The Floor - General Discussion

[Rickster]

45 minutes ago, illdoc said:

Once you've eliminated the generic "planet", wouldn't you start naming planets (after eliminating "Earth", "Jupiter" (big red spot missing), and "Saturn" (no rings)), figuring it's got to be one of them, even if you didn't recognize the planet? He did it twice (missing both Venus and Neptune)! I'm sure you can name 5 planets (6 if you count Pluto) in less than 3 seconds, especially if you claim you know all the planets.

Yes, but funny things can happen under stress.

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, Shrek said:

They might just be using the more commonly recognized version of the bird, there have been lots of pictures only an American would know, the wife knows some & I've never seen them or heard of them so I doubt there are any shenanigans going on.

I would be surprised if most North Americans would consider the European Robin the most commonly recognized version of the bird. I didn't think it was shenanigans as much as perhaps ignorance -- if the production team has no idea that the two robins are completely different unrelated birds and just take a picture labelled robin I guess it doesn't matter whether they [the production team] were European or USian. Knowing it's an Endemol show I knew Europeans were in the mix somewhere.

Edited February 7 by SomeTameGazelle
Clarification

[rr2911]

11 hours ago, KeithJ said:

I really like this show but I think the contestants have to be reading from a script or coached in their interviews.  There is no way this game found the 81 most arrogant people on Earth.

Like other game shows, they probably interview potential contestants before choosing.  They most likely want fun individuals with personalities.  They don't want nervous quiet people.  Lol....I could never be on that show!

[Zoe]

On 2/7/2024 at 4:51 AM, Rickster said:

Last night they showed a strange orange colored picture of Venus, which seemed purposely inserted to fool a contestant, who guessed Mars.

I didn't find it so odd. I was screaming at my TV the whole time. 

Venus. Venus! VENUS!!! 

(And then "Mer-wait, NEPTUNE!!!!" Damn Sailor Moon for making me think blue = Mercury)

[ketchuplover]

Poor Farrah Fawcett. Died on MJ's death day & forgotten on this show :(

[Zoe]

Ohhhhh noooo!!! Came down to one second!

[KeithJ]

10 hours ago, ketchuplover said:

Poor Farrah Fawcett. Died on MJ's death day & forgotten on this show :(

I just don't see how miss cowboy boots didn't win that round.  It seemed like her opponent actually forgot it was her turn and ran off like 15-20 seconds of her time.

[Lovecat]

2 hours ago, KeithJ said:

I just don't see how miss cowboy boots didn't win that round.  It seemed like her opponent actually forgot it was her turn and ran off like 15-20 seconds of her time.

I thought the same.  I know there are screens that the contestants see, at either side of the stage, but it looked like she was just staring at Miss Cowboy Boots expectantly, not having any sort of mental struggle to summon the name "Farrah Fawcett."  [Side note:  Rob's "Even *I* had that haircut at one time!" with the accompanying photo had me rolling.]

I was super glad to see Miss Cowboy Boots go, though.  She was working my last nerve.

[mlp]

5 hours ago, KeithJ said:

It seemed like her opponent actually forgot it was her turn and ran off like 15-20 seconds of her time.

That was odd.  I had the feeling that it was some kind of risky strategy and she was doing it on purpose.  I'm not sure why I thought that though, maybe because she didn't seem distressed by her long pause.  Whatever, I was glad she won that round.  I didn't like the cowgirl at all.

I'm going to miss this show when it's over.  I've been looking forward to it every week.  

 

[Taeolas]

Some real close rounds this week. And some challenging categories. Granted I don't know celebrities at all so I was stumped wiht a lot of them. (And I would've been stumped by Farrah Fawcett; but most of those hairstyles stumped me).  I'm better with the more general categories; I named 90% of the Animal, BBQ and fruit categories for example. 

 

I think next week will be the ep they mistakenly aired earlier, and in 2 weeks we'll get the 2 hour finale. 

[Diana Berry]

On 2/14/2024 at 12:59 PM, Lovecat said:

I thought the same.  I know there are screens that the contestants see, at either side of the stage, but it looked like she was just staring at Miss Cowboy Boots expectantly, not having any sort of mental struggle to summon the name "Farrah Fawcett."  [Side note:  Rob's "Even *I* had that haircut at one time!" with the accompanying photo had me rolling.]

I was super glad to see Miss Cowboy Boots go, though.  She was working my last nerve.

