I don't usually watch this game show, but I DVR-ed it and saw it on Wednesday night, just to see what it looked like and how faithful it was to the original.

There were things about it that were OK and a few things I didn't care for. I agree that Mandel was a bit much, saying "this is incredible" way too many times, especially when what was going on wasn't all that incredible.

I was disappointed we never got to see Ben Shulman, although Mandel indicated at the beginning of the show that he was doing his "Come On Downs" and prize descriptions remotely. I've only ever heard him as a Blue Jays announcer and wasn't expecting much. His participation was the only real reason I even recorded it - I wanted to see how he'd do. And you know what? He was really very good in the announcer role. I had no idea he was that polished with a script. 

One thing I really hated - those ridiculous "build up the tension" sound effects and overdone reaction shots in each game. It simply was not that exciting and those flourishes just sounded phony. They don't do that in the original, because it's presumed the games themselves are exciting enough without having to add extra unneeded production. 

I noticed the Showcase wheel spin was very different from the hourlong CBS version. There are two of them in the U.S., only one on the Canadian side. They also do a weird thing about a spin to see who goes first in the showcase round. In the U.S., whoever wins the most gets the advantage of going first. 

Finally, and this is one thing that really stood out to me. Probably the biggest prize you could ever win on The Price Is Right is a car. The City TV version did not give away a single vehicle, although there was an ATV in one of the showcases - but that's hardly the same thing as an actual automobile. I was very surprised a car was not seen all night. (Although the preview from next week appears to show there may be one coming up.)

All in all, fun to see the differences, but it wasn't entertaining enough to me to tune in again. 

I watched it last night.  And for the first show I thought it was pretty good.  I haven't watched the US original for a long time, so I tuned in for about 20 minutes today on the daytime program to compare.  On both editions the contestants seem a bit unbelievable. 

Prizes on the City version look to be a match to the original.  One contestant won $25,000 and the other won a $38,000 trip plus a few smaller prizes.  I missed some of the show, did someone else win a trip?

I didn't mind Howie, he was fairly funny and different from Drew Carey.  I thought the colour scheme for the set on the City version was better than CBS which is not as vibrant. Actually overall they had a nicer set.  The City version has the advantage of being more packaged and produced, where the daily version feels live with contestants asking for instructions and sometime seem confused what to do.

From what I saw Price Is Right Tonight, Howie and audience did a credible job and managed to have a few differences in style and presentation from the daily CBS program.  Hope it does well for City.

I love this product placement gameshow. 
It's also nice seeing "The actual retail price" in Canadian dollars.

I'm already considering buying a $40 fan now, but at least I need one. 
(a contestant guessed $40 and was correct, preventing the mountain climber from going over the cliff...)

Three days ago, I posted a note about how The Star Week, the listings that come with the Saturday Toronto Star, somehow mistook the Price Is Right Tonight Canadian version for just another episode of the U.S. one. I wondered how they could have missed that this was a local Canuck adaptation of the show, and why they didn’t make a bigger deal of it, since it was an unusual move for a small player like City TV.
 
A friend of mine read that message, then wrote an email to the guy in charge at the Toronto Star, essentially asking the same question I did: how could they get so much wrong? Believe it or not, he got an answer from the guy in charge of the magazine, and he insists it wasn’t the paper’s fault -but City TV itself.
 
Here’s the text of his email:
 
“You are correct that the TV listings come from an outside source, but that source is populated by the broadcasters themselves. They frequently make changes to the information they previously submitted but as Star Week is prepared a couple of weeks in advance of its publication date (to allow for layout, proofing, printing and distribution) it’s not unusual for the information in Star Week to not match exactly what is broadcast. We do print a disclaimer to this fact on page three of Star Week: "Listings are current at time of printing.”
                                                                                                              
Some broadcasters not only update the source of the listings but also go the extra step of emailing the changes out to the various publications that print their listings. For those that do, the TV Grid in the Monday to Friday Toronto Star contains the most up-to-date information from these broadcasters. CityTV is unfortunately not one that appears to update their listings often as even today’s grid in the Star lists simply “Price is Right” at 8pm.
 
We do our best to ensure we print the most accurate information available to us at the time we go to press, but we rely on the broadcasters to ensure that central source of data is correctly updated. 
 
I apologize for any frustration or inconvenience this has caused you.”
 
You’d think City TV would want everyone to know about its new program, which cost them time and money to produce, as well as acquiring the rights from Freemantle Productions. I’ll take the Star guy’s word for it that it was on them. But how stupid of City to let a publicity opportunity like this get away from them.
 
