Early Evening Game shows

Australia also adopted the postcode lottery format on the 5:30pm show which was called “Double Deal Friday” which was very popular. The home viewer had to SMS a number and at random, he or she win whatever prize the contestant won on a Friday.

Also there was “Dancing with the Deals” another interactive game to celebrate the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars

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Some of the games they brought over were definitely the highlight, Plinko in particular. I could write pages on how they got pretty much everything else wrong with the 2012 series from the prizes to the hosting, game prop designs, set design, music cues, playoff round etc etc.

The big issue is that if you look at the three ‘main’ early evening game shows from the past 20 years - Deal Or No Deal, The Chase & Millionaire Hot Seat - they all have main prizes (i.e. the cash amounts) that are used and referred to in the gameplay throughout the show, but are not actually given away until the very end of the show (and even then they may not be won at all).

The Price Is Right suffers from having to give away ‘major’ prizes with every pricing game won throughout the show in addition to the showcase offered at the end. The prizes that are shown also need to be ‘desirable’ for the show to be worth watching. The three most desirable and commonly used prizes in American TPIR are cars, cash and trips/holidays.

Australian TPIR couldn’t afford to offer those type of prizes anymore outside of the showcase unless the prizes were all sponsored (which cash obviously can’t be, hence the Big W vouchers in the 2012 series). I believe it would be best to find a revised format that results in only giving away ‘major’ prizes at the end of the show in the same way the game shows I mentioned earlier do, and not giving away prizes for winning the price games themselves.

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The Price is Right in the US have had Million Dollar Spectacular primetime specials frequently during the Barker/Carey eras and most recently event style ‘at night’ versions of the show airing on CBS for years in addition to numerous syndicated nighttime spinoffs. I know you can’t compare TV landscapes but I wonder if following a similar formula would’ve worked better for Nine or Seven longer term? Pairing it with shows like Millionaire on DoND never really worked well for either network and both didn’t pair well with Price either as they both seemed to ‘outdo’ the show rather than support it. Seven’s version relied on the French version too much and the Big W sponsorship cheapened the show to the point that it lost its appeal.

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Could we have a revival on our hands?

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Jeopardy with Stephen Fry is for UK’S ITV.

Going by a quick google post, the new UK version with have 20 episodes, and will be 60 minutes long. Compared to US’ 30 minute edition. Not sure when a “local version” for a well-known Australian network will air, and for which network…?

US Jeopardy is currently on SBS in repeat mode (for some oddly reason) at 5pm and repeated on Viceland at 7pm.

It’s still good that SBS is airing game shows in the afternoon (Mastermind at some days at 3.15pm; Jeopardy 5pm, Letters and Numbers at 5.30pm). ABC has in recent years aired game shows in the afternoons too: Think Tank, and Tendable (UK).

i only see 3 possibilities - one is that they are showing the UK version with some aussies on it, another is the UK version will be doing some sort of “ashes” UK vs Aus series and it will be shown here, and the other is it could be the launchpad as a local version

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Either the Ashes one or its a pilot.

A kids version of $25,000 Pyramid and Wipeout were commissioned in Australia but due to laws, no money were given out.

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Could it possibly be a Millionaire Hot Seat replacement for Nine in 2024?

Nine would surely go with Tipping Point.

SBS probably most likely, it’s the sort of thing that you can do with low prize money.

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Fair point although Nine would fit the “well-known Australian network” plus a local version of Jeopardy could easily be promoted during Paris 2024 through themed tie-ins etc. and not to mention their past history with formats like Sale of the Century.

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SBS is not? Or Foxtel?

I wouldn’t have thought FOXTEL is a network as such.

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Just throwing stuff around here. And the person writing this over in the UK might not know, and if they said “subscription TV” or something it would be obvious who it was for.

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SBS is defined as a “hybrid-funded public service broadcaster” though which would rule them out as the casting notice states it will be on a network. Jeopardy is a format that is played for money and SBS couldn’t do a local version unless the format was changed to eliminate that element (eg point values). Mastermind Australia and Letters and Numbers don’t rely on a cash prize so SBS can easily produce them. I stand by my prediction.

Mate the exact definition of what they go by isn’t going to be what the casting agent puts on the flyer. Agree though the money element probably rules SBS out.

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I don’t think we’ll ever see Jeopardy! as a daily format in Australia. Guaranteed five-figure cash win every single day…the FTA climate today can’t afford that. Hot Seat and Chase work because they don’t pay out very often.

I’d say it’ll be a run of Aussie episodes for primetime (as antiquated a term as that is now). Would be incredible if Stephen Fry hosts these - would this be the first time he’s hosted something specifically for Australian audiences?

But they are still more generous than British game shows… Pointless starts at 1,000 pounds and only goes up in 1k increments until it’s won (about one a week), and Tipping Point has a max 20,000 pound prize.

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"hybrid-funded public service broadcaster” probably doesn’t read well on a social media post. Given the choice of that or “network”, I know which one I’d use even for SBS.

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That description was not my own but I fully understand what you’re saying.
The use of ‘network’ in the notice could mean anything/anyone to the average viewer but logically speaking there are only really three possible options that meet the definition of well-known networks in a commercial sense.