I was wondering if it wasn’t strategy to run the clock on the FF question.  Nothing else was working on cowgirl.  I’m sure she’s a nice person but glad someone got a chance.  To me , she’s was the most obnoxious so far.

im really liking the show hope it gets picked up for another season. 

Edited February 18 by Diana Berry

[Zoe]

Man, the ADR has been so overdone the last few weeks. 

[retired watcher]

Oh man Nick should have gotten something but that's the nature of the game.

Edited February 21 by retired watcher

[mlp]

1 hour ago, Zoe said:

Man, the ADR has been so overdone the last few weeks. 

What is ADR?

I was hoping Nick would move on because I liked him but sports movies was a killer IMO.  I wouldn't have known a single one.  I was doing great on the other categories tonight but every time sports comes up...........doom.  

I wonder why they decided to have a two hour finale instead of going another week.  I hate to see the show end.

[Zoe]

13 minutes ago, mlp said:

What is ADR?

It's when they go in after the fact and re-record dialogue. It tends to be obvious in reality shows because the characteristics of the audio suddenly change and the camera moves off the speaker.

Gordon Ramsay shows are notorious for it. 

[HerkyJerky]

I'm confused! Why when Nick (the professor) beat the other guy in the most exciting duel of the night, historical headlines, didn't he take other his category of headlines and still was stuck with kitchen items?

[mlp]

59 minutes ago, Zoe said:

t's when they go in after the fact and re-record dialogue. It tends to be obvious in reality shows because the characteristics of the audio suddenly change and the camera moves off the speaker.

Thanks!  I don't usually notice things like that.  I'll have to pay more attention.

[Taeolas]

So what sort of strategies would people be thinking of for this game?

There are a lot of factors to consider, but I think this is what I'd often do.

 

1. If it's early in the night, and I'm picked and have to go on the attack, I'll pick some of the smaller categories around me that I know well. I wouldn't necessarily go for a whale unless I had to. If you get a big area too soon, then people later on will have an advantage. 

2. If I'm defending a big territory, and I'm comfortable with the category, I'm going back to the floor to let someone come after me. 

3. If I'm NOT comfortable with the category, then I might as well stay on the attack, going after the categories I am familiar with and going for the nightly prize. 

4. Later on in the night, when there are only a round or two left, if I'm picked, I'm going after the whale if I can, even if I'm not strong in the category. That's the time to make the move to try and get the prize. But I would only go after a whale on the 6/7 or 8th round of the night so I don't have to defend as much hopefully. 

 

Any other tactics people might do? 

[KeithJ]

I'm starting to wonder if a person at the very end is only going to have to win a single duel to win the $250k.  There are still a lot of single squares left.

[Zoe]

18 hours ago, HerkyJerky said:

I'm confused! Why when Nick (the professor) beat the other guy in the most exciting duel of the night, historical headlines, didn't he take other his category of headlines and still was stuck with kitchen items?

The game is structured so that a category won't get repeated. The winner of the duel takes over the category that didn't get played. 

This way you won't have a situation where someone plays conservatively and only ever has to participate in their expert category. 

[Kjharrison]

Nick really needs to stop humping the podium. It’s incredibly distracting! 

[CAM]

Did anyone else call foul on the Lewis & Clark historical headline answer being the Oregon Trail?

[Zoe]

4 hours ago, Kjharrison said:

Nick really needs to stop humping the podium. It’s incredibly distracting! 

I didn't want to be the one to say it, but so much this! I was relieved when he lost lol

[peachmangosteen]

22 hours ago, KeithJ said:

I'm starting to wonder if a person at the very end is only going to have to win a single duel to win the $250k.  There are still a lot of single squares left.

I think that's going to happen, too. Which is kinda funny lol.

[Taeolas]

It's a viable strategy, to hope you get to the end without being picked. if that's your strategy, I'd try to pick a somewhat obscure category that most wouldn't want to tackle, and hope the randomizer doesn't pick me. 

Of course the contestants do get study time between tapings, so as the category pool shrinks, they're going to be studying your subjects too. 

Then when it's down to you vs the 80-square Whale, then either they will have to do both categories, or the Whale will have to decide which topic to challenge on (and the other topic will be left unused). So it could come down to picking between a topic the Whale inherits or challenging someone's expert topic. 

