$1M Chance of a lifetime question

[gameboy2000]

Was the star ever the stinger?

[ChrisLambert!]

I kept an eye on that for the show’s entire run, and I’m fairly sure it never was.

[whewfan]

Nope, it never was... in fact, the contestants were told by producers that if the star was in play, it was NEVER a stinger, so it would be a good idea to choose it.

[TLEberle]

[citation needed].

[PYLdude]

The star was there to indicate punctuation marks. It could not possibly have been a stinger.

[whewfan]

[citation needed].

It was from a contestant interview, possibly Cheryl Gilmore... unfortunately I can't find it right now.

[WilliamPorygon]

The star was there to indicate punctuation marks. It could not possibly have been a stinger.

Yeah, it represented all punctuation marks, but if there hadn't been a never-explicitly-stated-to-the-home-audience rule specifically saying the star is never used as the stinger, there's no logistical reason that it couldn't have been.

[TLEberle]

My thinking is that they can differentiate from Wheel of Fortune by having punctuation unrevealed, but if the star key is always in the puzzle when lit you're basically giving a freebie to the first team to solve a toss-up clue. (Perhaps it isn't super useful at that point, but it does mean that the solver stands an excellent chance of getting to guess.)