18 Responses

1. John S

   1

   June 30th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

   My guess is giving away $1 million or more is the trend for modern-day game shows. It’s not that I don’t like it, I just don’t enjoy it much as the originals. I’m starting to think that giving away $1 million or over is such a cliche.

2. K.C.

   2

   June 30th, 2008 at 7:16 pm

   It’s official, as there was a promo for the $1,000,000 being available next season on tonight’s Wheel episode.

3. Brad D.

   3

   June 30th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

   Kinda off-topic but with this happening along with the debut of deal or no deal coming to syndication, Family Feud (w/ O’Hurley) really needs to up the prize. $20,000 really isn’t anything anymore in terms of prize money (and chances are if it wasn’t for Louie Anderson in 2000, the prize money would still be $10,000). They need to at least bump it to $50,000 but IMO, $100,000 would be ideal.

4. captparis1

   4

   June 30th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

   Agreed. That maybe the real reason Celebrity Feud was launched- to test a higher grand prize for the syndicated version. I just hope they remember to up the $5 a point limit (for losing) and not just fixate on Wheel going nuts with the grand prize.

   Plus, isn’t WOF still the # 1 game and syndicated show on TV? I’m all for games giving away a million (its the $10K of the 21st century.) It seems rather excessive, given their success. Can’t they just bring back MegaWord?

5. devares

   5

   June 30th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

   This is huge (and I mean HUGE). One could never imagine Wheel of Fortune would give away $1 million, then again, it didn’t surprise me seeing that’s the platform of today’s game show. Hopfully, we’ll see Million Dollar Jeopardy! (I hope you’re listening, Sony). As far as Family Feud goes, $1 million doesn’t fit the show’s criteria, although I do agree they should bump it up to at least $50,000, so the most they could win is $250,000. Now that I think about it, maybe Crosswords should give away a million should it return (and I believe it will).

6. Intelligentfan777

   6

   June 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pm

   WOW! Now I am really excited about Wheel next season! Yes, the Million will be hard to win, but it should be. And thankfully, Wheel isn’t up against DoND here, so it’ll survive to see it won, I would Imagine!

   Oh BTW Alex, in that video, the $1,000,000 Graphic is just imposed on a past $100,000 win, or something of that nature. That’s not an actual spoiler is it? It can’t be.

7. Shon

   7

   June 30th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

   Normally I would complain about the stereotypical $1,000,000 prize but I think in wheel’s case it’s a step in the right direction. Plus it will be really hard to win so when it the does happen the moment will be magical.

   To be honest I haven’t been a faithful wheel watcher in a while and now after hearing about this I will be tuning in. Kudos! ^___^

   On a side-note speaking of Family Feud I would love to see a prime time version of Wheel.

8. Happy Steve

   8

   June 30th, 2008 at 11:44 pm

   Aw man, I got on the show a season too early it seems. Ah well, I did well enough. ;)

9. AEI

   9

   July 1st, 2008 at 12:27 am

   @5: How do you have Million Dollar Jeopardy!? I am curious–but also concerned as to how they’d have to manipulate the rules of Jeopardy! to have a Million Dollar Prize. I don’t think it can be done without wrecking the format? (I think there’s a very good reason the only change they’ve had to make is the value of the clues–the format works more or less perfectly the way they have it now.)

   As for the WoF Million Dollar Prize, that looks about as likely to be won as the Gem Car on Whammy!

10. Brandon

    10

    July 1st, 2008 at 7:37 am

    In a way, I’m kinda tired of every game show giving away $1 million, but at the same time, I like the fact that a contestant will have to work for that million.

    It’s not impossible, but it’s not something that’ll happen nearly as often as a $100,000 win.

11. myke25

    11

    July 1st, 2008 at 9:29 am

    The spot calls it “The Million Dollar Bonus Round.” So it won’t be offered in the main game. Considering the frequency of $100,000 winners, or lack thereof, this is a no-brainer on Sony’s part. I’m sure the payout will be over 20-25 years or so. The cost of a $1,000,000 annuity is roughly $500,000-$600,000 so a big win won’t actually cost Sony $1M. WOF is still a money machine. There’s no real risk for them here…just appearing to keep up with the Jonses.

    Devares, there is already Million Dollar Jeopardy, you just can’t win it in only one game. It might take 30 wins or so, but you can get there…ask Ken Jennings.

    Shon, most stations air WOF leading into network prime time already. It wouldn’t make sense to have a network version, which would likely have an 8:00ET start when most stations air the syndicated at 7:00 or 7:30. Family Feud often airs in earlier dayparts, so only a handful of markets risk it airing back-to-back with Celebrity Feud.

12. Michael

    12

    July 1st, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    Can anybody say “Jump the shark”. I think Wheel has gone way too far in terms of bad ideas. The toss ups which seem now to drag the game to the point where we don’t get to see much of the $5,000 to this? As for person #5 who wanted a million dollar Jeopardy (I can’t see your full name as the #5 is covering part of it), there was a million dollar jeopardy years ago. I’m sure you were watching it. You know, a Mr. Ken Jennings.

