Press Your Luck - General Discussion

[KeithJ]

They must be airing these out of order.

Last night's episode had a full studio audience and nothing they added for COVID was there (plexiglass between the contestants, hugging Elizabeth, etc).

 

[chitowngirl]

10 hours ago, KeithJ said:

They must be airing these out of order.

Last night's episode had a full studio audience and nothing they added for COVID was there (plexiglass between the contestants, hugging Elizabeth, etc).

 

The copyright at the end said 2020, so perhaps done just before shutdown

[853fisher]

This last episode must also have been taped before lockdown, the way the players were all hugging etc.  It's nice to see.  Some other shows. where they're 6 inches apart but clearly have been instructed not to touch, have just looked silly to me.

I've said in the past that I think this game harnesses some of the "personal sob story" energy of other reality shows without overdoing it, but I've come to realize this is dependent on how relatable / likable I find any given contestant.

I wasn't much interested in the loud cop whose dad was a cop and who, 15yrs later, still frames his relationship with his wife as "football player and cheerleader."  I don't care whether they diaper 2 or 3 kids.  I was rooting for the whammy.

[Maverick]

 I caught the second half of a rerun where the contestant won nothing in the main game.   How did they determine who went to the bonus round?  In the original series if they all Whammied out they all came back the next day.   There was some speculation about this scenario in the previous season so I'm curious how it ended up.

 I was surprised this show was coming back.  Other than Holey Moley, ABC hasn't had any of their normal programming.  CBS also seems to have nothing but reruns and no new shows.  I had heard Card Sharks and Match Game (and maybe some of their other reboots) had been cancelled and though maybe PYL had too.  Unfortunately it looks like Celebrity Family Feud is coming back.  I trade just about any of the other reboots for that one.  

[lambertman]

On 7/2/2022 at 6:11 PM, Maverick said:

 I caught the second half of a rerun where the contestant won nothing in the main game.   How did they determine who went to the bonus round?  In the original series if they all Whammied out they all came back the next day.   There was some speculation about this scenario in the previous season so I'm curious how it ended up.

here's how that happened (S3 E4 on Hulu) - for those that don't know, passed spins are mandatory until a player hits a whammy, then they can be passed:

C started second round with two whammies, promptly Whammied out

B started with two, picked up third, scored $4000 on her next spin then passed three spins to A, who had earned ten spins himself in question round.

A started with no whammies, picked up 1 whammy, took one more spin for $2000 and passed 11 spins to B

B got through all 11 spins unscathed, racks up $85,900, passes the 6 "+One Spins" she had earned during that turn to A

A got second whammy and passed three spins back to B

B got fourth whammy, A wins with $0 but <4 whammies

(just for the record, the 80s show played the same way. there was an ep where all three players "won" with $0 and came back the next day, but none of them had four whammies. On another, two players whammied out and the third was allowed to waive his final spins - or as they said, "pass them to Peter" - to end the game when he wished. )

---

by the way, season 4 started with a bang last night. There's now a news special scheduled next week, though, so the second ep will be on the 21st.

[Maverick]

 Thanks for the explanation.  I'd be pissed if I got through 11 spins straight and then still lost.  

[Taeolas]

Sounds like the main reason that happened is because "Whammying out" will zero out your spins, they don't go to anyone else. 

But even if they did automatically pass, you could still get a situation where the last player gets a whammy on their last spin, but they don't actually Whammy out, so they did legit win with 0$.

I do wonder what they would do if all 3 contestants DID actually Whammy out, since 4 Whammy's is explicitly a "You lose" situation. Do they have a booby prize available for them to play for? Or does the ep just get tossed into the Never Aired pile?

Curiously, I wondered what might happen if everyone lost on another show, The Chase, and had it happen a few weeks back. Turns out they do have a contingency plan in place for that situation, whereby the 3 contestants come back, pick one for the Final chase and it's one on one for 60k to split between them. But the Chase is also much more likely to end in an "Everyone loses" situation than PYL does. 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Taeolas

[lambertman]

On 7/8/2022 at 9:46 AM, lambertman said:

by the way, season 4 started with a bang last night. There's now a news special scheduled next week, though, so the second ep will be on the 21st.

and as of today, the news special is off, and new PYL is back on for this Thursday after all. 

[853fisher]

Thank y'all for helping to keep us in the loop.  This mode of scheduling drives me up the wall.  I'm a creature of habit - I'd rather have these shows consistently than maybe this week, maybe next week, maybe we'll take five weeks off just for giggles, please watch our special report...no!  If you tape 13 shows, show them on 13 consecutive Thursdays.  Harrumph.

[Taeolas]

Damn, Debbie was quite the prize magnet indeed. 

