They just got back to me with a "Pyramid Pilot Questionnaire".

Godspeed.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tfr/1180697550.html

How long did it take you to get a response? I e-mailed them yesterday, but figured they weren't in for the holiday. I've been considering making a road trip to NYC, and this would be a great incentive to do so.

ETA: How long is the questionaire? We're not talking Duel-status, are we?

/And there's White Castle
//Will not start another fast food hijack

I almost want to do it...but considering the last debacle I had with Embassy Row, I don't know if I should.

(Chain Reaction and all...)

I'm certainly up for a bit of travel if they don't have any multiple show in a time frame restrictions.

/With my luck, the revival on CBS will lead me to play with Phil Keoghan.
//Maybe he's better with complete sentences and pointing at things?

I signed up the day the posting went up. I immediately got the "questionaire" and sent it in. I haven't heard anything back since, but I hope there's something there.

Someone posted on Buzzerblog that runthroughs take place next week in Embassy Row's SoHo office. The Craigslist posting does mention living in the Tri-State area, so I'm willing to hold out for actual tryouts (keeping fingers crossed).

/Next week is kinda short notice for me so it's all good...

It may just me be, but if The New New $25,000 Pyramid is picked up for series, it seems like it will, like the original run, be recorded in New York City (since all the tryouts/runthroughs are held there, and the production company has its offices there).

If only we could get the type of audience the old NY Pyramid had...what an experience that must have been.

Has anyone gotten any word back yet after sending their application?

"Door", your email is private so I'll ask you here - any way you can send me the application? Don't worry, I'm not going to send it in, I just want to see how odd and lengthy it is compared to the one I did for MDP.

Not a problem! Check your inbox. ;)

Thanks bud! :) Yeah, mine for MDP was no less than four pages.

People clapping sounds the same, whether they're in New York or Los Angeles.

Still, it's been nice to have some games migrate back to the East Coast. The challenge here might be celebrity availability -- maybe they can collar 'em after they've been on Letterman or something.

Some thoughts that occurred to me on that matter:

• sportscasters covering NY teams
• news folk and talking heads
• actors doing location shots for shows set in NY
• In the early days, they had a lot of people whose primary claim to fame was Broadway. Nowadays a hit show doesn't get you much name recognition, but a lot of people are doing theatre when they already have the name recognition. I'd love to see Nathan Lane.

Would be a great promotion op for The Early Show (that thing's still on?!). Perhaps Julie Chen vs. Dave Price? Put down the blunt objects, just a suggestion. ;-)

30 Rock and the ABC soaps tape in NYC, so although the shows are on the rival nets, you could get the actors. Honestly, all the NY celebs I can think of work for the rivals.

None blunter! ;-)

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Hi DoorNumberFour !

I'm very excited about the possibility of Pyramid returning home to NYC. I wish Mr. Davies and everyone at Embassy Row, all the very best of luck with the Pyramid Pilot.

I attended dozens of Pyramid tapings in NYC, as well as many other NYC based Game Shows. I attended a handful of tapings when Pyramid was on CBS, at the Ed Sullivan Theater. The bulk of my Pyramid experiences were at ABC's TV-15 Elysee Theater. It was a wonderful experience, and I will never forget my Game Show days.

Though I always agree with Curt, and I feel he's an incredible Game Show expert.... I have to slightly disagree with his comment about NY vs LA audiences. As someone who has attended Game Show tapings on both coasts, I strongly feel that NY audiences were far more enthusiastic than LA audiences (with the excpeption of Audience Participation shows such as The Price is Right, or Let's Make a Deal, where enthusiasm can win you a car !). Often, the excitement at Pyramid tapings (especially when a contestant conquered the Pyramid) was like attending a Rock Concert ! I remember many instances where Dick Clark and Bob Clayton actually had to encourage the studio audience to settle down. For what it's worth, I personally heard Johnny Olson, Bob Stewart, and Art James say that NY audiences were always better than LA audiences.

A related tidbit.... shows taped in older facilities such as Elysee and Ed Sullivan, have a very special sound to them. As these facilities are former Theaters, and have balconies, they have far different accoustics than TV Production facilites such as the CBS Broadcast Center. I could always hear the difference when watching at home.

