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TV & Showbiz

CBS to Double Down on ‘Price is Right’ Until Soap Premieres

A closeup of Drew Carey smilingDeposit Photos

CBS is banking on ‘The Price is Right’ to keep viewers entertained for a couple of months ahead of the start of a new soap opera.

Are you ready for a double dose of Plinko? CBS has decided to run two episodes per day of the venerable Price is Right until its newest soap can premiere in February.

Earlier this year, CBS made two interesting announcements. The first was that it was partnering with the NAACP to create a new daytime soap. The network initially said the new soap would debut in January. It was an interesting move because traditional soaps have been slowly dying for years. In fact, the last soap to premiere was Passions on NBC. That was 25 years ago!

The new show, Beyond the Gates, will feature a predominantly Black cast. It’s set in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., and in one of the most affluent African American counties in the United States. Variety quotes some promotional material in its story:

Here you’ll find a posh gated community with winding tree-lined streets and luxurious mansions to call home. At the center of this community are the Duprees, a powerful and prestigious multi-generational family that is the very definition of Black royalty. But behind these pristine walls and lush, manicured gardens are juicy secrets and scandals waiting to be uncovered. And those who live outside these gates are watching closely. These are the places where our characters live, love, work and play. Those who have ‘made it’ and those who haven’t are all trying to navigate life … and some with more grace than others.

But where would it go?

The initial reports of a new soap did not come with a mention of the time slot the show would take. Compared with other networks, CBS has a fairly full schedule with little room to add shows without replacing one of them. Its daytime lineup consists of two game shows, The Price is Right and Let’s Make a Deal; two soaps, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful; and one talk show, The Talk.

The Talk seemed the most obvious candidate for replacement since it had the lowest ratings of the five.

About a month later, back in March, the network confirmed The Talk’s 15th season would be its last and that it would air its final episode in December.

With a premiere date for Beyond the Gates in January, we knew there might be a gap between the end of one show and the start of another.

The gap widens

CBS has since set an end date for The Talk. Last last month, the network announced it would air the final episode of the show on Dec. 20.

But it delayed Beyond the Gates’ premiere date until Feb. 24. I’m not sure why they couldn’t have timed things a bit better. If the new show needed a bit more time to be ready, you’d think they could have extended the old show for a few more weeks. I’m sure there are more costs associated with either option or else they’d have picked one and would have run with it.

Instead, they left themselves a hole to fill. So for roughly two months, they had to find something to run.

Come on down!

If you’re a fan of The Price is Right, it’s good news for you: CBS plans to run two episodes a day for the duration of that gap. The show, now hosted by Drew Carey, is still familiar from its heyday with Bob Barker behind the microphone. But it’s also a different show. That was unavoidable because a different person now hosts it.

Carey was not my cup of tea when he started. He has gotten better over the years, though it seems it took far too long for the show to feel as if it had righted itself.

My biggest criticism is one that I’ve heard from a few people, most notably the show’s former producer, Roger Dobkowitz, who spent the first 36 years — all of Barker’s time — on the show. That criticism is that while Barker played primarily to the home viewers, Carey plays primarily to the studio audience.

You wouldn’t think that’d make a difference. But it definitely does. I could go into details, but that’s probably another post for another day.

But if you’re still a fan of the show — or if you’ve only become a fan of the show since Carey took over — then you’ll be able to enjoy twice the ‘Price’ for two months. The fill-in episodes are expected to be reruns. But if you missed a first run, it’ll give you an extra chance to get caught up!

The real question, though, is what happens when the new soap premieres. I imagine it’ll get a lot of attention at first. The real question is can it sustain an an audience the way its counterpart soaps at CBS have over the years.

It’ll become what will be only the fifth network soap on the air. When I was a kid, they were all over the TV schedule.

Which would you more look forward to: Twice the number of ‘Price is Right’ episodes or the new daytime soap?

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.