I never get to see the whole spin. They usually only show the last bit of the spin. Does the wheel even take a full revolution before it settles. What do they tell the contestants about spinning the wheel before the show?
Generally with those things it has to make at least one full revolution for your spin to count. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for you to have any control.
I know that, but on television, it doesn’t seem that there is enough time for the wheel to make a full revolution before it settles. I suppose they could maybe edit out the spin.
Yes, every now & then Bob Barker would have to make a contestant re-spin on “The Price Is Right” because the wheel didn’t go around all the way. I would assume that there’s a similar policy in effect on “Wheel of Fortune”; admittedly I’ve never seen this happen in the broadcast version, but the producers might have made a decision to just edit those spins out across the board.
Don’t we have members that have actually been on the Wheel of Fortune? It just doesn’t seem to me like the wheel spins long enough to go all the way around.
If you watch the numbers on the wheel with relation to the previous spin, generally it will go around one full revolution plus a bit more. That’s why when someone nearly goes Bankrupt in one turn often does on their second spin. Watch the show, and when someone just misses a prize space, you’ll likely see it again on the next spin.
So you can’t just reach down and stop it wherever you want? That’s not fair.
In the Chuck Woolery days, when they got to the “that sound means we’re running out of time so I’m going to give the wheel a final spin” part, he’d try to get the most money he could for them. The highest amount at the time was $1500, and he could usually come within one or two wedges of it. So there is some skill to it, but even a guy who got to practice every day couldn’t hit an exact space consistently.
I never even saw Sajak try, the yellow rat bastard.
He’s too short, the wheel’s momentum would fling him around the studio like a racquet ball.
Wait, there used to be someone hosting other than Pat Sajak?
About ten years ago, I saw a contestant who managed to hit the $10,000 space (a skinny, 1/3 size wedge sandwiched in between two similarly-narrow Bankrupts) five or six times in a row. So presumably, some level of control is possible, even without practice, for some people. Unfortunately, he had no skill or luck at all in picking letters.
Yup, as Robot Arm mentioned, the great Chuck Woolery hosted for years.
I saw a bunch of people lose on their first question on Chuck’s later show, Greed, for not knowing that.
Based on watching today’s episode, the wheel does not always make a full revolution, but it is pretty close. What prevents a contestant from giving the wheel a super big spin so it goes two revolutions? Do they give the contestants explicit instructions on how to spin the wheel?
My dear departed grandpa, otherwise a rational man, was certain Pat Sajak had/has a pedal he uses when contestants get “too cocky” to land it on bankrupt. He’d say “Look! There he goes! Ha, got that one!”
Where they not points back then?
I will take the fiberglass dalmation, and the rest on a gift certificate. :eek:
Yep. 1993 College Week Champions!
In your contestant orientation, after you do all of the paperwork, they take you out to the soundstage. We used the “traveling wheel,” which is the same weight and height as the LA wheel, but smaller circumference. Couple things about the wheel circa 1993:
- There is no way to get a good grip on it, unless you have little baby hands.
- It’s pretty f’kin heavy.
We all had a practice spin and it was pretty humiliating. If you tried to give it a he-man spin, chances are you’d lose your grip and wrench your arm. If you gave it a more modest turn, you risked the girly man appellation for not making it rotate a full spin. And yes, like Bob Barker, if it doesn’t spin a full turn you have to re-spin it.
I doubt there is a strategy towards spinning. I got very lucky and only hit “lose a turn” once, I think. But I hit the big money slots. One of the guys I was on the show with tried to talk some smack about spinning strategy but I think he was blowing smoke.
I will say this: people who buy vowels tend to do better. I call this respecting the board. I think there’s some master switch they flip if you’re draining the Merv Griffin coffers and they want some cash back.