The ticketing site for the program has four taping dates scheduled and confirms that it will indeed be The $1,000,000 Pyramid. While I trust the show in Davies's hands, $1M, even at the end of a tournament, is still a LOT for daytime Pyramid.

I thought a $100,000 top prize would have worked...but a million? That's a bit out there.

It also doesn't say where they are taping (besides NYC). Any speculation? Kaufman-Astoria?

Hmmm...could it be the Sony Studios in NYC, where they did Grand Slam and GSN's Chain Reaction?

/I thought Tim Vincent should've been the perm host, having seen the pilot in-person awhile back. :)

Or maybe Kaufman Astoria Studios.

In which "THINGS THAT ARE ENSHRINED" will be the first Winner's Circle category.

Given how itchy game shows are to give away a mill these days, I wouldn't be surprised if "RED THINGS" is the TOP category.

/Exaggerating, of course, but you get my point.

Some personal wishes to see in this new show (aka: How I would run $1M Pyramid):
-WC: $25k on first try, $100k on second try; $1M tournament same as $100k tournament
-$10,000 for 21-21 game
-24/7: $2,400 for 7 out of 7 in round 1
-Mystery 7: Prize from $5,000-$12,500... that way cars can be included

I doubt it will be Sony, as this is a Pilot for CBS, and the Sony stage is very small. I'm thinking either the CBS Broadcast Center or Kaufman Astoria Studios. I'd love to see it tape at the Ed Sullivan Theater, to bring Pyramid back to it's roots, but David Letterman may not be thrilled about that idea.

On another note, I noticed the Dating Game Pilot is **ALSO** being taped in NYC, and the Pilot will shoot on 6/24. With the handful of shows already taping there, it looks like NYC Game Show Production is on the comeback ! Now, if we can only get the MoneyMaze Pilot to shoot in NYC, we'd be all set :)

I cant wait to hear more about what Hosts are being considered for both shows. From the Ticket website, it looks like there will be 4 Pyramid tapings, and each taping has a blank for the Hosts name. I'm wondering if they will be shooting 4 episodes with different formats and/or Hosts.

Fixed that for you

And to think Jon Lovitz, as the Tommy Flanagan, the pathologcial liar, came up with it as a joke.

"I won it on the fif-, hun-, uh, Million Dollar Pyramid. Yeah, that's it!"

A million in DAYTIME? What, are they putting the fourth row back in?

Well, they offer a million on WWTBAM. They seldom give it away, though. Maybe they could play it the same as always with the addendum that the top player could win the mil by answering the "Riddle of the Sphinx," which would be one of those old "Super Jackpot" riddles made impossible to get.

NYC game show production revivals...if only there was a modern day Bob Clayton....

There's Alan Kalter.

I'm a bit turned off by the $1 million concept, but it is what it is.

If this goes as tournament mode, just don't make it anticlimactic like Donnymid. Have the contestants earn their big money...would be great to see this recorded at the Sullivan Theater, but then I remembered that Michael Davies loves his audience in the round sets. ;-)

I guess its a sign of the times (still) that they're going for $1 Million, but its still a turnoff. I was expecting a $100,000 payoff in tournament play myself.

The one thing that I am hoping for is the judging to be consistent and the celebrities to play more like Cullen, Cook, Lawrence, and Polic the II this time around. One can only hope.

I tried to get tickets, but the site says I need to submit a photo. There was a time when they didn't care what you looked like to sit in the audience. Hopefully I can get the tickets somehow, since I live in the NYC area.

Perhaps to confirm it's you? Not sure, but that's the first thing I thought of.

/Unless you have to now be pretty enough to simply sit on camera. :-P

I would have been okay with a $250,000 tournament myself.

There, fixed that for you.

I tried to set this up last night and each time I tried to submit a jpg, being 2 mb, it told me the pic must be in jpg file only. Gee, why didn't I think of that! So, I think there was something wrong with the site last night.