Normally with 2 bonus rounds to go and no Whammies, I would say she should push on. But she got 3 of her personal prizes, and the Manilow and Football packages were certainly something you would NOT want to risk going forward.  That was quite the show in the end in any case. 

[Diana Berry]

On 7/16/2022 at 9:41 PM, Taeolas said:

Damn, Debbie was quite the prize magnet indeed. 

Normally with 2 bonus rounds to go and no Whammies, I would say she should push on. But she got 3 of her personal prizes, and the Manilow and Football packages were certainly something you would NOT want to risk going forward.  That was quite the show in the end in any case. 

She was an awesome contestant 

[Carey]

To be honest, I'm not sure what I do (or if I'd be doing anything) if I had $486,000, but a minute later, I didn't have it

[lynxfx]

52 minutes ago, Carey said:

To be honest, I'm not sure what I do (or if I'd be doing anything) if I had $486,000, but a minute later, I didn't have it

Honestly he lucked out. Almost the entire bank was prizes which are all taxed as income. Had he walked he would owe almost $175k. Plus not many people have 3+ weeks of vacation they can take let alone all at once. His best bet was to try and pass 500k to get the additional ~500k in cash. Would have been cool to see though and glad he gave it a shot. 

His first screw up was passing 11 spins when he only had $2750. 

[KeithJ]

10 hours ago, lynxfx said:

His first screw up was passing 11 spins when he only had $2750. 

I don't think so. The object of the game is to get into the bonus round.  That $2750 is peanuts compared to what he can get in the bonus round.  How many more of those spins should he have taken?  Two, three, four, five?  And how many whammies would have have gotten on those?  Passing the 11 spins and making his opponent spin 11 times in a row without hitting a whammy was his best option.

As for the bonus round, ugh, talk about disappointing.  Yeah, I know the taxes on that stuff would have been huge but how do you not stop?  He went on about how badly his wife needs a car, how that trip was a once in a lifetime trip they could never do on their own, and he had won a few other personalized prizes as well.

The price for the north and south pole trips seemed really really high ($222k combined).  I couldn't find any ten day Galapagos cruises but I found some eight day ones and they range from $300 - $500 per person per day.  Elizabeth didn't say how many days the north pole trip was but those seem to be about $20k for a full cabin.

She never said how many people this trip was for did she?  The math just doesn't seem to add up.

A friend of mine is convinced the producers make back door deals with the contestants between rounds.  "Hey, it would be great TV if you risked it here.  If you win it all great, if not, we'll still give you half of your winnings". lol

Edited July 29, 2022 by KeithJ

[Carey]

I guess if he was compensated off the air, it's fair enough.  Of course, you have a super rich player playing the game, and he or she wouldn't care about being a dollar away and then losing everything.  Everyone else would feel sorry (except for those that wouldn't (care)), but if I'm in that spot and blow it, I'm like, "Awww man!  Oh well; it's just a gameshow."

On the other hand, I probably quit before the final segment, for the reason of looking sane.  I wouldn't want to come off as greedy, and at that point, the urge to get there is great but not worth it, given the circumstances.

Back to the front game for a second.  I agree with KeithJ because in this version of PYL, the bonus round is what counts.  On most shows, a scenario where two other players whammy out doesn't play out; it's not Zach's fault that happened.  Of course, if Richard had not whammied out it wouldn't have mattered if he had a total less than Richard.

Two things that may have resulted in the low winning score include Michaela's bad luck in the first round and Richard's bad luck in both rounds.  Say Richard doesn't whammy out and has a score of $35,000.  Zach has to keep spinning to gain the lead.  The other thing was Michaela passing her spins to Zach, who had a decent score.  IMO, I might not have answered any questions for more spins with 3 whammies; the 2000/lose a whammy was not a factor.

To lynxfx and the decision for Zach to stop earlier.  In hindsight it was the right move, but because of that, it was wrong to go for the Million since the front game total was $2,750.  Had it been North of $65,000, then no harm, no foul.  Though his wife may have been okay with it.

The prize-a-palooza square is nice, I think.  I believe the possibility of someone going from zero to half a million would be in play.   Not that losing is advised, but if you have little to nothing headed into the next round, things would get exciting if the luck plays out for someone

[lynxfx]

10 hours ago, KeithJ said:

don't think so. The object of the game is to get into the bonus round.  That $2750 is peanuts compared to what he can get in the bonus round.  How many more of those spins should he have taken?  Two, three, four, five?  And how many whammies would have have gotten on those?  Passing the 11 spins and making his opponent spin 11 times in a row without hitting a whammy was his best option.

I still disagree. 11 spins in this game is huge especially with only 1 whammy. I do agree that getting to the bonus is the goal but it isn't guaranteed money if you get there. We've seen plenty of people whammy out. The first half is guaranteed money. He could have taken 2 or 3 spins with very little risk and still have a large amount to pass. 

