The Floor - General Discussion

[TVMovieBuff]

If I were a contestant I would have no strategy. Wen the randmizer picked me, I would go for smeone with a category I thought was fun. If someone challenged me, I would do the best I could. 

[MrAtoz]

10 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Marvel was also a good category for me. I would’ve gotten Grandmaster and Collector mixed up, though. I don’t know how to feel about that one guy insisting on going with proper names for the characters.

I haven't read comic books for a long time, but when I occasionally look into discussions about them now, that's a change that I notice. Fans, and even the characters themselves, seem much more likely these days to use real names rather than code names. That's true of both major companies, Marvel and DC.

So other heroes don't call him Spider-Man. They call him Peter. They call Iron Man Tony, they call Captain America Steve, and so forth. Same at DC. He's not Superman, he's Clark. He's not Batman, he's Bruce. She's not Wonder Woman, she's Diana. And a lot of fans follow suit.

Even Dr. Doom is likely to be called Victor these days.

[iMonrey]

Hotels & Motels - I was terrible at this. I wonder if Red Roof Inn would have eventually come up. That's about the only one I would have known other than Embassy Suites.

Trees - I was terrible at this one too.

Fortune 500 - I knew maybe half of these.

The Crown - I've been waiting for this category all season long. I knew every single one of them - EXCEPT I did not recognize Westminster Abbey. 

Weddings - another easy category, I knew almost all of them.

Poetry - much easier than I thought it would be. But so are a lot of these "fill in the blank" duels. You have a decent shot at guessing.

Endangered Animals - wow, judging on this was REALLY lax. They got credit for saying the animal name without having to be specific about what kind.

Boy Bands - nope. Don't know any, except The Monkees. Cosplay - Surprisingly, I knew about half of these.

And of course? The final category is International Foods. And one of the players is a chef. That seems . . . lucky. 

Fun show to play along with. Look forward to more.

[Taeolas]

57 minutes ago, TVMovieBuff said:

If I were a contestant I would have no strategy. Wen the randmizer picked me, I would go for smeone with a category I thought was fun. If someone challenged me, I would do the best I could. 

 

I've said it before, but my strategy is to go for the Time Boost. Those extra 5 seconds are critical. 

Besides that, I would also go for an edge. My ideal area would be to have a small block of territory, with no single space tiles next to me. A corner or edge block would be ideal. Having no (or few) single space  tiles near me is important, as it makes sure I won't be a randomizer target. 

Getting a topic people tend to be scared of (A science or math topic seems to be scariest for most people) also helps too. 

[Gemma Violet]

10 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

Under Boy Bands, the photo of The Monkees was not The Monkees.  It was four lookalikes (and I use that term loosely) who were dressed as The Monkees.

Quoting myself to say I read on Facebook that the photo was actually of four actors who played The Monkees in a movie on VH1.  Very sloppy of the show to include that inaccurate photo.

[MrAtoz]

I kind of remember that movie! I thought the picture of the Monkees looked a little off.

And I'm not sure I'd call the Monkees a "boy band," exactly. I mean, sure, they were all boys. But they didn't have the elaborate on stage choreography and vocal harmonies that I associate with boy bands. By that standard, almost any band consisting of only males qualifies. Were the Beatles a boy band? The Rolling Stones? The Who? Pink Floyd? Black Sabbath?

[gonzosgirrl]

10 hours ago, Gemma Violet said:

Quoting myself to say I read on Facebook that the photo was actually of four actors who played The Monkees in a movie on VH1.  Very sloppy of the show to include that inaccurate photo.

And possibly the least recognizable photo of George Michael (Wham!) ever taken. I had to replay to convince myself it was actually him.

[Lantern7]

What is the filming schedule? Is it one episode per day, straight to the end? Are there days off between filming? I originally thought the players would be sequestered, cut off from any way to study each other's categories, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I think doing an entire season in one day is feasible, but it would be brutal to watch. It would have to take at least half of a day, and anyone that dresses anything other than casual would be really uncomfortable standing for hours at a time.

[Taeolas]

I believe others have said they've seen reports that they tend to film 2 eps a day. 

 

I would assume they do one ep, then do a lunch break/extended break to give people a chance to bone up on their new categories (either ones they inherited or ones that are suddenly near them). Then they film the second ep.

 

Then they get the night for dinner, socializing and more study time. 

 

If you pay attention in game, you'll often here people commenting on how they've been reading up on this category or otherwise preparing, so it's at least 1 ep a day, and I can't imagine it being fair if they squeezed too many eps in a single day since some eps people wouldn't have preptime from the previous one, while others they would. (A night of cramming vs an afternoon of cramming isn't really fair either but probably a good compromise to fit filming schedules.)

 

That would let them get the full season filmed in about a week. (10-12 eps, done in 5-6 days)

[gonzosgirrl]

This is probably my favourite of the recent spate of new game shows (would've said The 1% Club until they killed it for me with the host replacement.) That said, I found this season finale underwhelming. 

