever cars or washing machines they also won.) Here's the most recent win, which involved an amazing bit of dumb luck…
Remember what an event it was the first time they gave out a million smackers on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Notice how even though it's been on since the end of '05, Deal or No Deal still hasn't given out the million dollar top prize? I'll bet they will soon, no matter how easy they have to make it.
Ratings are down on the daytime Price is Right since Bob Barker left…and not just because they can't match the "surge" in numbers during Bob's final weeks. Anywhere from 13 to 15% fewer viewers are turning in as matched against comparable weeks from the Barker years. This is no surprise to most of us and I don't think it's even a reflection on Drew Carey's hosting abilities. I think the show had just gotten stale and the changeover of hosts just afforded some folks a simple stopping point in their viewing.
But the nighttime Price, the one where they give away the millions, is doing great in the ratings. Since the money is the only real difference, that's the message to programmers: You want numbers? Create millionaires. I dunno how long that will be cost-effective but we'll probably see a lot more of that before America grows bored with the big wins. (Another thing I'm thinking is that it's probably a lot harder than it used to be to get into the audience for Price is Right tapings so you can be eligible to "Come on down.")
And I can't help but point something out…
The Price is Right is a non-Writers Guild show. The show is written, of course. There are words on cue cards, words on TelePrompters, little sketches in the Showcases at the end, etc. Someone writes that but the producers don't want that someone to join the WGA so they claim that person is not a writer. All the old Goodson-Todman game shows (I've Got a Secret, Match Game, What's My Line?, etc.) were always non-signatories and the firm that now owns The Price is Right has continued that tradition.
The amounts of money it would cost for a show like that to become a WGA signatory are always pretty small. Unless they're really paying slave wages to the folks doing the work, we're talking a microscopic percentage of the budget. On a show that's throwing around million dollar checks, even the word "microscopic" seems insufficient to describe how insignificant it would be to the program. Might mean something to the writer, though…and might even yield a better program. The daytime show, which can't afford to dole out millions, could especially do with a little cleverness. And so will the prime-time one when viewers get jaded from watching the money.