Round 3's prize puzzle was worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $12,500, which seems kind of game-breaking.
It was $12,000, which seems to be the minimum for team weeks nowadays (the minimum for normal weeks appears to be $6,000).
Does Round 4 ever get played to any extent anymore? It seems like any time I tune in, it's immediately time for the final spin.
I think it depends on budget and where the Wheel is given Pat's spin strength, although team weeks tend to have shorter games since there's six interviews rather than three. Round 4 sometimes does play out in full, and on rare occasion they get through a full Round 5, but there hasn't been a six-full-rounds game in ages.
As for "time is running out", given the game structure I really don't think there's any such thing as a "game timer" in use before the last Toss-Up, since otherwise we'd be getting Speed-Ups in Round 3.
The Bonus Round now apparently operates on only two difficulty levels: $32,000 and Anything Over $32,000. The almost impossible MOVING QUICKLY was the reward tonight's couple got for randomly spinning the $45,000 card.
The puzzles are selected and slotted in advance, regardless of what gets hit on the Bonus Wheel, so it's really just a coincidence that nearly every time the prize is Not The Bare F-ing Minimum it gets lost. Even then, only 10 of the 42 Bonus Rounds so far this season have been for Not-$32,000, three of which have been won (and $32K itself has been lost 16 times).
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Not-$32K wins: the Million on September 17 (LOUD LAUGHTER, Thing); $40,000 on October 2 (JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON, Phrase); and $45,000 on October 15 (JUICE BAR, Place).
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Not-$32K losses: $45,000 on September 18 (ICONIC GAME, Thing, picks of BDMA), October 21 (HIGH GEAR, Thing, picks of CDMO), and November 11; cars on September 24 (VALUABLE CARGO, Thing, picks of CDHAM) and October 3 (IT TAKES KNOW-HOW, Phrase, picks of MCDI); $100,000 on October 27 (POINT THE WAY, Phrase, picks of PCMO); and $40,000 on November 7 (LIKE WALKING ON AIR, Phrase, picks of PGMO).
I don't get how this show stays on with high ratings, other than inertia. It's one thing to be comfortingly familiar; it's another to be flatly predictable, and Wheel seems to have gone out of its way to make itself more of the latter.
Yeah, that's a bit of an issue. Then again, like I suggested before,
Wheel does seem to be striving for the "primetime network game of the past decade" feel.
