why no continuing champs on WoF?

[Jim]

Do you think letting champs return the next day would be a good idea for Wheel of Fortune.  I say why not - it could lead to some big money winers and build some excitement if one person runs a long streak.  The other two King World shows let champs return - why has Wheel abstained?

[Kevin Prather]

They don't have returning champs, so they can run shows out of order. I.e.: $100,000 wins during sweeps.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 09:13 PM\'] They don't have returning champs, so they can run shows out of order. I.e.: $100,000 wins during sweeps. [/quote]
 I would object to that...as they had lots of big wins in syndication when they did have returning champs...

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 10:28 PM\'] [quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 09:13 PM\'] They don't have returning champs, so they can run shows out of order. I.e.: $100,000 wins during sweeps. [/quote]
I would object to that...as they had lots of big wins in syndication when they did have returning champs... [/quote]
 Besides, I know at least two of the wins were during off-sweeps months (Dec 01 and Dec 02/Jan 03), not to mention the numerous losses there's been.

[Brandon Brooks]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 10:28 PM\'] [quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 09:13 PM\'] They don't have returning champs, so they can run shows out of order. I.e.: $100,000 wins during sweeps. [/quote]
I would object to that...as they had lots of big wins in syndication when they did have returning champs... [/quote]
 He's not saying that.  He's saying that they load the current wins during sweeps, therefore it would be more conveinent to not have returning champions so they can pick when they want to load them.

Brandon Brooks

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Brandon Brooks\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 10:39 PM\'][quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 10:28 PM\'] [quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Sep 8 2003, 09:13 PM\'] They don't have returning champs, so they can run shows out of order. I.e.: $100,000 wins during sweeps. [/quote]
I would object to that...as they had lots of big wins in syndication when they did have returning champs... [/quote]
He's not saying that.  He's saying that they load the current wins during sweeps, therefore it would be more conveinent to not have returning champions so they can pick when they want to load them.

Brandon Brooks[/quote]
However, it's a little difficult to pre-load with wins when your theme weeks are pre-programmed at the beginning of the season--and *every* week on \"Wheel\"'s a theme week nowadays.

It's more for doing pick and choose with the weekend shows, so that they aren't locked into a sequence (weekend \"J!\" has to stay in sequence until an undefeated champ retires--oops, next year they won't have any of those).

[Brandon Brooks]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Sep 10 2003, 12:05 PM\'] However, it's a little difficult to pre-load with wins when your theme weeks are pre-programmed at the beginning of the season--and *every* week on "Wheel"'s a theme week nowadays. [/quote]
 Not really, as it depends on when taping is started.  If a good amount of shows are taped before the new season begins, and if there are some weeks with really big wins, then you know ahead of time that \"hmmm... that'll be a good week for sweeps.\"
 
Brandon Brooks

[vtown7]

I think it would be nice to resurrect the \"Friday Finals\"... you have returning champions in a sense but at the same time you can air the shows anyway you want... so long as they're self contained.

Not that I see this happening any time soon though!

Cheers,

-R.

[goongas]

At a taping once, an audience member asked this question, and Charlie O'Donnell said because more contestants per year get to play.  I don't know if this is the official reason or not.

Goongas

[bellbm]

[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Sep 10 2003, 04:47 PM\'] At a taping once, an audience member asked this question, and Charlie O'Donnell said because more contestants per year get to play.  I don't know if this is the official reason or not.

Goongas [/quote]
 I tend to think this is the case.  If you look at their website, they pretty much have the season set as far as what shows are going to air when.  The sweeps months are usually the road shows.  I don't think they really try to \"load up\" big wins, since the show is already #1, people are going to watch anyway.  And aside from this group, there is much publicity when someone wins $100K.  Its not like when WWTBAM gave away its first Million.

[Jay Temple]

[quote name=\'goongas\' date=\'Sep 10 2003, 04:47 PM\'] At a taping once, an audience member asked this question, and Charlie O'Donnell said because more contestants per year get to play.  I don't know if this is the official reason or not.

Goongas [/quote]
 All the more reason to have returning champions.  They don't exactly find the brightest players as it is.

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'vtown7\' date=\'Sep 10 2003, 03:00 PM\'] I think it would be nice to resurrect the "Friday Finals"... you have returning champions in a sense but at the same time you can air the shows anyway you want... so long as they're self contained.

Not that I see this happening any time soon though!

Cheers,

-R. [/quote]
 That was (I think) part of the reason GSN got away with the only day to day format game they've had so far - Hollywood Showdown. They could rerun the weeks in any order they wanted.

[starcade]

See Millionaire on moving big wins to sweeps -- if you can do it with a game with straddles like Millionaire, you can do it with returning champs like proposed...

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'starcade\' date=\'Sep 13 2003, 11:29 PM\'] See Millionaire on moving big wins to sweeps -- if you can do it with a game with straddles like Millionaire, you can do it with returning champs like proposed... [/quote]
 No, you can't. Listen:

Millionaire can do it because when a game happens to end at the exact end of a show, the schedulers are now free to air whateever program they want (provided that program starts with a new player starting a new game) for the next show. So, with just a few of these, it's easy to hack the schedule so that certain shows (but not too many) show up within, oh, say, a certain month or week. Quite a bit of jigsawery necessary to make it happen, but that's why they get paid the big bucks.

On the other hand, on WOF, if you have a returning champion, the person who won on the previous show has to be the champion on the next show. On top of that, Pat mentions the champion's accumulated total at the end of the show. So all of the shows inside of a champion's undefeated run ALSO have to air in order, or else you start looking at major continuity problems.

This is the difference between a show merely straddling, as Millionaire does, and a show having a returning champion. Your broadcast order is almost as restricted with a returning champion as it is if you straddle AND have a returning champion.

[Robert Hutchinson]

Also, don't forget that WWTBAM very often has minutes and minutes of footage of a contestant thinking about an answer. If you've filmed six or seven shows without reaching a break point like Chris described, you can just start leaving in just enough of the shots of the contestant thinking to fill out a show to the end.