The Price Is Right

Yes there is - that image contains the details for how to apply to be on the show. They used the logo from the still running US version as a placeholder. Note the inclusion of a dollar sign. That won't be the logo used when the series airs.

Alan Carr and C4 just need to consciously uncouple. He needs to take the step Graham Norton did and reinvent himself.


When I first saw this earlier in the week I thought it was actually a good move for Cart, but I assumed the show was for ITV. It isn't a great move for C4 to bring in a format like this - wouldn't work in primetime or daytime IMO.

Frankly I'm surprised they've stuck with Alan considering everything post-Chatty Man has fallen on its face. Unless they're just insistent it's the format, not the host.

I don't think Alan Carr really fits elsewhere, he is very Channel 4. He's not got the mainstream appeal of Graham Norton.

Didn't we say that about Graham Norton though - and remember his first couple of years at the BBC was pretty much flop after flop.

The trouble with Alan Carr (and many comedians) is he's now at that point where he's just not edgy enough for C4. I wouldn't say he hasn't got mainstream appeal though - he's been on Radio 2 for years and that's as middle of the road as you can get.

"Everything"? Chatty Man only finished last year.

Happy Hour, Singer Takes It All, that Grease thing...

Well, indeed, my mum really likes him and I'm absolutely certain that, with the right format, he could be hugely popular in the middle of primetime. As you say, when Graham Norton left Channel Four he said it was specifically because he thought he'd done all he could on late night Channel Four and wanted to try his luck on different formats and different slots. Indeed, as you mention, at the start it was a bit touch and go but he worked hard and he ended up doing very well for himself. Obviously he's now in the same slot he was in on C4 but it's a different Graham and a different show.

Alan Carr's career at the moment reminds me a bit of Jack Dee, who was a huge breath of fresh air when he first arrived on TV, The Jack Dee Show got massive critical acclaim and for a while he was one of the biggest comedians in Britain. Actually he probably made the jump to primetime too quickly with his Saturday night ITV show, although I think the problem there was that it was his old C4 team making it, with their idea of what might work on Saturday night ITV and thinking just Jack doing his usual stuff but with pop bands and variety acts would do, as opposed to someone with more experience of that slot.

But I'm reminded of around the turn of the century, just before he appeared on Big Brother, when he was doing a load of identikit formats like Jack Dee's Sunday Service and Jack Dee's Happy Hour and so on, to increasingly diminishing returns, and he seemed a bit irrelevant, just continually rebranding the same show - which is sort of what we're getting now with the likes of Alan Carr's Happy Hour (spook!). It started to seem a bit desperate. In the end Jack managed to reinvent himself by moving away from stand-up completely and making Lead Balloon which was a critical and popular hit, and totally different to what he'd done before.

I honestly think that Carr is stagnating in the same way and could do with looking for something totally different, and probably working with some new people. I hope he does it, would be a shame to see his career just peter out.

Nailed it Steve.
The problem is Carr is stuck in a vortex of programme formats created especially for him, that wouldn't last to the first break if hosted by someone else.

Once that happens, the 'floating channel hopping viewer' (as diametrically opposed to a Carr hardcore fan) sees Alan Carr, and pretty much knows what they are going to get - and when the set and format has been tailor fitted around the usual Carr tropes - the bar and expectations hit, "seen this all before" mumbled at the remote control, viewer gone.

However, this is different. Carr is the host of something that hasn't been designed camera cut to camera cut for him in mind, and no longer the engine, he is now a cog in existing machine. Of course, he can bring his own 'style' to the presentation, but there is a strong format that has to be adhered to, and he can't wander too far from it.

That is - unless the production team give up right away, and make the show with a deliberate 'deeply ironic and camp' sheen for him, in which case the vortex will suck down another Carr presented show, even before it's got off the ground.

I still think with the right producer and director behind it, he could do a very good job at hosting the Gen Game revival.
Find the right straight female co-host (and not some cheap throwaway visual gag 'chest oiled beefcake') which would help dilute the camp humour for a more broader mainstream appeal and hold back on the grinning, the gurning, and just, well grow up a bit, and it could run for a few series.

Of course that's what it will be. I guess the closest thing would be to look at the success Through the Keyhole had, the format is inherently the same as before but the way it's presenting and the host changes the complexion and it's worked very well.

Keyhole was a format that needed to be revitalised. Granted they could've kept it as a daytime gameshow, but now the show has a huge new audience while staying fairly true to the show's original format.

The Price is Right hasn't really "aged" in the same way. It just looks a bit out of date depending on your point of view. The Pasquale era unnecessarily cheesed it up and almost made fun of a format that didn't really deserve it.

The US version make it all about the games, probably more so than the prizes.