WoF 11/22 POSSIBLE SPOILER!

[clemon79]

I didn't go literally because royalty, to me, implies rule by a king and/or queen, and the Philippines is not a monarchy.

Oh, fair cop. I interpreted that as applying to the "getting paid" part, not the "no for reals we aren't a dictatorship!" part. We regret the error.

[TimK2003]

FWIW, said Wheel contestant did wind up getting a trip to Nashville after all...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2019/11/25/wheel-fortune-contestant-who-lost-technicality-given-new-prize/4295389002/

[jjman920]

Wow. I really hate how this story went. I *hate* this being called a technicality. It's not. It's the rules as written and adhered by for over 40 years. The number of people who are seemingly ready to toss the foundation of the damn game because someone made a mistake that plenty have made in the past is infuriating. And the fact that we're rewarding such failure is profoundly disappointing.

I feel sorry for her, I was mortified of making the same kind of mistake, but she's not the first and won't be the last to make this mistake. Screw this news cycle for picking this up like this. It's Thanksgiving Week and the President committed bribery and we latch onto this *this* hard?

*counts to 10*

But I guess that's good publicity for Wheel and Sony and proof that people still watch the show. I hope she enjoys her trip.

[jage]

Cool story actually. Didn't think Sony would do this and they didn't, but smart of the Nashville tourism people to make it happen. Nice free pub.

[aaron sica]

Wow. I really hate how this story went. I *hate* this being called a technicality. It's not. It's the rules as written and adhered by for over 40 years.

1000% agree. I remember a few flubs over the years where words were added and the contestant penalized......Are they going to find all those contestants and get them their prizes back? Not sure why THIS one is any different...

[chrisholland03]

I agree this was a run-of-the-mill flub, but I also think it's a terrible category. I hope the noise generated will influence its demise.

[KrisW73]

I agree this was a run-of-the-mill flub, but I also think it's a terrible category. I hope the noise generated will influence its demise.

Why do you think it's a terrible category? It worked on the German version pretty well

(Granted, with a tweak on the rules...) 

[jjman920]

Honestly, the way they do it, 50% of the time Crossword just seems like a way for them to use Fill in the Blank puzzles they've come up with since they retired the category and they're too cheap to bring back any of the bonus categories. But apparently they can give away an extra $3K a day now. Sure.

[TLEberle]

1000% agree. I remember a few flubs over the years where words were added and the contestant penalized......Are they going to find all those contestants and get them their prizes back? Not sure why THIS one is any different...

There were some cases where if Pat began the lead-in with "what do we have up there?" that the judges would accept a leading "A" or "An" if it made the response grammatically correct.

[nowhammies10]

There were some cases where if Pat began the lead-in with "what do we have up there?" that the judges would accept a leading "A" or "An" if it made the response grammatically correct.

This was super common in the '80s when Pat would lead with "Only vowels now, so for $850, what's this Thing?"

[Joe Mello]

I want to say someone earlier this year started with an "Is it" and it was accepted.

[chrisholland03]

Honestly, the way they do it, 50% of the time Crossword just seems like a way for them to use Fill in the Blank puzzles they've come up with since they retired the category and they're too cheap to bring back any of the bonus categories. But apparently they can give away an extra $3K a day now. Sure.

This sums up my feelings pretty well.  I much prefer a 4 row Fill in the Blank read linearly to a visual jumble of words.  Just a preference, I suppose.

[PYLdude]

I want to say someone earlier this year started with an "Is it" and it was accepted.

That should be; it's asking if the solve is correct, not adding stuff not there.

[Mr. Armadillo]

Honestly, the way they do it, 50% of the time Crossword just seems like a way for them to use Fill in the Blank puzzles they've come up with since they retired the category and they're too cheap to bring back any of the bonus categories. But apparently they can give away an extra $3K a day now. Sure.

It a budget-saving measure, since it's easy to get stuck on a single word, flub the last letter or two, and then the next person only gets the house minimum.

[Loogaroo]

What's to stop them from just doing a "Common Bonds" category? Nobody is saying you have to make it a bonus for guessing the commonality, especially since figuring it out just makes solving the rest of the puzzle that much easier. This way you don't have to drill it into the contestants' heads about the peculiarities of reading off a crossword puzzle and they can just read it left-to-right, top-to-bottom like any other English speaker would.