US WEAKEST LINK RETURNS

[Arynnia]

Yeah, I only just recently got to ep 02, in which I do see that was scrapped. That's good at least.

[kplewisvox]

Oct 5, 2020 11:30:16 GMT -5 Arynnia said:

Strongest Link immunity. Uh, what? This completely ruins the strategy of the game. Tactical voting has always been a hallmark of The Weakest Link from its inception, and the removal of the ability to vote off a Strongest Link who threatens to roflstomp any of the remaining contestants in a hypothetical final round breaks the concept.

Completely disagree. The fact that the strongest link could be voted off, and tended to be voted off near the end, was always a flaw in the format, and adding this rule would have actually fixed it. I was very disappointed they didn't do this.

Any format that punishes a player for being good is not a good format.

[panampat]

Oct 15, 2020 21:28:37 GMT -5 kplewisvox said:

Oct 5, 2020 11:30:16 GMT -5 Arynnia said:

Strongest Link immunity. Uh, what? This completely ruins the strategy of the game. Tactical voting has always been a hallmark of The Weakest Link from its inception, and the removal of the ability to vote off a Strongest Link who threatens to roflstomp any of the remaining contestants in a hypothetical final round breaks the concept.

Completely disagree. The fact that the strongest link could be voted off, and tended to be voted off near the end, was always a flaw in the format, and adding this rule would have actually fixed it. I was very disappointed they didn't do this.

Any format that punishes a player for being good is not a good format.

I don't necessarily see it that way. I think the strongest link being unimmune is a hallmark of the format and it's a refreshing twist on the standard 'answer questions correctly to win a lot of money' format that has been around since the dawn of TV. Maybe it's just me, but game show that awards players for being good at answering trivia questions (being good at quizzes, essentially) or just being good at the game (whatever game they're playing) are a dime a dozen. Jeopardy! rewards contestants for being knowledgeable (you can argue that it also awards smart gamblers, but if you're so dominant in answering questions a la Ken Jennings or James Holzhauer, it kinda doesn't matter since you'd establish such a dominant lead, all you'd have to do is not pull a Cliff Clavin in Final Jeopardy). Millionaire rewards contestants for being knowledgeable.

In short, game shows have awarded contestants for being smart since the dawn of game shows. And The Weakest Link doesn't necessarily punish players for being good. It's just, they also need to be good at being not too bright or too fast to be a threat (see my example I linked a couple posts back in this thread) and saving that push for the final money-building round (the one with no elimination that features the kitty being doubled or tripled, the one that NBC stupidly eliminated this go around) and the head-to-head. It's a clever twist, I (and I'm sure others) quite like it. It really adds an interesting twist. There aren't many game shows about (now or in the past) that forces the contestants to be strategic and I can't think of a game show that requires this level of 'strategery', and that is what's so refreshing and clever and interesting (Anne Robinson and, in this case, Jane Lynch are just the icing on the cake) 

[kplewisvox]

Any format where purposefully underperforming is considered "strategic" is broken. And as you said, by eliminating the final cash builder round, there is no incentive at all to NOT vote off the best player.