It looks to be a website mostly used for casting purposes, so the picture is probably for that. I figure they didn't plan on using their system for people who want tickets and yet don't want to be cast on "Real World / Road Rules Challenge".

$1 Million for the new daytime Pyramid? If they want to offer that much money, they should air the new version in syndication, not on CBS Daytime. $100,000 would be a more suitable top prize for daytime.

Does anyone have any confirmation whether the $1M prize will be given out as a tournament purse or a money ladder-ish progression? If it is a tournament, they should really consider doing a three-stage thing: have three tournaments within the year for $100K, with the three winners of each tournament qualifying for the grand final at the end of the season.

Wishful thinking, I know, and maybe a bit too complicated for a casual audience to grasp, but it's a thought.

Nope, still speculation. We wouldn't have even known it was the $1M Pyramid if it hadn't been posted on the audience site. But Alex Davis will be at one of the tapings, so I'm sure we'll get some good info.

The 3-stage thing regarding the tournaments sounds good in theory, but how far apart are you gonna do this? Probably 6-8 week cycles is the best possible time frame since most of the 80's tournaments usually lasted close to 2 weeks on average.

As for the $1M prize, it's much too expensive for network daytime unless CBS did away with its winnings cap. We'll see what comes out this weekend.

I look at it this way, regarding the point of budget: Every 26 weeks or so, a certain show gives away $1 million to survive being stranded in a desolate location and what's partly for staged circumstances.

If CBS does the same for a daytime game show tournament, what's the difference?

Now - one (or more) will say, "But it's the daytime, the ratings are different!" True, but aren't the production costs as well? If you can splurge for a million every quarter and be under budget (vs. a soap's budget), I don't see a problem. If it is, then ok - there's a bigger issue there.

This is something I wanted to see on Clark's 100K, but in the second season. Bring back the winners of the first six or eight ToC's. Narrow that down to three or four who would play a normal tournament. For a network version, I'd do it like this:

• The first ($100K) ToC starts the Monday of November sweeps. The show would debut eight weeks prior.
• Two more tourneys have eight weeks +/- of actual qualifying time, but reruns pad the schedule.
• The third $100K ToC begins the first day of May sweeps. The winner joins the other two on the very next show for a $1,000,000 ToC that's played the same way.

If there's a second season, figure out which sweeps period benefits the most from the $1MT and schedule other $100KT's accordingly. (Future $1MT's could start with four, six or eight $100K winners and have elimination games.)

I was thinking along the very same lines. My first idea was to have eight qualify for the grand final. But I don't think there are enough weeks in a season to get that many (or the cycles would have to be ultra-short, like five weeks each).

I think you can make six work. Here's how. Each cycle would be seven weeks long. For the first six, you play the regular 10K/25K game. Most WC money stays on as champion. After six weeks, the top three MONEY WINNERS (including front-game bonuses) advance to the $100K tournament.

The top three play off in the usual way for the $100K (no bonuses here), with the top two getting first crack on Monday.

Now, at the end of 42 weeks, we have six $100K winners. The top two money winners (including WC money won in their 100K week) get a bye. The other four go into a very cut-throat quarterfinal on the Monday of $1M week. It's a one-GAME (not one-day) playoff. You have semifinals on Tuesday and Wednesday. (On these days, each WC is worth $10K) The final starts Thursday, with each WC being worth a possible million.

OK -- what if each semifinalist gets a $10K win? Do they come back for another day or do you use total front-game points as a tiebreaker?

But getting all six isn't enough to win the million. It's got to be under a certain time limit (35 seconds? 40?). If you win in longer than that limit, you get $250,000.

OK, I probably lost most of you in the second or third paragraph. You can probably just reply with a simple 'WTC' -- Way Too Complex -- and I'll know what you mean. ;)

Don't need to, because you already know.

1) A one-game playoff sucks. Just sucks. There's no reason not to make it a full day. The world will not come to a screeching halt if it takes four days to come down to two people, especially for a million bucks. (But I like the bye into the second round.) It's gonna start on an odd day anyhow, since there is no guarantee that the preliminary tournaments will be over in exactly one week. (Unless you hack the tournament period such that tournaments always start on a Monday. But even then, that last one is very likely going to throw off the schedule.

