WOF 3/31 gaffe

[BrentW]

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Since this is more related to the discussion of the gameshow, and not  about the summary, I thought it best to put this in the Big Board, instead of Summaries.  But move it if you want.  That said:

I know that they explicitly tell contestants on Wheel two things: 1) if you start solving before the buzzer sounds, keep on going and you'll be credited for a "win." And 2) If you mispronounce part of the puzzle, you can go back and correct yourself by stopping and starting over before you finish.  

Well tonight the lady in the 3rd position had quite a bit of money that swung the game in her favor and solved: THICK PLUSH BEACH TOWELS.  Except, she said "thick pluss (yes, you read that right) beach towels."  Then Pat ALLOWED her to go back (again) and say it correctly after she already completed her "solve", and when he strolled up beside her after she "won" he said, "well, with a tongue twisting puzzle like that, we wanted to give you another shot to say it correctly." or some some nonsense.  

OK, SQUEEZE ME??  The difficulty of the words now gives you an extra guess?  And the part that galls me is that this is the SAME show that ruled against 2 separate people who said "Freddie Prince Jr", instead of "Freddie Prinzzzzzze Jr.", notwithstanding that I have NEVER heard any media rep say Prinzzzzzzze. Everyone just says "Freddie Prince Jr."  At least that's my op.

There just isn't any consistency.  Everytime a Proper Name category comes up, the producers are waiting with baited breath to see if the contestants mispronounce the name, and Pat says some crap like "well, since it's a name, we have to have the correct pronunciation."  I thought that the rule book said something to the effect of that a puzzle "solve" would be accepted as long as the contestant didn't add or subtract letters (ie: some people make the "s" silent in St. Louis and say "St. Louie"; WOF has accepted both pronunications on the show at various times).    But this time they give the gal (who admittedly mangled the words the first time) a second shot?  Total bogus.

-Disgruntled.  
Brent

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'BrentW\' date=\'Apr 1 2004, 12:34 AM\'] Well tonight the lady in the 3rd position had quite a bit of money that swung the game in her favor and solved: THICK PLUSH BEACH TOWELS.  Except, she said "thick pluss (yes, you read that right) beach towels." [/quote]
 Tell me this: was the word "plush" completely exposed at the time the puzzle was solved? If so, I can see them letting her go back and correct herself. If not, they shoulda called her wrong and moved along.

In the Freddie Prinze case you cite, I'd ask the same thing. If the "Z" was exposed (and I bet you any money it wasn't) along with the rest of the last name, then the player should be given some pronunciation leeway. If not, then damn well get it right, because you are not demonstrating in your solution that you know what the letter SHOULD be, and I think that's the point they're going for.

[BrentW]

I believe that "h" was exposed in "plush", but the whole word was not exposed.  Considering the "h" is what she screwed up on, maybe leeway should have been (and was) allowed.  

As for Prinze, I can't remember if the "z' was exposed or not.  I think it was on the second person who tried to solve it, because they called a lot of letters in an effort to figure out why the first solve was ruled incorrect.

-Brent