Given that Mark wouldn't allow jokes to be written around the answers for the celebs because he didn't like how it'd look, I doubt that he'd rig the Super Match because NBC told him to.
My best hunch is that, while "Love, Sidney" was a flop, it's a famous flop because it starred a very famous man and somebodys in an audience of 200(?)* remembered that flop and the main character on it. As we've seen just this week, the audience is either not that bright or not shown the Super Match spelling when being polled. Earlier this week the Super Match was "AUDREY (blank)" and the $250 response was "MURPHEY." So, they not only confused Audie with Audrey, but they couldn't even spell Murphy right.
*How many seats does that studio have? They've been showing the audience more on camera lately, but I can't tell.