I realize it's the nature of the game that people can come out of nowhere to win, but these two finalists? I barely recalled the chef guy, and honestly wondered where the other guy came from. I like that they make it two out of three to win, but International Foods, when one of them is a chef? I'm sure that's probably why Rob pointed out that all the contestants were aware this would be the tie-break category if it came down to that - to attempt to head off exactly this reaction.

[iMonrey]

1 hour ago, gonzosgirrl said:

I realize it's the nature of the game that people can come out of nowhere to win, but these two finalists? I barely recalled the chef guy, and honestly wondered where the other guy came from.

Steven first dueled on Episode 3. His original category, appropriately enough, was TV chefs. He was the challenger chosen by the randomizer. He won and went back to the floor.

In Episode 6 he was chosen by Clarione and beat her, inheriting her category of Boy Bands. He then chose to go back to the floor and stayed there until this episode, where he was one of two left standing.

Andrew first played in Episode 5. His original category was mythical creatures. He was chosen by Damon and won, inheriting his category of puppets. He then went back to the floor.

He next played in Episode 9, picked by Kevin. He beat him and inherited Endangered Animals then went back to the floor. So he, too, played twice until the final episode.

Maybe it feels like someone who played over a dozen duels like Brian is more "deserving" to win than someone who only played a couple of them, but that's kind of the nature of the game, to be last man standing. Not person who plays the most. It's not cumulative that way. And anyway, Brian cleaned up nicely just by having the most floor space over and over and winning the $20K more than once. So there is some consolation for "big" players that don't make it to the end.

It seems like the winning strategy is to stay under the radar and keep going back to the floor.

Edited April 25 by iMonrey

[Blip]

In the Endangered Animals category, after a number of fairly obvious animals, here are the animals Andrew was given to finish:

woodpecker, snake, beetle, dog, elephant, tiger

Here is what David was shown during that time:

wolverine, caiman, wombat, stork, koala, tortoise, hyena, rhinoceros, oryx

Normally, they get more difficult near the end, but the ones Andrew got were quite easy compared to David's.  It really helped that they only had to roughly get the type of animal instead of giving its full name.

That was odd that if Andrew won the money, he said he would use it to help revitalize the animation industry, even though he said he was recently homeless. Does he realize that he has to pay taxes and support himself, and that the prize is $250k not $250 million or billion?

[GameJayAnalysis]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

It seems like the winning strategy is to stay under the radar and keep going back to the floor.

The game is more than trivia. Andrew's strategy was to put himself behind big targets.

[ljenkins782]

On 4/24/2025 at 10:26 PM, gonzosgirrl said:

And possibly the least recognizable photo of George Michael (Wham!) ever taken. I had to replay to convince myself it was actually him.

YES! I was like, how did they locate the single ugliest photo George Michael has ever, ever taken? Not to mention that Wham! doesn't exactly fit the category of "boy band", but if George Michael had been recognizable, it could have been a gimme. 

I was a bit underwhelmed by the finale, but I guess the ending explains why chef Steven and curly-haired guy whose name I never learned were shown gabbing so much from the floor. 

[Shrek]

On 4/24/2025 at 10:15 AM, MrAtoz said:

I kind of remember that movie! I thought the picture of the Monkees looked a little off.

And I'm not sure I'd call the Monkees a "boy band," exactly. I mean, sure, they were all boys. But they didn't have the elaborate on stage choreography and vocal harmonies that I associate with boy bands. By that standard, almost any band consisting of only males qualifies. Were the Beatles a boy band? The Rolling Stones? The Who? Pink Floyd? Black Sabbath?

Surely the Beatles are the original boy band. 

[SoMuchTV]

59 minutes ago, Shrek said:

Surely the Beatles are the original boy band. 

I don't know if there's an "official" definition, but I've always thought of a "boy band" as one that was put together by an outside producer, rather than musicians coming together organically.  Which is why I'd say the Monkees would qualify (but not people playing the Monkees!  I totally didn't catch that!)

[Taeolas]

His strategy to hide in the corner is basically what my strategy would be. Get a protectable section of territory, ideally with no randomizer pickable targets next to me, and maybe with a category that would scare people away, and then sit on it. If you can hide behind scarier categories that's a bonus. Having the Time boost is extra security if you can secure it. 

 

All in all, I like how this season played out. Everyone was picked before the final ep so everyone on the floor had been tested at least once. 

 

I also like that we got an answer for what the Tie-breaker category would be. We have now seen all of the Categories that have ever been on The Floor. 

 

I do wonder what the one next season would be. I think they should pick it from the first 10 or 15 categories of this season, as long as the contestants didn't have them before. That way everyone is familiar with them, but wouldn't necessarily be experienced with them. Before the final ep, the contestants are given a set of 5 topics the final one might be picked from so they can prepare without knowing.