Posted by chicagomedia.org on September 04, 2008 at 15:37:31:
In Reply to: "Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me" in the park posted by chicagomedia.org on September 02, 2008 at 10:05:43:
Wait, Wait....no need to hurry
To his credit, Peter Sagal came clean immediately when I presented him with the results of my painstaking investigation:
The "lightning round" at the climax of Sagal's syndicated public radio news-quiz program "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" does not last "exactly 60 seconds" per contestant, as Sagal repeatedly claims on the broadcasts.
I've been putting the stopwatch to the show (actually just checking the readout on my mp3 player as I listen to the podcast) and finding that "exactly 60 seconds" can be as little as 45 seconds or as much a minute and 15 seconds.
In fact, each "lightning round" always lasts exactly long enough for Sagal to ask the contestant eight current events questions. The gong always sounds when he is in the middle of reading the last question, giving the contestant a chance to answer that question.
And since the show will be taping live today at 6:30 p.m. in the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (shine or, more likely, rain) I felt I could wait no longer to confront Sagal, the host, who also -- full disclosure -- is one of my Facebook friends and one of my wife's colleagues at WBEZ-FM.
"It's true," Sagal said when I laid out the damning case against the "lightning round." "And it's ridiculous. The reason we do it is lost in the mists of time."
This isn't exactly a quiz-show scandal since the three contestants -- drawn from a rotating panel of celebrities -- don't get anything for winning and the scorekeeping and judging is loose, at best But still. To lie about something as basic and fundamental as a minute!?
What else, sir, are you hiding?
"Carl Kassel does not exist," Sagal blurted out, referring to the "Wait, Wait..." announcer whose voice is also heard on National Public Radio newscasts. "We made him up. He's actually a retired postman from Naperville named Chuck Delaney who looks kind of like a 'Carl Kassel.' In real life he has a high-pitched voice and a thick Chicago accent."
As I suspected.
(Zorn/trib)