To follow on from Brandon\'s point: I remember back in the late-80s or so that they went to all manner of hammy dramatics to announce that a three-day champion had won over $100,000 before reaching the bonus round and therefore they could not put the \"1\" on the tote board behind the players. (I think that was a missed opportunity: since there was no longer \"on account\" you could have used those areas to post the running winnings total). The specialness of enormous payoffs has been eroded so much now that $30,000 is mundane, and $100,000 can be won with a single solve.
I wonder what would happen if they just took that away and replaced it with another \"$10,000\" prize thing, saying \"we\'re done with that.\" People would still watch because it\'s still Wheel of Fortune.