[KeithJ]

21 minutes ago, Taeolas said:

Of course the contestants do get study time between tapings, so as the category pool shrinks, they're going to be studying your subjects too.

I was wondering about this.  I think a couple mentioned they were able to study but isn't everyone still wearing the same clothes?  How much time is in between tapings?  I know at least the guy in the pink suit hasn't changed.

Edited February 22 by KeithJ

[peachmangosteen]

I assume they just make them wear the same thing to every taping so they can use any footage they want at any time. They do that on a lot of shows lately.

[margol29]

I forget the name of the category, but it was the photos of famous people in the past. I call foul on the drawing of Confucius. He lived before photography. No one knows what he looked like. The guy won anyway, but I think that was wrong to use that drawing.

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, margol29 said:

but I think that was wrong to use that drawing

Actually, I knew it right away, since that is the standard picture (ie the one that's always used) of Confucius.

[mlp]

2 hours ago, margol29 said:

I call foul on the drawing of Confucius. He lived before photography. No one knows what he looked like. The guy won anyway, but I think that was wrong to use that drawing.

I understand your point but I can't agree.  There are many people who lived before photography who are recognizable because of paintings or even stylized images that have become common - George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Jesus, Henry VIII and so on.

[Shrek]

25 minutes ago, mlp said:

I understand your point but I can't agree.  There are many people who lived before photography who are recognizable because of paintings or even stylized images that have become common - George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Jesus, Henry VIII and so on.

You were doing okay until you got to Jesus, you got back on track though. 

[Taeolas]

IIRC, there were a number of painting images of famous people in that set, not just Confucius. Ben Franklin and Willy Shakespeare among others (including a few I didn't recognize even the name of).

If someone showed me a drawing of an old-style Chinese man and said they were famous, Confuscius or Sun Tzu are probably the two I'd guess, and then be stumped after that. 

[Nerfect Drifty]

Been an addictive show and I wish I had remembered to post here before the night before the finale.  Last week there were two huge swaths of territory on the board: the one on the left that kept changing hands and the one on the right.  I kept wanting to see a challenge between the two big patches so we could get that satisfying huge light-up and someone controlling half the board.  Of course that's not a good idea for the player because it gets harder to hold and jeopardizes the $20,000 nightly prize.

At one point there will be only two people left so I wonder how that duel will go.  It seems anticlimactic to just have it come down to a single duel.  I'm hoping there will be special rules, like a best 2 out of 3 thing.

[SoMuchTV]

Every time Rob Lowe says “xyz has nnn pieces of territory” I wonder why they didn’t just lay it out as a grid of squares, and save him several syllables per player. 

Edited February 28 by SoMuchTV

[Zoe]

Man, he handed that category to her.

[Lantern7]

What are the ratings for this show? I wouldn't mind a second season. It's probably for the best if I don't appear on it, though. The anticipation of getting called up would probably destroy me.

Potential tweak: I think a reward should be given for most overall duels won. It would kinda/sorta distract from someone winning $250K after winning 3-4 times.

Seriously, this was a fun show. You had new heroes every week, and you couldn't get too attached to anyone.

[Gemma Violet]

I just looked on Wikipedia for the ratings and it looks like the audience of about 2.5 million held steady throughout the season.  I also hope we get a second season.  It's a really fun show.

BTW, speaking of Wikipedia, they actually list all the contestants and every bit of information you could imagine, including who played/won each category:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Floor_(American_game_show)

Edited February 28 by Gemma Violet

[mlp]

I was hoping one of the men who were doing so well would win and I didn't care for the woman who won but, overall, I loved the show and hope there's another season.  I was afraid the last guy standing doomed himself when he chose fashion designers.  I was hoping he'd choose foreign foods but that was my preference not his.  I did understand his logic though.   

I liked Rob Lowe as the host and I especially liked that there was a minimum of nonsense and audience screaming.  The behind the scenes preparations for this show must be interesting.  They must have a large committee that comes up with all those responses in all those categories.

Thanks for the Wikipedia link, Gemma Violet.  I plan to look through it tomorrow when it's not so late here.

 

Edited February 28 by mlp
Correct typo

[QQQQ]

Was the final category fashion icons or fashion designers? 

I wonder how much the game would be impacted by changing the pass penalty from 3-seconds to 2-seconds. So often, it seemed like there was no coming back after 2 passes. 