2) Changing the WC payouts during the Big Tournament to a flat $10K is an unnecessary complication.

3) "But getting all six isn't enough to win the million" is a crappy copout. Bad enough you're naming your show for a top prize you only give away once a year. You're also making a $250K win feel like a loss.

As for breaking ties, simple: If one person makes it to the top of the pyramid, that's how much time the other gets should they make it, just like a front-game tiebreak. If they both get two-four-fifty-five-six-seven-hundred-and-fifty-dollars, well, then, I dunno. Play a traditional tiebreaker back at the desk? Bring 'em both back tomorrow? Play a third game the next day and straddle? I dunno. But I don't think you want to refer back to a number (aggregate front-game score) that your viewers have already long since forgotten. (And plus, what if that's a tie? I suppose you could do the math on who got their points in the least amount of time and be reasonably certain that won't tie, but now you're getting WAAAAAAY too deep into numbers people don't care about.)

The basic problem, of course, is that ONE MEEEEELION DOLLARS is too big of a number to resolve with a simple coin toss. And I bet you the people banding that number about at Embassy Row aren't even thinking about that.

My only problem it that its 1 Million dollars. It's too much to give away every sweeps period, but then you have people wondering when they give away their top prize. If it's at the end of the season, then you have people who, after 6 weeks of watching, are only going to tune in sporadically until the Million Dollar Deathmatch © . Jeopardy! gives away $250,000 in their yearly ToC, but it's not called $250,000 Jeopardy!, so people aren't looking and waiting to see when the tourney jumps off.If you have to give away the $1 Million at the end of the season, just take your 12 fastest Pyramid times, (or money winners, whichever you prefer) and play single elimination until you get three, and then play Pyramid Tourney style.

IMHO, if you make the tournament more than two tiered (i.e. three $100K tourney winners come back to play for a mil) it makes the whole process seem drawn out- which reminds me of Jeopardy!'s Ultimate ToC- halfway through, I just stopped paying attention, and started counting down the days til the three day final.

If I had to give away seven figures, I'd do a ladder system and make them earn the money by beating the Winner's Circle 5-7 times (kinda like the 2001 computer game). Otherwise, I'd just name it The $100K/$250K Pyramid and play it normally, which then allows you to give out your top prize 4-6 times a year without contracting MO MONEY syndrome. It's Pyramid. As long as the game is executed correctly, I don't care if they give out $7.2 trillion or $392.67 at the end.

I tried to focus, but I fear I'm all over the place with this post. Sorry.

I will be very surprised if the million dollars is a guaranteed-to-be-awarded prize. With the exception of Jeopardy!'s Ultimate Tournament of Champions and Oprah Winfrey's big car giveaway, I can't think of any instances in daytime/syndication where there was a guaranteed seven-digit payout. Especially with a "new" show, I can't imagine a way they'd be able to promise that much prize money. I predict it will be either a supplemental bonus round or (most likely) a money ladder.

This is the problem I have with the format. A money ladder turns this into Million Dollar Password. A tournament mode could get way too complicated. Honestly, why not just make it as simple as possible?...

REGULAR-SEASON GAMES: $10,000/25,000

Fastest three times come back for the round-robin tournament.

TOURMANENT: If they insist on making this a million-dollar top prize, have the contestant win both Winner's Circles (one of the only good ideas Donnymid had, except make it play out until someone wins). The first WC is worth $25,000, winning both is worth $1,000,000. However, you run into a bit of an anticlimactic flaw. That's one hell of a jump to make, however, increasing the amount of money won for winning "just" one Winner's Circle (say, $50,000) doesn't sit right with me either.

For this to be a daytime game show, I have no problem with $10,000/25,000 and a $100,000 tournament. But what's done is done now...

How to make the million rare but always winnable, as it is on WWTBAM:

(Assume that we're still talking about two players for two games per day.) To win the million, you must win both WC's and have a perfect score in both main games, excluding tie-breaker rounds.

Which means you'd have to play out every game to completion, instead of win-by-one, and now your front game is anticlimactic AND you're wasting precious time. Pass.