So an aside I researched a bit on taxes for trips. Turns out a lot of trips are estimated value. After going on the trip you can get the actual retail value and try to get a lower tax on it. With how pricey those Pole trips were I bet there would be a decent chance that you get it cheaper. I'm more suspicious of the $9k value for costco hot dogs and chicken for 5 years.

[Taeolas]

Remember, of all the gameshows on the air, historically PYL is one of the ones that had a major scandal in the past and survived. Granted, it's scandal was because the PYL board wasn't sufficiently randomized and someone figured out the timing to dodge whammies; but it was a scandal anyways. 

So I doubt the producers or anyone are giving any sort of advice on the sly to the contestants one way or another. Even Elizabeth seems to be careful to only say what was done and not what they SHOULD do normally (or to only comment after the decision is locked in). 

The opening round prizes and money doesn't count against the 500k target for the million. In one fo the early seasons I think someone got 480k in the final bonus, and were sitting on like 25k from the first round; but that money didn't count so it didn't go up to 1M. I think it was the closest they've ever gotten to the 1M payout. 

Haven't watched the ep yet, but 9k$ for costco dogs and chicken may be right. I assume it's 1 chicken and a pack of dogs per week for 5 years. So that would be about 30$/week, for 260 weeks, which would be about 7800$. If I've underestimated, then getting to 9k would be trivial. 

[opus]

21 minutes ago, Taeolas said:

Haven't watched the ep yet, but 9k$ for costco dogs and chicken may be right. I assume it's 1 chicken and a pack of dogs per week for 5 years. So that would be about 30$/week, for 260 weeks, which would be about 7800$. If I've underestimated, then getting to 9k would be trivial

I believe 5 years of membership was also included.

[Diana Berry]

On 7/28/2022 at 10:13 PM, lynxfx said:

Honestly he lucked out. Almost the entire bank was prizes which are all taxed as income. Had he walked he would owe almost $175k. Plus not many people have 3+ weeks of vacation they can take let alone all at once. His best bet was to try and pass 500k to get the additional ~500k in cash. Would have been cool to see though and glad he gave it a shot. 

His first screw up was passing 11 spins when he only had $2750. 

Exactly, I was thinking about the taxes, too.  My thought he could have tried to sell the cars but that would have been a dropping the bucket.  Wasn’t watching closely didn’t realize he passed all those spins not good.  I highly doubt any deals are going on.

[Carey]

On 7/29/2022 at 7:20 PM, Taeolas said:

The opening round prizes and money doesn't count against the 500k target for the million. In one fo the early seasons I think someone got 480k in the final bonus, and were sitting on like 25k from the first round; but that money didn't count so it didn't go up to 1M. I think it was the closest they've ever gotten to the 1M payout. 

Season Two to be exact.  The opener had a big win as well, which was the record at that time.  That contestant didn't get to $500,000 even if you counted the main game winnings.

As mentioned, the front game doesn't count, and it shouldn't.  Fine by me.  It would sorta wreck the bonus round if someone gets add-a-one, doubles their bucks, and then avoids the whammy.  They'd be in position to win well before the big bucks bonanza!

Speaking of that season, someone actually did well in the front to where the bonus round was a glorified free-roll

[lynxfx]

That was a pretty crazy first round. Talk about the ultimate come from behind victory. 

Was this the first whammy-less bonus round? That guy was on a roll!

Now let's talk about some of these bonus prizes. Butter for life? A personal assistant? Puppy playtime for a year? Ok that one sounds fun.

[opus]

56 minutes ago, lynxfx said:

Puppy playtime for a year? Ok that one sounds fun.

That one was confusing me. Is this a party for your dog, or are they bringing dogs to you?

[lynxfx]

17 hours ago, opus said:

That one was confusing me. Is this a party for your dog, or are they bringing dogs to you?

They bring dogs/puppies to you. My office did it once. Good for the people and good for the dogs for socializing.

[junemeatcleaver]

FaLawna redeemed!  The most deserving winner considering what happened on her first appearance.

[KeithJ]

Anyone know what's going to happen with S4 Ep9 that was supposed to be on last week (preempted for queen coverage)?  Hulu's most recent episode is 8 and my schedule still shows that 10 will air this week.  The new season starts next week so there's no room to air 9 then.

Edited September 13, 2022 by KeithJ

[opus]

5 hours ago, KeithJ said:

Anyone know what's going to happen with S4 Ep9 that was supposed to be on last week (preempted for queen coverage)?  Hulu's most recent episode is 8 and my schedule still shows that 10 will air this week.  The new season starts next week so there's no room to air 9 then.

And if the episode doesn’t air, does whoever won still get whatever they won?