Edited February 28 by QQQQ

[Nerfect Drifty]

The ending felt weirdly anticlimactic because it came down to one final duel, and the amount of territory was so lopsided.  I had thought it would come down to something like 40 and 60 or something, but it was like 79 to 2.

I liked that it opened with a big duel between two guys with lots of territory.

[Pallida]

Being the nerd I am, I found the final episode fascinating because of the consequences of an inherited topic. I am bad with names but the guy stuck with fashion icons had several people touching him who would be chosen by the randomizer if he went back to the floor, including one who could only challenge him. That had to affect the decision to keep dueling. 
 

I am going to agree with the statement above about handing the win over by picking fashion icons instead of international foods. 

[mlp]

41 minutes ago, Pallida said:

I am going to agree with the statement above about handing the win over by picking fashion icons instead of international foods.

The thing is.............. Most people probably know more about international foods than they think they do.  This show always started off with easier things and got harder so the first thing could have been something easy like sushi.  I think he would have had a much better chance if he'd chosen that category.  I recognized some of the names of the fashion icons but, except for Coco Chanel,  I had no idea what they looked like.  He was apparently in the same boat.

[Lantern7]

10 hours ago, Nerfect Drifty said:

The ending felt weirdly anticlimactic because it came down to one final duel, and the amount of territory was so lopsided.  I had thought it would come down to something like 40 and 60 or something, but it was like 79 to 2.

It was 78-3, I think. That raises a question: should someone with more territory get an advantage? Maybe more time on their clock?

I would have chosen International Foods over Fashion Icons.

[Taeolas]

He played correctly, but he really should have gone for International Foods, compared to a category he knew nothing about. As soon as he inherited Fashion Icons, he had to know he had to stay at the podium and he should have kept the tactic up to the end. 

Ultimately I am fine with how it ended, even if it means there was 1 dead category. The advantage to the person at the podium is to chose which of the final two they will take on which makes sense. Given how territory can change hands easily, basing anything on the amount of territory you control means nothing. (In this finale, if the Hobbies lady had won her round, she would have the most territory but only have done 1 face off)

That all said, I'm calling foul on the Snack food category. She called out "chips" when they were looking for "potato chips" and IMO that should have been accepted. Sure there are other types of chips out there (French Fries, as well as Tortilla chips) but most Americans will hear "chips" and think Lays basically. 

I wonder if that might have been a slight cultural faux-pas. This was actually filmed in Ireland apparently, so maybe the judge would have accepted "crisps" but didn't think "chips" was exact enough. 

[Lovecat]

I need to start using the phrase "Activate the Randomizer!" in casual conversation.

[susannot]

I enjoyed the show and hope it is renewed.  I wanted the hot rocket scientist to win.  Those muscular, bulging biceps!  (Faints.)  But I'm very happy with Jacquelyn's win.  I knew she would kill her opponent in Fashion Icon.  You only had to look at how the two of them were dressed.

The format of the show was exactly like squid games.  IOW, a gamer can win many times in a row only to be taken out by a contestant out of nowhere.  I'm glad at least that Jacquelyn had proven herself before to be smart and a winner.

[lilabennet]

After Jacquelyn decided to stop playing and go back to the floor she said something like waiting for people to come to her in her corner and I thought that was the exact right strategy.  I'm glad to see that the winner was someone who both played well in the head-to-heads but also had a good strategy.

[lh25]

On 2/29/2024 at 4:25 AM, Taeolas said:

That all said, I'm calling foul on the Snack food category. She called out "chips" when they were looking for "potato chips"

It seemed inconsistent to me, what they counted as a correct answer.  Sometimes there seemed to be a lot of leeway, sometimes they were really strict.  Across several categories, not just snacks.

[david gideon]

On 2/29/2024 at 2:03 PM, Lovecat said:

I need to start using the phrase "Activate the Randomizer!" in casual conversation.

I was hoping Rob would say, just once, 'The Randomizer is on the prowl', which would be a callback to 'Greed' Fox's first big-money primetime game show. Greed's Terminator would choose a contestant in a similar manner to the Randomizer, as Chuck Woolery would declare 'The Terminator is on the prowl...'.

[Gemma Violet]

22 hours ago, lh25 said:

It seemed inconsistent to me, what they counted as a correct answer.  Sometimes there seemed to be a lot of leeway, sometimes they were really strict.  Across several categories, not just snacks.

I noticed that as well, like sometimes they demanded first and last names of celebrities/historical figures, and other times, not.