I’ll bet it would have led to more tune in from people who were curious about the first episode, as I was. Another opportunity missed by the folks at Rogers.

Shorty Wave wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

 
You’d think City TV would want everyone to know about its new program, which cost them time and money to produce, as well as acquiring the rights from Freemantle Productions. I’ll take the Star guy’s word for it that it was on them. But how stupid of City to let a publicity opportunity like this get away from them.
 
I’ll bet it would have led to more tune in from people who were curious about the first episode, as I was. Another opportunity missed by the folks at Rogers.

 
And this is why telecoms should have kept out of broadcasting, especially Rogers. If this was the “original” Citytv, they would have been all over it and would not have screwed up their Star Week listing/info and probably would have got the cover story to boot, like they used to.

Overall I think Rogers original network programs are well done.  They do a great job with NHL hockey and Blue Jays baseball, Law & Order Toronto, Hudson & Rex and the first episode of The Price Is Right Tonight also well done IMO.  I think City TV's news has slid a bit.  They have some weak on air anchors and an ugly news set.   

I watched the premiere episode and overall I enjoyed it. Probably unlike the CBS version, the total cash and prizes won won't be treated as income and taxed accordingly. The show has certainly come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1956 when it was hosted by Bill Cullen.

For a Canadian game show, which used to be notoriously cheap with restricted winning limits, that is a huge amount.

I wonder if they still make the winners answer a skill testing question, another relic of all Canadian contests from the past. It was like you can't actually just win anything-  somehow, you had to earn it. I hope they scrapped that stupid rule. 

paterson1 wrote:

I don't think the mathematical skill testing question is a big deal.  Has anyone ever heard of someone losing a big prize because they got the answer wrong? And if you do get it wrong, do you get another chance or question?  If it were commonplace of people losing out, I am sure it would make the news.  Can you imagine winning 50 million and not getting any money because you can't add or subtract?

Besides, I would rather answer an easy math question than having a sometimes big percent handed over in taxes since the prize it is considered income in other countries. Even something like an SUV is considered income for some reason in other jurisdictions.  

Well, I honestly don't think the tax situation had anything to do with the so-called skill testing question. 

Can you not just win something without having to somehow solve another puzzle to prove you deserve it? I can't think of another country that ever did this. As noted, I think they've stopped this practice, and it could not happen too soon.

RadioActive wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

I don't think the mathematical skill testing question is a big deal.  Has anyone ever heard of someone losing a big prize because they got the answer wrong? And if you do get it wrong, do you get another chance or question?  If it were commonplace of people losing out, I am sure it would make the news.  Can you imagine winning 50 million and not getting any money because you can't add or subtract?

Besides, I would rather answer an easy math question than having a sometimes big percent handed over in taxes since the prize it is considered income in other countries. Even something like an SUV is considered income for some reason in other jurisdictions.  

Well, I honestly don't think the tax situation had anything to do with the so-called skill testing question. 

Can you not just win something without having to somehow solve another puzzle to prove you deserve it? I can't think of another country that ever did this. As noted, I think they've stopped this practice, and it could not happen too soon.

A skill testing question has got nothing to do with taxes.  Who said that it did? I am not sure the skill testing question applies to most TV shows anyway.  I said in other countries (US) you are taxed on winnings after a certain amount, here you are not, regardless of the amount.  If I was given the choice, I would take the skill testing question which is mathematical over paying taxes on a new SUV.  Also when have you ever heard of someone not winning their prize because they answered wrong and couldn't claim their prize.

It sounds like if the winning is pure luck, like a draw there could be a skill testing question.  If the contest requires some skill or knowledge there is not. 

My point also was that the skill testing question whether there or not seems to be a non issue regardless.  

Lorne wrote:

I had read about the rationale for skill-testing questions many years ago, so I did a search and found the following article that confirms what I had recalled.
Why do Canadian contests require a skill-testing question?

Thanks for this Lorne. I still think it's incredibly unnecessary, but at least I now understand the rationale. 

They did the same thing on the U.S. version during COVID. They reshot the credits on shows where prizes for trips that had been given away months before the pandemic hit to indicate the dated timeline. It noted that the show had been taped before the virus hit North America, so viewers wouldn't think they were giving away vacations that could potentially help spread the disease. 

I have no idea if alternate cash prizes were awarded but it's certainly possible if the winners could not go.