[Carey]

I haven't seen anything from the show or the network discussing this.  I'm going to keep checking; while I don't know what their plans are, the winner of that particular episode will not get paid while it remains unaired.  No money and prizes until it airs, and it's pretty possible that it'll air whenever & wherever possible

[opus]

On 9/14/2022 at 9:34 PM, Carey said:

I haven't seen anything from the show or the network discussing this.  I'm going to keep checking; while I don't know what their plans are, the winner of that particular episode will not get paid while it remains unaired.  No money and prizes until it airs, and it's pretty possible that it'll air whenever & wherever possible

Have they been renewed for next summer? They could tack it on then. The Match Game reboot would air episodes seemingly years after they were taped.

[Carey]

12 minutes ago, opus said:

Have they been renewed for next summer? They could tack it on then. The Match Game reboot would air episodes seemingly years after they were taped.

That's a possibility.  It might suck for the winner, but that's what you signed up for.  Well, not to wait forever, but the possibility that one might die before getting paid.

Sorry to sound morbid, but rules are rules when it comes to tape-to-air.  Speaking of Match Game, there were people from the 70s that actually had to wait 2 decades for their compensation.  Match Game 79 ended in April with unaired CBS episodes, but then they showed up (on GSN I believe around 20 years later).  Didn't think much of it, if at all.  The fact is there is the possibility of having to wait for some time, and that's a reason why I wouldn't purchase something you can't afford in a situation where you lost on a gameshow or within competitive reality.

As for PYL, I don't think they're saving it for 2042; the ratings increased, so I don't think the show's going anything anytime soon.  If all goes well, maybe they rerun some of the best stuff from the start in 2019, before throwing that new episode in.  I'd say they could do that during a winter break

[lambertman]

Fifth season is scheduled! Starts Tuesday, October 10th at 10/9c.

[Ladybugnine]

Yep. Looking at it now. Nothing much else on at 10:00 pm on a Tuesday. 🙂

[opus]

When Julie landed on the Big 40 I was sure it was going to be forty more garden gnomes.

[Diana Berry]

Elizabeth’s tartan dress was so pretty. So glad the contestant won some cash. He seemed so nice.

[KeithJ]

I’m going to sound like an ass but the woman at the end of the holiday show deserved that last whammy she got.  She already won a Mercedes and she had that Kia in her bank.  Yeah, the Disney trip was still up there but as soon as she said “the Ford Explorer is still up there”, she lost me.  She could have left with two cars (and that cookie truck) and she’s talking about winning a third car?  She did end up hitting $100k with her last spin so she got lucky there

[jabRI]

On 11/30/2023 at 10:28 PM, KeithJ said:

She already won a Mercedes and she had that Kia in her bank.  Yeah, the Disney trip was still up there but as soon as she said “the Ford Explorer is still up there”

And I laugh every time I hear the argument 'and i don't have any whammies so lets keep playing' not thinking that they will lose everything on that first whammy. bizarre logic.

[Taeolas]

For me the thinking would be "If I DO hit a Whammy I'll have the rest of the spins to rebuild at least", which is a fine thing to think of when you have multiple rounds left to go. 

But the final bonus round, the Big Bux Bonanza round, that's probably the time to fold'em, even if you have no Whammies. If you do Whammy out, you won't have much time to rebuild (nor reset the prizes) so if you have a decent bank at that point, run with it. 

Now if you get there and your bank isn't all that great (maybe due to a previous Whammy) or you haven't lucked into any prizes, then that is probably the time to keep pressing; especially if you did well in the original game. 

But yeah, the Holiday episode winner, she should have tapped out before the Big Bux round.

[libgirl2]

On 11/30/2023 at 9:28 PM, KeithJ said:

I’m going to sound like an ass but the woman at the end of the holiday show deserved that last whammy she got.  She already won a Mercedes and she had that Kia in her bank.  Yeah, the Disney trip was still up there but as soon as she said “the Ford Explorer is still up there”, she lost me.  She could have left with two cars (and that cookie truck) and she’s talking about winning a third car?  She did end up hitting $100k with her last spin so she got lucky there

I watched it last night! She should have stopped! 

[Andyourlittledog2]

I put this on my DVR and tried watching it before I went to sleep. Big mistake. This show is the loudest most anxiety producing thing on TV.  It's fun although honestly I have no idea what is happening at any given time but it is interesting. But seriously, never watch it if you need to veg out or calm down. It raises my blood pressure just watching it. 

[lambertman]

Back tonight at 8 on ABC. Four more episodes are available and three are scheduled (503, 507 and 402-which got preempted back in ‘22. Air date for 509 still tbd.)

[KeithJ]

They need to change how they name episodes.  Tonight’s episode is “It’s Nacho Night”.  You know that whoever lands on lifetime nachos is going to win the game.