Password

CBS put out their newest game show last night, Million Dollar Password. Observations:

1. Shortest game ever. With celebrity plugs, and explaining the rules, and contestant chat, the first front game still only lasted nine minutes total. I like that they tried to level out celebrity skill by giving more-or-less equal chances with both, giving and receiving. I wish there was still competition with one-clue-at-a-time and both teams playing. Granted, that would require building an actual set.
2. Someone needs to shut the crowd up during timed rounds. No really. The one (or was there two?) times that a team got four out of five in the front game, the crowd drowned out their last five seconds leaving them with four out of five. And while we're talking about timers: all the previous incarnations of Password allowed the clue-giver to look at the first word before the clock started. Not only does that not happen here, but the clock starts a good second before the first word shows up.
3. If you can't get "Ohio" in three clues, you don't even deserve the $25,000.
4. The 1:30 timer in the bonus rounds will never come into play, I'm willing to bet money on that.
5. I agree with Eric's decision to go for the quarter-million; I thought he could have gotten them too. Granted the clue I came up with for "corner" was "street" and "drugstore", which is obvious going backwards, but probably also wouldn't have gotten me any money.
6. I wonder how many dry runs it took for them to realize that they were going to have to show the words for the last two spots or no one would ever try. Even double-or-nothing from $50K to $100K seems outrageous (to me, but I'm a coward), unless the celebrity and I are really clicking.
7. I thought Neil Patrick Harris showed himself to be an excellent Password player, so good for him. (Rachael Ray: not embarrassing, and who knows how she would have done in the bonus rounds.)