Matt - Come On Down!

I was idly flipping through channels trying to find a lunch time news bulletin the other day when I stumbled onto ITV, and something I'd not seen in a long, long time - The Price Is Right! It looks like they've finally retired poor Bruce Forsyth - not before time - and got Joe Pasquale in instead. The format is exactly the same as it always was though.

And I loved it.

Now, I dont usually go in for these sort of shows - I guess I like to think of myself as above this sort of thing, preferring to watch documentaries, the news (that was after all what I was trying to find), secretly pretending that I watch Big Brother purely as a science thing and all that sort of stuff. But watching The Price Is Right filled me with joy; when someone won something I was genuinely happy.

Needless to say I was pretty surprised with myself - so much so that I've been thinking about it for a few days now. What was the attraction? What did The Price Is Right have that managed to warm the heart of a die-hard cynic that other shows were lacking?

I think its to do with the whole ethos of the show - the pretty crappy prizes (by today's standards) like some hair straighteners or an iron, the tongue in cheek yet almost ego-free presentation (kudos to Pasquale incidentally - he did a great job), and the rowdy shouting from the audience. Unlike other game shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, The Weakest Link, The X-Factor etc etc, there was no greed - the contestants looked like they were just there for some fun and maybe leaving with a couple of hundred quid and a Barbecue or something if they were lucky on the games that required no real skill at all. There was something very endearing about it all. I'm actually looking for when its next on so I can make a point about watching it. I wish more of the trash we get on TV was like it - I dont want to see people desperately hoping to get rich and/or famous out of some show. Bring back all the other classics too - The Crystal Maze and You Bet, please come back!