13. Neville

    13

    July 1st, 2008 at 3:52 pm

    I think that this is too much of a stretch. Let’s see if I have this right:

    In round 1, you have a 1/72 chance of landing on this wedge. I suspect it’ll only be out in round 1, but maybe through round three. Then, you have to call a correct letter and go on to solve the puzzle. No big deal - just like the standard $10,000 space. But then you have to go on to win the game. But then you have to spin the tiny wheel and hope that you land on the million (another 1/24) and then solve the puzzle correctly. So that’s at BEST a 1/1728 chance of winning the million. It’s worse when you consider that you have to call letters correctly and solve puzzles (that oft forgot part of Wheel :) ). I propose that we change the million dollar wedge (yes, I know, I’m changing something before it’s even happened :P) to a x10 thing, and only have the bonus spin contain cash. Then the least they could win is $250,000. More fun for everyone!

14. Chad

    14

    July 1st, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    The first thing I thought after watching this is, “Wheel needs to give away $1M? Yes, $100,000 can’t buy you anything these days. Only a motorhome, or a Viper, or enough gas to fill your tank almost 1,000 times.”

    Thankfully, they made it hard to win. You have to

    A: Land on the wedge in the first round only.
    B: Guess one of the letters in the puzzle.
    C: Solve the round 1 puzzle.
    D: Not hit a Bankrupt space for the ENTIRE SHOW.
    E: Win the game.
    F: Land on the one $1M space in the bonus round.
    G: Solve the bonus round puzzle.

    That makes it sound much harder, when you explain it that way.

    And speaking of the odds, Neville, you forgot that you can take more than one spin on the round one wheel, assuming that you keep guessing letters correctly. So the odds are actually x/1728, with x being the number of spins you take on the round one wheel.

    I agree that Family Feud could use a prize increase. Let’s see, $20,000 split five ways is… $4,000 each, not including taxes. And the bonus round isn’t a piece of cake. If you lose it, each family member gets $1 a point, which is less than $200, again, not including taxes.

    And lastly, it looks like I’ve got beaten to it, but there was/is a million dollar Jeopardy!. Brad Rutter won the Million Dollar Masters a while back, not to mention the $2,000,000 Ultimate Tournament of Champions. And of course, if you don’t get invited into a tournament, you can take the Ken Jennings route.

    Wow, looking back, I’ve jumped all over the place in this post.

15. Mike

    15

    July 1st, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    Chad…

    1000 times? 2000 for me. Hooray for cars which get 30+ MPG. :-)

    Wheel hasn’t done much of anything to pique my interest over the last decade, outside of being in HD and the Mystery Wedge. This addition doesn’t change that statement.

16. Bob

    16

    July 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 am

    Have you seen how many times people have brought the Wild Card with them to the bonus round? The Wild Card plays the same way. Land on in the first round, solve the puzzle, don’t bankrupt THE ENTIRE GAME, win the game, and there you have it. Logically speaking, the Million Dollar wedge could make its way to the bonus round quite a number of times, and you’ve seen that several people in one season can walk away with the $100,000 prize.

    From there, the $1,000,000 Wedge is not impossible, but I agree difficult.

17. devares

    17

    July 3rd, 2008 at 7:35 am

    It probably would be difficult to win the million dollars, but not necessary impossible. It can be done, and I think it will be done. As for the Million Dollar Jeopardy idea, what I meant was bring all the champions back from every season of Jeopardy (including the ones from the NBC version, assuming they’re still alive) and have it like a tournament format just like they did almost 20 years ago with Super Jeopardy. You don’t even have to put it on a weeknight (because some stations air Jeopardy at the 7 or 7:30 time slot as mike25 also said about WoF). you can air it either on Saturday or Sunday Night. That’s what I meant (I should’ve been more specific).

18. Wheelloon

    18

    July 6th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    *Sound of gun pulled from holster*
    *Sound of bullet locking into place*
    *Echo of a young male screaming “WHYYYYYYYYYYYY”*
    *Gunshot*

    While this might put things into perspective with me, I was in Mexico for the past week and a half, without internet access, and I STILL heard about this…

    My first and foremost question is this: why are they bothering? Lessee, Wheel gets approx 40 million viewers total each week *which not even 3 weekly runs of DoND has been able to top*, has been syndication’s number one show for 25 years, and has done it with a top prize of 100k. I don’t think ANYONE needs any more proof that a game show doesn’t need a $1,000,000 prize to be popular…

    If I was a Wheel producer, I’d consider that a bragging right. Just about every other popular game show in the past 10 years has offered $1,000,000 at some point or the other, yet their ratings, on a weekly basis, could not top the “oh so cheap” WOF whose top winner has won about $150k in stuff at this point. I never felt Wheel needed a million dollar prize, because, as I’m seeing with this right now, it would seem tacked on, and just unnecesary. Here’s another revelation, wouldn’t it seem that if a show offers a $1,000,000 top prize in a fashion such that it will never be won, that it, in the end, was monetarily and strategically pointless to offer it in the first place? It would be an equivalent of offering a million dollars on TPIR to any person who could bid exactly right on their Showcase. In 36 years, has it ever happened?……..

    The way that Wheel should get a $1kk winner is to look at J! *well gee, for gawd’s sakes, it’s right next door after all* and to have returning champs again, instead of looking halfway around the world at a format for the show that was not only broken from the get-go, but now also cancelled. Bodes well for the same concept here in the states, eh?

    But you know what? The gimmicks on the show, both good and bad, they’ve added in recent years, thanks to Harry “GonnabeFried”man pale in comparison to this, which might be a good thing, cuz I won’t continue to gripe about some of them anymore. If Friedman was involved and/or a direct instigator in this, which wouldn’t surprise me, he’s just made the ultimate blunder. I was not happy with his job before, but this is just plain idiotic. If we come within 10 feet of each other, he better be in disguise or he better hope I have an appointment and I’m late…