In the UK wheel of fortune isn't presently showing, though I'm loosely familiar with how it works.
Lets face it, game shows are novelties, they don't want to lose lots of money on each show, so they are bound to make things difficult, very unfair no doubt, as skill should overcome luck. TV company gets good viewer ratings, lots of hype, players get nothing, or occasionally something. TV turns over profits of 1600%, everyone is happy, except the contestant, of course.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Sidetrack:
In the UK theirs a show called golden balls, its just terrible.... 4 contestants, deceive each other until there are 2 left, each ball has a varying amount of it (usually small) and there are killer balls with takes a '0' off of the money. I.e: you get lucky and find the £25000 ball, killer takes it down to £2500. And anyway at the end of the game the players decide to pick a split the money or steal ball, as both contestants are always greedy and both pick steal, they both go away with nothing when, if they shared they could have got £3.50 each.
I think the final insult is that you have to spin to get the million-dollar card... then you have it in your possession... and then you have to put it on the bonus wheel and spin for it AGAIN.
Why even give them a card? It's so disappointing to see them get a card once every five games or so, hold it in their hands, win the puzzle, and then carry it until the show takes it away from them because they didn't make it to the bonus round. But then the young lady does make it there, and they make her spin for it again.
It's ridiculous. They might as well hand them a lottery ticket instead of the million dollar card, because it's essentially the same thing. You don't win a million dollars if you get the card, you win a chance to spin for a million dollars IF you make it to the bonus round and solve the puzzle, and if you don't spin correctly you still lose. I checked and apparently only one person has won the million dollar prize in the history of the show?
Contestant Michelle Loewenstein became the first, and to date only, winner of the $1 million bonus prize on October 14, 2008, with total winnings of $1,026,080.
That means the prize is too hard to win. Change the rules, Wheel people!
It frustrates me every time someone lands on the million dollar panel, because extreme disappointment and failure is in their future even if they do an excellent job. WHAT A TEASE!!!
Though many gameshows are a con, there are plenty, st least in the UK, that give contestants a good chance of winning, the prize is much smaller than 1 million dollars, but still worth having and easier to get. Much much easier.
Yeah, I used to feel the same way when Publishers Clearing House used to send me that big envelope telling me I'm an Instant Winner for their $10 million grand prize. All I had to do was attach the winning sticker provided in the envelope to the form and mail it in. Then you'd get another big envelope stating you were one step closer, just attach the winning sticker in the second envelope and...blah, blah, blah...Lame. I think they were in cahoots with the postal service & sticker company...
It's just one of those things where something is pretty famous but for one reason or another I just haven't watched it. It's probably on all the time and I just skip right past it with my remote. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime.
Originally Posted by Hosakawa Tito: Yeah, I used to feel the same way when Publishers Clearing House used to send me that big envelope telling me I'm an Instant Winner for their $10 million grand prize. All I had to do was attach the winning sticker provided in the envelope to the form and mail it in. Then you'd get another big envelope stating you were one step closer, just attach the winning sticker in the second envelope and...blah, blah, blah...Lame. I think they were in cahoots with the postal service & sticker company...
Ed McMahon should be ashamed of himself!
PCH funds my retirement; them and Netflix. :)
-edit-
I've only watched Wheel of Fortune to see if Vanna White was gonna trip, slip and fall in her 4-inch heels. I guess it's been awhile since I watched, I never knew about a million-dollar panel.
It's a little sliver that says "One Million" between two tiny bankrupts. If you land on it, you pick it up like the wild card or other prizes. But that's just it; all those other prizes you get to keep if you solve the puzzle. And you certainly get to keep them if you're the game winner. But you don't get the million unless you spin in the bonus round and land on it...
I don't know. You kinda have to be there, rooting for them to win week after week, and always failing, to understand my particular frustration with it and the strange rules regarding how you win that prize as opposed to the other prizes. Otherwise it truly is a "who cares" situation (and it may still be).
After a while you wonder if that panel isn't just there to make people lose their concentration and get more nervous, because it seems to excel at that.
In July 2006, Josh Sharp created Deal or No Deal History in the most amazing fashion. Host Andrew O'Keefe cannot hide his astonishment. Here is the most unlucky Round 1 you will ever see.
THE ODDS (best to look here only after watching):
The odds for all top 4 amounts to be knocked out in the first four openings is 1 in 14,950 (4/26*3/25*2/24*1/23). The odds for the top 4 amounts to be knocked out in descending order is 1 in 358,800 (1/26*1/25*1/24*1/23) - that is just one episode every 1,600 years!!
- Those who think that the offer of 10¢ is stupid and doesn't make sense should see the humour in it. Since almost nobody takes a Round 1 Bank Offer, the banker showed his sense of humour and decided to offer an extremely low amount to show just how unlucky Josh was.
- SPOILER: There have also been many people wondering how much money Josh ended up taking home. Well, he did considerably better than his first offer. He wound up with $10.
I must admit, I don't know the rules of the game Deal or No Deal, but it looked from a completely ignorant observer standpoint like that guy was epic failing.